52 Super Series: Hasso Plattner's "Phoenix 11" sails onto the podium off Cape Town

At the season opener of the 52 Super Series, the co-favoured Team Azzurra prevailed off Cape Town. With a shortened programme, the hunters had no chance of closing the gap on the Italians with helmsman Guillermo Parada and tactician Michele Paoletti, who had a seven-point lead, on the final calm day. Last year's overall winners of the series have thus made a perfect start to 2020 and, after finishing second in the regatta for the second time in a row, have won an event for the first time since September 2017.

Hasso Plattner and his crew led by tactician Peter Holmberg and strategist Any Horton sailed to second place, equal on points with the third-placed American team Quantum Racing. This made Hasso Plattner the best owner-steersman in the fleet in the South African dream race area and he was correspondingly happy: "It was a great regatta. I particularly enjoyed yesterday. We had fun. We made it a bit more exciting when we lost our spinnaker in the fifth race. Second place here is great. We like short up-and-downs off the coast. That suits us." Training with daughter Tina Plattner and her crew on "Phoenix 12" helped Hasso Plattner's team with the fine-tuning beforehand, as Andy Horton confirmed. The only helmswoman in the field particularly enjoyed the fast-paced sailing day before the final, when the Cape Doctor had the boats racing across the water at 21 or 22 knots before the wind. "That was brilliant," enthused Tina Plattner, "of course we've sailed in conditions like that before, but not in a fleet like this. When it gets tight and everyone is accelerating, the heart rate rises and the adrenalin starts pumping." "Phoenix 12" finished the first test of strength in 2020 in ninth place in the field of ten boats in the leading monohull professional series. The teams in second to ninth place were separated by just ten points.

We are showing the summary of the fourth and penultimate day of the regatta because the racing on the final day fell victim to the calm. Not so the day before. There was a lot going on...

For Harm Müller-Spreer's "Platoon" crew, last year's overall runner-up in the series and TP52 world champions, the season got off to a somewhat bumpy start: the Hamburg-based owner and helmsman's team with tactician John Kostecki and Spanish strategist Jordi Calafat opened the first regatta of the year with unusually poor results of 9th, 7th and 8th, but then returned to their usual top form with the following 3rd, 2nd, 1st and 6th places. However, with three of the twelve planned races cancelled, the team was unable to achieve a better result than sixth place.

Hasso and Tina Plattner successfully campaigned for the successful premiere of the 52 Super Series in South African waters last year, as Tina Plattner lives and works in Cape Town. The first regatta week, which has now been completed under the title Odzala Discovery Camps 52 Super Series V&A Waterfront, will be followed from 31 March by theRolex TP52 World Championship Cape Town 2020 already the highlight of the season.

Final result season opener before Cape Town:

1. Azzurra (ITA), 24 points
2. Phoenix 11 (RSA), 31 points
3. Quantum Racing (USA), 31 points
4. Bronenosec Gazprom (RUS), 35 points
5. Sled (USA), 35 points
6. Platoon (GER), 36 points
7. Allegre (GBR), 40 points
8. Provezza (TUR), 41 points
9. Phoenix 12 (RSA), 42 points
10. Paprec Recyclage (FRA), 52 points

Here for the regatta overview and the results.