The strong Mistral breeze on Sardinia’s Costa Smeralda dropped away nicely today and three good, highly competitive races were completed, bringing the regatta back to schedule after a race was postponed due to strong winds Wednesday.
Takashi Okura’s Sled now holds a four-point lead at the top of the 13-boat fleet. The US-flagged team bounced back hard from an 11th in the first race of the day – the result of a costly penalty on the final downwind – by taking a second and a first. They lead the regatta ahead of the Plattners’ Phoenix, the top-scoring boat of the day, sailing a 5, 1, 4 over the three very competitive races.
Murray Jones, Sled’s strategist, recalled, “We had a hiccup in that first race which until then was going well for us but otherwise we did well today. We made a wrong decision coming into the bottom mark and made it a bit complicated for ourselves and so we dropped a bit. And then on that last run, we had a port and starboard with Provezza which was touch and go; we got a flag and had to do a circle and that was costly as we had to drop the spinnaker, a tough manoeuvre. It was expensive. We do tend to avoid risk. That’s probably only our second penalty this season. But we are quick upwind in the breeze. We are finding good lanes upwind… that speed edge upwind is quite handy.”
Jean-Luc Petithugeunin’s Paprec scored a delightful win in the first race of the day, showing great speed and boat handling downwind in the stiff conditions, with the Mistral peaking at 22-23 knots.
Phoenix, with Tom Slingsby and Will Ryan calling tactics, won the second race before Sled showed their noted upwind speed edge in the breeze to take a relatively comfortable victory.
With four races to go in the 2025 season, Sled are pushing hard, exposing the self-inflicted errors which are putting Doug DeVos’ circuit leaders under undue pressure. That said, come Saturday and the end of the season, now at 19 points behind American Magic tonight with just four races to go, might Sled rue that uncharacteristic penalty which cost them a few valued places?
Doug DeVos, owner-driver of American Magic Quantum Racing, admitted, “Yes, our lead is shrinking, it is amazing how it goes away. You arrive thinking it is all going well and now we are in the reality of it but that is the way it goes. We kept missing things, the boat is not going that well; we made some mistakes within the lifelines which we usually don’t do. And as we know in this fleet, when you make a mistake, everyone is there to capitalise on it. We learn. We need to get the boat going again. Tomorrow it is looking very different. We need to get our minds into what we are going into and not what we are coming out of. Some of the things inside the boat we need to double check on; we need to check our areas and not make mistakes or breakages. We had a couple of things happen, just little things that get your mind unsettled, distracted. Tomorrow we need to go into what the day is going to be and go sailing.”
Will Ryan, strategist from Phoenix, reported, “Any day with three races in this fleet is tough; just the mental drain trying to get around the race track is challenging, and it was not the classic Mistral conditions here. And so full kudos to the Sled team; they sailed fast and usually in the right direction. For everyone else, it felt like a full battle all the way through. The chips kind of fell our way towards the end of each race but overall a positive day.”
However, American Magic Quantum Racing remain on course for their seventh 52 SUPER SERIES championship crown but need to return to their best for the final two days of the 2025 season to close the deal.
The 52 SUPER SERIES – Porto Cervo – Range Rover regatta continues tomorrow, Friday, with two races scheduled to start at 12:00 noon local time. The event will close out the season on Saturday, when the 2025 52 SUPER SERIES champions will be crowned.
52 SUPER SERIES – Porto Cervo – Range Rover leaderboard after six races
1. Sled, USA, Takashi Okura, 4+2+1+11+2+1 = 21
2. Phoenix, RSA, Tina & Hasso Plattner, 3+4+8+5+1+4 = 25
3. Alegre, GBR, Andy Soriano, 6+3+3+6+3+7 = 28
4. Paprec, FRA, Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, 2+9+4+1+9+5 = 30
5. Provezza, TUR, Ergin Imre, 11+5+6+7+6+2 = 37
6. Platoon Aviation, GER, Harm Müller-Spreer, 1+6,5(RDG)+11+8+8+3 = 37.5
7. Alkedo Vitamina, ITA, Andrea Lacorte, 9+7+7+2+5+12 = 42
8. American Magic Quantum Racing, USA, Doug DeVos, 10+8+2+4+10+9 = 43
9. Crioula, BRA, Eduardo & Renato Plass, 5+11+13+3+4+13 = 49
10. Gladiator, GBR, Tony Langley, 7+6(+3)+5+10+13+6 = 50
11. Alpha+, HKG, Shawn & Tina Kang, 13+1+9+12+11+8 = 54
12. Vayu, THA, Whitcraft Family, 8+10+10+9+7+10 = 54
13. Teasing Machine, FRA, Eric de Turckheim, 12+12+12+13+12+11 = 72
52 SUPER SERIES 2025 Leaderboard
1. American Magic Quantum Racing, 18+33+42+38+43 = 174
2. Sled, 13+58+51+50+21 = 193
3. Paprec, 23.5+63+43+70+30 = 229.5
4. Alkedo, 28+49+61+59+42 = 239
5. Platoon Aviation, 36+44+63+64+37.5 = 244.5
6. Alegre, 30+71+62+66+28 = 257
7. Alpha+, 21.5+68+71+54+54 = 268.5
8. Vayu, 27+68+65+61+54 = 275
9. Provezza, 30+64+81+70+37 = 282
10. Gladiator, 12+120+63+79+50 = 324
11. Phoenix, 48+69+60+130+25 = 332
12. Crioula, 28+120+120+71+49 = 388
13. Teasing Machine, 48+73+120+104+72 = 417
52 SUPER SERIES – Pure Performance
www.52superseries.com
#Sailing #52SuperSeries #PortoCervo #SailingNews #YachtRacing
Interested in seeing more Racing News? Click here
