Rolex TP52 World Championship: "Gladiator" wins ahead of Newport, World Championship bronze for "Platoon Aviation"
Tatjana Pokorny
· 20.07.2024
Tony Langley's Team Gladiator has won a Rolex TP52 World Championship for the first time. With the "Gladiator", a Botin design from 2017 - the former "Alegre" - relegated a Botin design from 2018 to second place in the battle for world championship gold. The new runners-up on the 2018 "Sled" in turn relegated a brand-new Botin design from this year, Harm Müller Spreer's "Platoon Aviation", to third place.
In this order, the British "Gladiator" (40 points), the American "Sled" (46 points) and "Platoon Aviation" (48 points, Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) took the podium places at the Rolex TP52 World Championship off Newport. For "Gladiator", on which owner Langley was deployed as tactician, the first victory in a regatta of the 52 Super Series also meant world championship gold.
We kept our nerve and were able to hold our ground" (Guillermo Parada)
"It's so nice to get the first win for the team at the Rolex TP52 World Championship at the right time. I'm honestly very happy because it was a long and stressful week. We kept our nerve and held our own. I think everyone will agree that we deserved to win," said Guillermo Parada, who had already won TP52 World Championship titles in Puerto Portal with "Matador" in 2009 and "Azzurra" in 2015.
The Argentinian "Gladiator" helmsman of the World Championship week went on to explain: "The course is so demanding that you never know exactly which side to go to. We worked hard to have good starts and a good boat speed. I think we were a little better than the competition."
"Gladiators" gold foundation: three wins in a row
All ten planned races were completed in the prominent regatta area on the US East Coast. The winds were often light and challenging, and also caused start delays on calmer days. With three races on the final day, there was still a lot at stake for the podium contenders, even though Tony Langley's crew had already built up a comfortable points cushion on the previous days.
After finishing ninth in the opening race, the Brits, who race for the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and the Royal Thames Yacht Club, laid the foundations for the world championship triumph that Tony Langley has been passionately chasing for so long. The 69-year-old entrepreneur is a TP52 enthusiast and is on the Forbes billionaires list.
The fact that his highly focussed and determined "Gladiators" made a blunder in the final race when rounding a buoy, were unfortunate in their positioning when taking the penalty, were pushed back and only crossed the finish line in tenth place, was nothing more than a blemish on a convincing World Championship performance. Neither Takashi Okura's "Sled" team with bow number 5 nor Harm Müller-Spreer's crew on "Platoon Aviation" with bow number 1 had enough to counter this at the Rolex TP52 World Championship this week.
We found strong opponents on the water. 'Gladiator' deserved to win" (Gerd Habermüller)
Harm Müller-Spreer, whose crew started the races off Newport with the aim of defending their title, is continuing to complete a steep learning curve with the boat, which was rebuilt in a rush for this season. Austrian "Platoon Aviation" grinder Gerd Habermüller said in Newport: "We went out today with expectations, believing we could still win. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. We found strong opponents on the water. 'Gladiator' deserved to win."
Learning phase on "Platoon Aviation" continues
The Spanish "Platoon Aviation" strategist Jordi Calafat, who sailed to Olympic victory in the 470 at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and twice won World Championship gold in the two-man dinghy, said in Newport: "We still haven't had a perfect day. Often a good race and a bad race, a good race and another bad race. We are still getting to know the boat. But it's going in the right direction."
The 56-year-old multiple Ocean Race participant Jordi Calafat is a sought-after thought leader on keelboats. It was he who saw the pressure in the half-time race from his position at the top of the mast, which only "Platoon Aviation" utilised, and took the only race win in this week's world championship. After the final of the Rolex TP52 World Championship and the mixed series of 7th, 3rd, 4th, 9th, 1st, 4th, 4th, 6th, 8th and 2nd, Calafat said: "It might take a bit of time to understand what we can do with this boat. But it is what it is. Congratulations to 'Gladiator' for such a good series."
I think we were at around 40 per cent at the first regatta, 70 per cent at the second and are now at around 85 per cent" (Jordi Calafat)
Where does Harm Müller-Spreer's crew stand in terms of mastering the new TP52 "Platoon Aviation", which they only received shortly before the first regatta of the twelfth season of the 52 Super Series, after the first three of five regattas this season? Jordi Calafat says: "I think we were at around 40 per cent at the first regatta, 70 per cent at the second and are now at around 85 per cent." When asked whether there are any major changes to be made before the next regatta, Jordi Calafat said: "I don't think it's about the boat. It's more about refinements. And we simply have to sail better."
"Platoon Aviation" without a "perfect day"
Harm Müller-Spreer also congratulated the new world champions: "Congratulations to 'Gladiator'! We weren't really at the top ourselves at the start of the season. It takes time with the new boat, of course. We are slowly getting closer. If we had come first in the first race today and hadn't taken the red flag at the pin-end start and 'clear cross', everything would have been possible again."
Harm Müller-Spreer categorised the second red flag collected by "Platoon Aviation" as "rather justified". His conclusion: "There was more in it. Yes, the others sailed well, but we could have beaten them too." It wasn't too light winded for the new "Platoon Aviation", says Harm Müller-Spreer. "There was good wind today, but not a very good day for us."
The fourth regatta of the 52 Super Series will take place from 27 August to 1 September in the Spanish island of Mallorca off Puerto Portals.
The decision - click here for the replay of the live coverage of the fifth and final day of the Rolex TP52 World Championship with commentator Andi Robertson and co-commentator Luise Wanser:
