Rolex TP52 World Championship: ‘Paprec’ leads, ‘Platoon Aviation’ is hot on its heels

The second day of the TP52 World Championship on the Costa Smeralda was a perfect day for Harm Müller-Spreer and his crew on “Platoon Aviation” No. But one where things finally started looking up again. With just a four-point gap to the French leaders on “Paprec” (21 points), the 25 points on the scoreboard for “Platoon Aviation” – racing for the North German Regatta Club – looked even better by the evening than their 9th and 6th places on the water would suggest.

A tight battle for the top spot at the TP52 World Championship

The 52 Super Series is once again proving to be a close contest at the TP52 World Championship. Behind Jean-Luc Petithuguenin’s “Paprec” came Pieter Heerema’s “No Way Back” (23 points), with nine sailors the world champion team from the now defunct American Magic Quantum Racing Team In second place after two days of racing. Here too, owner Heerema is at the helm himself. His tactician is seven-time TP52 world champion Terry Hutchinson. Michele Ivaldi is on board as navigator and strategist. The highly experienced crew on the Dutch yacht “No Way Back” got off to a good start on the first day of the World Championship with finishes of 6th and 2nd.

“No Way Back” was followed by “Sled” (24 points), which had slipped back to third place. Its crew had, the previous day made a strong impression with a dream start and took the lead, but picked up a hefty 18-point penalty on Wednesday. Just one point further back, the crews of “Alkedo Vitamina” and “Platoon Aviation” – who are level on points after a total of four races – are lying in wait. As no results can be discarded in the 52 Super Series, the standings can change dramatically after every race. As a rule, 52 Super Series events remain thrilling right up to the very end.

Click here for the latest standings at the Rolex TP52 World Championship in Porto Cervo.

This is already becoming apparent at the TP52 World Championship, with its record field of 15 boats, for which light winds are expected throughout the week. For the time being, “Paprec” has taken the lead in the demanding World Championship contest in the gentle Sardinian winds. Team manager and offshore legend Loïck Peyron was delightedly mischievous about this, as his team, on 17 June, reminded themselves and many other observers of last year’s TP52 World Championship: Back then, the French were also riding a wave of success, but ultimately had to concede the title to American Magic Quantum Racing.

​TP52 World Championship: with best wishes from Loïck Peyron

Loïck Peyron said on Wednesday evening in Porto Cervo: “We had a good first race today after a good start. The second start wasn’t so good, but we sailed well after that. I also think our manoeuvres are good. I think we had a bit of luck today as well. We’re just trying to get some free wind. That’s the key. Of course, that’s not a problem when you’re in the lead. But when you’re not in the lead, you don’t necessarily have to go where you want to go. You have to go where there’s free wind.”

"We’re leading the regatta. Not bad for a crew of frogs!” Loïck Peyron

For “Paprec”, which returned to the dock with a race win and a third-place finish, this second day of the TP52 World Championship was the best of the entire sailing season so far. Nevertheless, one team was even more successful on the course off the Costa Smeralda: the skipper duo Shwan and Tina Kang led their crew on “Alpha Plus” to a second-place finish and a race win. Ado Stead and Ian Moore – both former TP52 world champions – played a key role in this success, as did two-time America’s Cup winner Craig Monk and the 28-year-old match racing expert and helmsman Nick Egnot-Johnson.

With a total of 27 points, “Alpha Plus” closed the gap on “Platoon Aviation” to just two points. Project manager Luke Van der Kamp said: “Let’s hope this week turns out to be something special for this team. We started the season this year with slightly fewer sailing hours than the other sailing teams. So it took a while for us to catch up. Today we felt that we’d caught up and are now better in sync with one another.”

The TP52 World Championship ends when Kieler Woche begins

Races three and four of the TP52 World Championship on Wednesday also demonstrated that, in a field where the boats are largely on a par, good starts generally lead to good results. In the second race, however, a stronger right-hand turn did lead to some spectacular comebacks. Take ‘No Way Back’, for example, which had already dropped back to 15th and last place before the crew managed to fight their way back up to eighth place.

The teams will be looking to capitalise on such opportunities in the coming days of the World Championship, which concludes on 20 June, when Kiel Week gets underway in northern Germany.

REPLAY! Click here to watch the replay of the live broadcast from the second day of the Rolex TP52 World Championship in Porto Cervo: