The first starting gun for the 52 Super Series 2019 has been fired off Menorca. At the halfway point, the favourites are ahead: the American team Quantum Racing leads the classification after five of ten races, ahead of the Italian "Azzurra". The Turkish "Provezza" is surprisingly in third place ahead of Harm Müller-Spreer's "Platoon", which is also only three points behind the leaders.
For the first time, Hasso Plattner ("Phoenix 11") and his daughter Tina Plattner (Phoenix 12) will be racing with two boats under the South African flag. As an alternating father-daughter team, the two enjoyed the exciting competitions in the class so much last year that they will be in double action with two boats throughout this season. Because Tina Plattner lives in South Africa and wants to make a difference to sailing there, the yachts are sailing under the RSA flag.
Hasso Plattner had the idea of entering the class a few years ago. In 2014, he and his daughter found their first second-hand "Phoenix" from a broker and sailed her together in Europe. Because it was so much fun, father and daughter went on to purchase a new TP-52 yacht. Hasso Plattner's motto: "Let's do this and really go for it again together." They chose the world's leading regatta series for monohull yachts. Tina Plattner said: "It's really cool to walk down the dock at a 52 Super Series regatta. The number of America's Cup people, Olympic medallists and world class people is a bit impressive and also a bit scary. But everyone has stayed grounded, which is a lot of fun."
What has Tina Plattner learnt from her often successful father? "Quite a lot! He has always been my biggest hero in sailing. I didn't know the celebrity sailors like that before. My father often won the 'Line Honours' with his maxis for the first boat to cross the finish line. That really impressed me. Now he's 75 and dares to take on this project again. That's great. Because you know what you've achieved in the field, even if you finish eighth. He enjoys that. The sailors always say about him that he can analyse and learn very quickly. That's true. His mind is brilliant." "Phoenix 11" and "Phoenix 12" are currently in seventh and ninth place. However, both helmsmen and their crews have already shown with strong individual finishes that they want more and can do more.
Here to see the intermediate results.
