Jubilation for Harm Müller-Spreer and his crew in Lanzarote. The “Platoon Aviation” crew have won a 52 Super Series event for the first time this season. The breakthrough came at the fourth round off Lanzarote. And they did so so convincingly that the event victory was already secured with one race to go. Second and third places at the Royal Cup went to the Brazilian “Crioula” and the Turkish “Provezza”.
52 Super Series: “Platoon Aviation” clinches victory with one race to go
“Platoon Aviation” has consistently finished in the top four so far this year: Following second place (Puerto Portals Sailing Week), third place (World Championships in Porto Cervo) and fourth place (Marina Rubicon Lanzarote), the owner and helmsman from the North German Regatta Club and his crew have now stormed to victory in the waters off Puerto Calero, Lanzarote. “Platoon Aviation” last won a 52 Super Series regatta on 28 September 2024.
"That old banger’s really taking its time." Harm Müller-Spreer
In the Canary Islands regatta, the team on “Platoon Aviation” had already made a powerful and determined start to the series. In total, they secured three race wins and three second places in a highly competitive field of 13 TP52 speedsters. Helmsman Harm Müller-Spreer, tactician Vasco Vascotto, strategist Jordi Calafat, navigator Juan Vila and their crew, including Michael Müller from Kiel, performed so strongly in the fourth of five regattas in the 52 Super Series that they had already won the Royal Cup for the fourth time in their team’s history after just nine out of ten races.
The three-time TP52 world champions Harm Müller Spreer said: “A win with a one-race lead? It’s been a while since that happened in the 52 Super Series. It feels good to me, particularly on the day following the death of the Cup’s founder, King Harald.” The “Platoon Aviation” crew won the regatta with just 34 points, ahead of the Brazilian “Crioula” (59 points) and the Turkish “Provezza” (60 points), which slipped from second to third place in the final race.
“Platoon Aviation” is leading the battle for the season championship in the 52 Super Series
Following this year’s already impressive results, Harm Müller-Spreer’s team’s victory in Lanzarote has also catapulted them to the top of the championship standings; they lead the season’s overall standings among the 16 boats ahead of the Valencia finale (5 to 10 October) with 171 points, ahead of “Sled” (182 points) and “Alkedo Cetilar” (217 points).
It had already become apparent during the current season that the team was increasingly getting to grips with their initially very demanding 2024 Botin design. When asked about the keys to their dominant performance off Lanzarote, Harm Müller-Spreer said: “We’ve simply carried out so many modifications to the boat time and again. We’ve kept trying different things: a new keel, a new keel fin, a new rig stump, a new rudder blade, a new sail design. There are just so many things that are now making the boat competitive after all.”
"At the moment, the boat is really competitive! I’m pleased with the team and everyone involved. But we need to stay focused.” Harm Müller-Spreer
Naturally, the result of all this intensive technical work also makes sailing more enjoyable for the helmsman. Harm Müller-Spreer said: “That goes without saying! If you’re not ‘up to pace’, it’s always difficult. But now we’re simply fast and we’ve sailed well this week too. The combination of Vasco, Jordi, Juan Vila and myself just works perfectly. That’s why we’ve always had good starts. Everything’s gone smoothly this week.” Click here for the event results and the current standings in the season’s championship.
"If someone had told me before the regatta that I’d be leading the season’s standings with eleven points after the regatta, having previously been 17 points behind, I’d have signed up for that straight away." Harm Müller-Spreer
The Lanzarote circuit remains a favourable one for the only German TP52 in the 52 Super Series. Even at the first of this year’s two Lanzarote regattas in July, “Platoon Aviation” could have fared significantly better than fourth place. “We had four spinnaker failures in four races. And a broken winch on one occasion. So we suffered equipment damage in five races. Had it not been for that, we would have won the last regatta as well,” said Harm Müller-Spreer.
A full house is expected for Valencia’s season finale
Following this year’s World Championship bronze medal With this top performance, Team Platoon Aviation has put itself in a very strong position in the battle for the season title. How does Harm Müller-Spreer view the situation ahead of the October finale? He said: “It’s quite simple: we’ve still got ten races to sail. And we’ve got to sail them well. It’s nonsense to look at the overall standings now. We have to stay focused on every single race and give it our all. Then we’ll see how it turns out.”
According to Harm Müller-Spreer, things are set to get exciting once again in Valencia for the final round of the current 52 Super Series season, as even more boats are expected to line up at the start. “I think there’ll be 15 or 16 boats. That’ll make it even more exciting for anyone looking to put in a good overall performance. Let’s see how it turns out,” said the helmsman from Hamburg.
The previous leaders in the season’s championship had a mixed run off the coast of Lanzarote. Takashi Okura’s “Sled”, reigning world champion and winner of the first two regattas of the season, went on a rollercoaster ride through the Puerto Calero standings with results of 4, 10, 5, 11, 5, 1, 2, 13, 9 and 2, a rollercoaster ride through the Puerto Calero standings. Although they finished the regatta on a high note, their previously established 17-point lead over “Platoon Aviation” in the season championship had turned into an 11-point deficit.
“Sled” loses the lead after a mixed week
“Sled” tactician Francesco Bruni said in Puerto Calero: “We didn’t perform well in the last race. I’m not particularly happy with how I’ve sailed this week, and unfortunately we’ve lost a lot of points. But we’re still a strong team and we still have a chance of winning the season, so we’ll be fighting for the title in Valencia.”
Bruni, who is just as familiar with the situation as the ‘Platoon Aviation’ crew, said: “We now have to make up eleven points on ‘Platoon’. To do that, we need to put in a good performance at the regatta in Valencia, something we didn’t really manage to do here. We had a few problems and weren’t far off the podium in this regatta, but it was definitely a regatta that didn’t meet our usual standards.”
This is how the “Platoon Aviation” crew secured victory in the Royal Cup off Puerto Calero:
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter