Ten teams will be on the start line when the 2024 TP52 World Championship is held July 16-20 in Newport, RI. Seven nations will be represented in what is also the third regatta of the 2024 52 SUPER SERIES season, and after the dream victory by the Whitcraft family of Thailand’s Team Vayu three weeks ago on the same waters, hopes of winning are high all the way through the fleet.
Three teams have won the world title before but nothing in the 2024 form book – such as it is – suggests any of Doug DeVos’ Quantum Racing Powered by American Magic (USA), Harm Müller-Spreer’s Platoon Aviation (GER), or Takashi Okura’s Sled (USA) have any inherent advantage.
The defending Rolex TP52 World Champions Harm Müller-Spreer’s Platoon Aviation. The German flagged crew are ready to put behind them the troubles are that have afflicted them so far this season and fight for their fourth world title.
At the first regatta of the season in Palma, Mallorca they suffered from having had an acute lack of time with their brand new boat. Then last month, at the first of these two regattas in Newport, the current 2023 52 SUPER SERIES champions were just finding a vein of potentially winning consistency when they dramatically hit something in the water in Race 6 and lost most of their rudder.
“We have a real fighting spirit in this Platoon Aviation team, we have been together so long we know what it takes to win and I very much believe we will be contenders here,” said owner-driver Müller-Spreer. “It has taken time to get to know this new boat and in Newport last month we felt like we were really getting there when we damaged the rudder. But here we are, we are fighters. We are confident and that is so important in sport, as it will be at these world championships.”
There is no doubt that Team Vayu’s win last month, their first ever, highlights how any team can find and ride a wave of consistency to victory, but even the Thai flagged team acknowledge that their success will be hard to replicate at the TP52 World Championship where the level always rises a notch or two and crews are often prepared to push the risk-reward equation in search of the top title.
“Right now any team can win a race, a good number of boats can string wins together and this time we did very well at bouncing back from the bad results,” noted Vayu’s project manager and mainsheet trimmer Pom Green. “But that will be very, very hard to replicate.
“We are under no illusions that we will kick off where we left off. Every break went our way, it was like a regatta of the decade, in this fleet if you don’t make the cross at the windward mark you go from first or second to seventh or ninth. This time we got those breaks and suddenly you are 15 or 18 points to the good. I believe you make your own luck, I really do, but it all worked for us.”
Of the teams teetering on the cusp of winning a regatta – in this case the worlds – ready to turn dreams to reality, are the likes of Tony Langley’s Gladiator. The British flagged crew, led by Argentine helm, three times TP52 World Champion Guillermo Parada, were only two points shy of winning at last month’s XS 52 SUPER SERIES Newport Trophy.
Parada believes they have the credentials and all the ‘tools in their toolbox’ to now emulate Vayu’s success and win the Rolex TP52 World Championship.
“Why not?” Parada smiles, “We like the venue, we need to be a little more consistent through the week. That is what we are missing. Hopefully we can now make it happen at the right time. I think if we look at the results and our performance we have a chance to win. How big that chance is down to how well we do our jobs.
“I think Vayu proved to us all that the fleet is so close now that with a good week most of us have a good chance to win an event. We need to focus on being consistent. Right now we are winning races but we have not had the perfect week, yet. We need to erase the avoidable mistakes.”
Racing on their home waters, representing the host club the NYYC, Doug DeVos’ Quantum Racing powered by American Magic faltered at just the wrong moment at last month’s event. After leading all week, when they only needed a solid final day to win, the US favorites messed up and landed 19 points from the last two races, XS 52 SUPER SERIES Newport Trophy slipping from their grasp.
But the American team know how to win TP52 World Championship titles, having won more than anyone. Since they first won the worlds in 2008 in Lanzarote, DeVos’ team have collected six more, most recently in Cascais in 2022. And when the young afterguard get over their last day hoodoo, they too will be winners.
“We have identified that over these last two regattas we have had a hard time on the last day,” admitted Quantum’s skipper Victor Diaz de Leon. “We are probably trying too hard as a young afterguard to make it happen, with the excitement of having a chance of winning. We have revised that and we will be more disciplined. If we are in that privileged position again we will stick to the processes which clearly working. On these last days we are pushing too hard to try and be perfect.”
Series details – YouTube – Facebook
Entries:
ALEGRE (GBR), Andy Soriano
ALPHA+ (HKG), Shawn and Tina Kang
GLADIATOR (GBR), Tony Langley
INTERLODGE (USA), Austin and Gwen Fragomen
PAPREC (FRA), Jean-Luc Petithuguenin
PHOENIX (RSA), Hasso and Tina Plattner
PLATOON (GER), Harm Müller-Spreer
QUANTUM RACING POWERED BY AMERICAN MAGIC (USA), Doug DeVos
SLED (USA), Takashi Okura
TEAM VAYU (THA) Whitcraft family
Past TP52 World Champions
2008 Lanzarote, Quantum Racing
2009 Palma, Matador
2010 Valencia, Quantum Racing
2011 Porto Cervo, Quantum Racing
2012 No Event
2013 Miami, Rán Racing
2014 Porto Cervo, Quantum Racing
2015 Puerto Portals, Azzurra
2016 Mahón, Quantum Racing
2017 Scarlino, Platoon
2018 Cascais, Quantum Racing
2019 Puerto Portals, Platoon
2020 No Event
2021 Palma, Sled
2022 Cascais, Quantum Racing
2023 Barcelona, Platoon
2024 52 SUPER SERIES OVERALL (after two events)
1. QUANTUM RACING POWERED BY AMERICAN MAGIC (USA), Doug DeVos, 27+36 = 63
2. GLADIATOR (GBR), Tony Langley, 37+35 = 72
3. SLED (USA), Takashi Okura, 33+42 = 75
4. INTERLODGE (USA), Austin & Gwen Fragomen, 32+49 = 81
5. ALEGRE (GBR), Andy Soriano, 37+44 = 81
6. VAYU (THA), Whitcraft family, 51+33 = 84
7. PLATOON AVIATION (GER), Harm Müller-Spreer, 45+47 = 92
8. PAPREC (FRA), Jean-Luc Pethuguenin, 49+51 = 100
9. ALPHA+ (HKG), Shawn & Tina Kang, 51+58 = 109
10. PROVEZZA (TUR), Ergin Imre, 25+88 = 116
11. PHOENIX (RSA), Hasso & Tina Plattner, 77+46 = 123
2024 Schedule
April 28-May 2: Palma, Mallorca, Spain
June 11-16: Newport, RI, USA
July 16-20: TP52 World Championship – Newport RI, USA
August 28-September 1: Puerto Portals, Mallorca, Spain
September 24-28: Valencia, Spain
Source: scuttlebutt – https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2024/07/11/game-time-at-tp52-world-championship/
