With two days to sail still, Platoon surges towards a fourth Royal Cup win in Lanzarote. Three-time winners Harm Müller-Spreer’s Platoon Aviation have built a solid seven-point lead at the Puerto Calero Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Royal Cup after posting two second places today.
Starting the third day of racing pegged on even points with Ergin Imre’s Provezza, Platoon’s scoreline contrasts favourably with the Turkish flagged team’s first and tenth today. In the Season standings, the German winners of the circuit in 2023 are now tied on the same overall aggregate as Sled, who led since the end of the first regatta of the season in early May in Mallorca.
Provezza won the first race of the day, contested in 15-16 knots of breeze with an awkward choppy swell. They gained control of the fleet with a good start but faltered during the second race, sliding backwards to a weighty tenth, their worst score thus far.
Sled nailed the start, showing good speed off the line to chase early leader Joakim Sundberg’s Trinity Racing around the first windward mark. Sled made the better choice at the leeward gate and led up the second beat. Platoon made sizeable gains on the downwinds, holding left and hooking into a stronger vein of pressure, ultimately overtaking Trinity to secure another second place.
Sled’s first win of the regatta saw them return to Puerto Calero Marina in a more buoyant mood after a tough opening to this second Lanzarote event in a row. Don Cowie, Sled’s project manager and mainsheet trimmer, noted, “We had a better day with nice starts and picking nice windshifts. It has been tough these last few days but we are a strong team and we will keep chipping away.”
Vasco Vascotto, tactician on Platoon Aviation, expressed satisfaction with the team’s performance but acknowledged the fickle nature of the competition. “Today we made the right choices and the important thing is we are choosing and the others are not choosing for us. We are sailing well, but this is one day, only one day.”
The Whitcraft family’s Vayu remains consistent, holding onto third place overall, just two points ahead of Trinity Racing and three ahead of Sled and Crioula.
Puerto Calero Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Royal Cup Standings after six races:
1. Platoon Aviation (GER), Harm Müller-Spreer, 6+2+6+1+2+2 = 19
2. Provezza (TUR), Ergin Imre, 1+7+2+5+1+10 = 26
3. Vayu (THA), Whitcraft Family, 2+3+9+3+8+8 = 33
4. Trinity Racing (SWE), Joakim Sundberg, 10+6+3+7+6+3 = 35
5. Sled, Takashi Okura, 4+10+5+11+5+1 = 36
6. Crioula (BRA), Eduardo & Renato Plass, 7+4+4+6+11+4 = 36
7. Alegre (GBR), Andy Soriano, 5+8+11+9+4+5 = 42
8. Alpha + (HKG), Shawn & Tina Kang, 11+1+8+10+7+6 = 43
9. Paprec (FRA), Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, 9+11+1+4+9+12 = 46
10. Gladiator (GBR), Tony Langley, 3+12+7+8+10+7 = 47
11. No Way Back (NED), Pieter Heerema, 8+5+12+2+12+11 = 50
12. Alkedo Cetilar (ITA), Andrea Lacorte, 12+9+10+12+3+9 = 55
13. Teasing Machine (FRA), Eric de Turckheim, 14(DNS)+14(DNS)+14(DNS)+14(DNS)+14(DNS)+14(DNS) = 84
52 SUPER SERIES – Pure Performance
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