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Phoenix steer clear to lead, Platoon, Sled damaged in Race 2 collision at 52 SUPER SERIES Puerto Portals Sailing Week
The Plattner family’s Phoenix lead the 52 SUPER SERIES Puerto Portals Sailing Week regatta after three excellent races on the Bay of Palma which were marred by a collision at the start of the second race when Sled and Platoon were hit by Gladiator on the start line.
Platoon and Sled were allocated average points for Races 2 and 3 and are both expected to be back on the race course Thursday but it is an especially tough blow for Harm Muller-Spreer’s crew which is chasing Provezza for the 2023 circuit title. They had just posted a third against their rival’s opening race ninth. And even with their average points Platoon still clawed back three points on the Turkish flagged leaders on the season standings.
Provezza’s tactician Hamish Pepper was concerned to see their rivals forced to sit out the two races,
“It is so disappointing for the guys on Sled and on Platoon. No one ever wants to see that happen. You want to see everything happen on the water. But hopefully both are back out tomorrow and we will go out fighting and try to stay ahead of them.”
It was not the day that the Provezza team wanted as they seek to close out the 2023 title. First race they were on the wrong side of the first upwind and never got back into the race, crossing in ninth.
They were a little better on the second race but were caught up in the start line fracas, going on to a sixth. But in the third race they sailed a very good first downwind which they capitalised to cross second behind Phoenix.
“It was a tough day for us. I did not sail well and did not get us off the start line very well. We struggled and in this fleet everyone sails so well, we could not get back into it. We did not get firing until that third race. We had bad starts and got dictated to. We need to work on a few things. We had a good first run in the third race and that got us into contention. That said the boat is going nicely and is doing exactly what it has done so far, so we just need to do a bit more to get it near the front again.”
Pepper reflected after racing.
Tony Langley’s Gladiator won the first race but then got a place penalty for the collision at the start of the second race.
Shawn and Tina Kang’s Alpha + lead all the way around the second race course, with the sea breeze peaking at 15-16kts. Australian 2016 Laser gold medallist Tom Burton made his 52 SUPER SERIES debut as tactician on the Hong Kong flagged team which has Italian ace Alberto Barovier steering this week.
Burton, more used to racing his Laser and training on the Bay off Ca’n Pastilla and Arenal enthused,
“For me then the first day ever racing in the 52 SUPER SERIES and it is nice to get a race win in for the guys on Alpha + on their first season on the circuit. The next race was not so good we kind of just got a little out of phase but that happens but when you are surrounded by teams of this calibre there is no coming back. The last race was much more shifty and there was a lot of tacking and so the phasing was down to like one minute in the final race. The Olympic racing is very close boat on boat like this but at home the MC38 stuff is maybe closest but the crews there are eight or nine guys but here 15 is a little different, but I am just finding my feet a bit.”
But the highest level of consistency is with Phoenix which sailed to a fifth, third and first to lead by two points ahead of Quantum Racing powered by American Magic which welcomes back John Kostecki as tactician this week.
Ed Baird, Phoenix tactician explained
“It turned out very nicely for us winning that last race but really we are just trying to stay in the game all day long. It was a tricky race course today with a lot of shifts. I think one thing was we stayed out of trouble. There was that incident which caught up several boats and it was easy to get yourself in a difficult place in between boats and we just tried to stay away and play the shifts. And the guys did a great job keeping the boat going fast and the boat handling was perfect. It was nice. This is a team which is working hard and which has been together for a long number of years and I am just reaping the benefits of that.”
Puerto Portals 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week after three races
1 PHOENIX (RSA) Hasso and Tina Plattner, 5+3+1 = 9
2 QUANTUM RACING POWERED BY AMERICAN MAGIC (USA), Doug DeVos, 4+4+3+=11
3 PLATOON (GER), Harm Müller-Spreer, 3+RDG5.5+RDG5.5= 14
4 ALEGRE (GBR), Andy Soriano,2+7+6+= 15
5 ALPHA+ (HKG), Shawn y Tina Kang, 7+1+9+= 17
6 PROVEZZA (TUR), Ergin Imre, 9+6+2+= 17
7 SLED (USA), Takashi Okura, 6+RDG5.5+RDG5.5= 17
8 INTERLODGE (USA), Austin and Gwen Fragomen, 8+2+8+= 18
9 VAYU (THA), Familia Whitcraft, 11+5+5+= 21
10 PAPREC (FRA), Jean-Luc Pethuguenin, 10+8+4= 22
11 GLADIATOR (GBR), Tony Langley, 1+12+7+ 4penalty = 24
52 SUPER SERIES season standings
1. PROVEZZA (TUR) 34+42+35+26+17 = 154
2. PLATOON (GER), 45+51+34+25+14 = 169
3. QUANTUM RACING POWERED BY AMERICAN MAGIC (USA), 40+43+54+43+11 = 191
4. GLADIATOR (GBR), 40+66+41+34+24 = 205
5. SLED (USA), 45+52+46,5+51+17 = 211,5
6. ALEGRE (GBR), 43+64+46+44+15 = 212
7. VAYU (THA), 58+48+65+54+21 = 246
8. INTERLODGE (USA), 45+54+100+58+18 = 275
9. PHOENIX (RSA) 57+71+100+39+9 = 276
10. PAPREC (FRA) 56+81+58+88+22 =305
11. ALPHA+ (HKG), 65+91+72+66+17 = 311[