52 Super Series: "Platoon" misses two races at the season finale after crash

This is not how TP52 world champion Harm Müller-Spreer and his team had imagined their season finale. The Hamburg-based owner and helmsman from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein and his crew started off Puerto Portals to compete for the season championship with Ergin Imre's team on the Turkish "Provezza" in the fifth and final regatta of the professional series. Instead, the British "Gladiator" collided with both "Platoon" and the American "Sled" at the start of the second race.

52 Super Series: Double collision with consequences

"At the start, they drove into a gap from behind at full throttle where there were only two metres," said Harm Müller-Spreer, who was subsequently annoyed on several occasions: firstly by the class rule, which awarded the fouled boats the average score of half the fleet strength of 5.5 points for the two missed races. Elsewhere, according to Harm Müller-Spreer, it was the average value of the races sailed that was transferred to the account in the event of compensation.

On the other hand, the crews of the damaged boats felt it was unnecessary to hold the third race of the day at all. However, the damage, which included the railing supports being shaved off, was repaired later that evening. In addition, initial investigations had shown that there was probably no more serious damage. After the races, it was clear from the scratched hull on both sides of the "Gladiator", which was steered by Argentinian Guillermo Parada, that the British boat had caught two competitors at the start.

Hasso and Tina Plattner's "Phoenix" leads after the first three races

While the boats that were hit had slowly approached the starting line on Wednesday afternoon at a speed of four or five knots, "Gladiator" came roaring up from behind at a speed of around ten knots. Sailors and observers unanimously reported that the "Gladiator" crew had already attracted attention during training with aggressive starts.

Before Mallorca, however, Hasso and Tina Plattner's "Phoenix" took the lead ahead of the US team Quantum Racing American Magic (4, 4, 3) with places 5, 3 and 1. Despite the two middle scores, "Platoon" was initially in third place, while the Turkish leader "Provezza" (9, 6, 2) was initially only in sixth place.

The boat handling was perfect" (Ed Baird)

"Phoenix" tactician Ed Baird said: "We did very well to win the last race. We just try to stay in the game throughout the day. It was a difficult course today with a lot of shifts. I think one thing was that we stayed out of trouble. There was an incident that affected several boats. We just tried to stay out of it. The crew did a great job of keeping the boat fast. The boat handling was perfect. That was very nice. This is a team that works hard and has been together for many years and I'm reaping the rewards of that right now."

The season finale off Mallorca continues on Thursday and ends on 23 September.

Here are the highlights from day 2 of the 52 Super Series season finale off Mallorca (day 1 was cancelled):

Click here for live tracking on 21 September from 1 pm.

Click here for the season standings and the intermediate results in Puerto Portals.