The seven boat fleet left the RCNB marina early, seeking to ensure that the teams have ample opportunity to learn what idiosyncrasies there are in the wind, looking to discern any obvious trends and make sure everything on board is ready to race from the very second the first start gun sounds.

The Conde de Godo trophy regatta itself is one of Spain’s biggest, most renowned early season events. It offers the IRC and ORC classes and smaller one designs three days of racing but the 52’s, Wally and Soto 40’s start today with up to three races planned. Ed Reynolds, Team Director of Quantum Racing sums up

“It is a big day with the start of the European season and for me I am intrigued to see how it all comes together for our team. I think we will be pretty good but it is interesting to put three skippers together on a boat. They have to learn their roles and so these past few days have been very valuable. The three guys we have are all mature and have achieved just about everything you could want to achieve in the sport, so I don’t think I have any worries. I think they are all getting along better than even they thought they would. I think it will be pretty strong. I don’t think it will be perfect but it will be pretty strong.”

“I think today it will build all day today. I think we have moved closer to Azzurra and Rán Racing.”

That they chose to bypass the finish line, passing half a metre outside of it, bowed to the prevailing superstitions of the perhaps more vociferous Latinos on board, believing it is unlucky to win the practice race.

But, after having established a decent lead by the first windward mark, the champions were not challenged again.

Quantum Racing were second all the way around the course, gliding across the line to accept the first gun. With their brand new afterguard line up, Terry Hutchinson as tactician and 1992 Olympic gold medallist and America’s Cup winner Jordi Calafat as strategist, they proved that they are not short of pace in the 10-12 knots breeze, but they might still need just a little more time together to finesse their starting.

Azzurra, with skipper-helm Guille Parada (ARG) steering, may have made the early jump in the practice race but it was evident that racing between the seven 52’s will be very close. There was very little separating the fleet at the first turn and it is clear that even those who have just joined the circuit recently have the potential to win races.

The fleet has grown in size since this time last year and while it is still the circuit and class of choice for some of the very top names in world sailing, so too there are more amateur, Corinthian sailors enjoying their racing here than for many years.

Those returning stars with an America’s Cup history include Dee Smith (USA) who sails as tactician on Manouch Moshayedi’s Rio (USA), John Cutler (NZL) previously tactician with Spain’s Desafio is tactician on Austin and Gwen Fragomen’s Interlodge (USA).

And on Quantum Racing Terry Hutchinson, new tactician, finds himself as the only former Team New Zealand sailor among an afterguard which is otherwise all derived from Alinghi, the team which eclipsed him and his ETNZ contemporaries to win the 32nd America’s Cup.

Hutchinson fits into the all star ex Alinghi posse including skipper-helm Baird, navigator Juan Vila also now Jordi Calafat as strategist, and admits that he is taking some preliminary ribbing from the former Alinghi sailors.

While the sport’s big names are still visibly loving their racing with the flourishing 52’s so too in the fleet there are a big number of hard working ‘amateur’ sailors – that is to say those who do not derive their main income from racing sailboats. Tony Langley, owner-skipper-helm of Gladiator (GBR) still enjoys having a couple of good sailing friends sail with his crew. And on Rio, as well as on Ergin Imre’s Turkish flagged Provezza, which is steered by double Olympic silver medallist Nick Rogers (GBR) with Tony Rey (USA) as tactician, both crews are composed of somewhere around 50-55 percent of ‘amateur’ sailors.

While the smart money is probably still riding on Azzurra, on Niklas Zennström’s Rán Racing, the recently crowned world champions, or on Quantum Racing to win overall across the four regatta 52 SUPER SERIES in Europe, today’s evidence showed again that all have the potential to win races, and in time perhaps regattas.

Barcelona, and the Conde de Godo regatta in particular, opens the European season with a particular challenge. The early season Garbi sea-breeze can be erratic, the winds are seldom well mixed and settled and the influence of the nearby cityscape and interesting topography can all come into play and the tacticians and afterguards be well tested.

Racing starts each day at 1300hrs CET with live coverage on www.52superseries.com including live tracking and audio commentary.

Quotes:

Terry Hutchinson (USA), tactician Quantum Racing (USA): “ It feels great to be back. It’s such a different world to what we have been involved in for the last couple of years, but the competition is as good as ever so its a pleasure to be back and take it all on. Now, having been racing around in the 7 knot range for the last couple of months, where things happen a lot slower, racing in the 14 knot range you have to be very methodical about where you want to be and how you get there. Whereas in the multi-hull you are 2-3 knots faster and all of a sudden you get to a spot a lot quicker”

On fitting back into the team:

“ Its a bit of mixing Team New Zealand with the Alinghi mafia! so every so often ‘ribbing’ takes place! Jordi spends some time up the rig and its simply a matter of gathering the infomation. Then about 7-8 minutes before the start we decide what we want to do in the race and decide the plan. Jordi’s looking up the race course looking where the boat needs to be whilst I am more the ‘boat on boat’ man and Juan helps get the boat off the start line quickly and will help with the lay-lines. At the moment we are stepping on each others toes a bit but we are evolving and I am quite confident we will get there.

Vasco Vascotto (ITA) tactician Azzurra (ITA): “ I hope that we will do better here than the last two years. Today we did quite well and we hope that this is only the start of a good week for us.”

“ Obviously there are always some problems with a southerly here, you are expecting the local Barcelona breeze the ‘Garbi’ to blow in and it arrives and then just as suddenly, it disappers.

All the boats this year have improved, Quantum already had an amazing campaign in the winter (in the USA 52 Super Series), they are already a fantastic team and now Terry is back so potentially they are very strong.

We are the opposite, we have the same team so we are looking forward to a great friendship and competition here.”

 

Jules Salter (GBR) navigator Rán Racing (SWE): “The seebreeze is quite intense here. It shifts a bit, its quite different each day. We are still learning, Miami was very good but we need to maintain that performance here and we have to start again. There are some new boats here and everone is stepping up a gear. For the overall series you just need to take it race by race. We have a couple of new sails but all the same team.”

Quantum Racing steered by Ed Baird with tactician Terry Hutchinson, were second all the way around the windward-leeward course and so were well placed. To accept first gun when Azzurra chose to bypass the finish line.

“Some of us have been racing more than 25 years together.” Imre says, “ We have always changed the boat. This boat number seven although there were three or four other boats along the way which did not count. Now for two or three years we have sailed the TP52 with this group. It is a boat which fits my size a little bit more. Otherwise I cannot get around it so well!”

Rogers, who won Olympic silver as 470 helm in in 2004 in Athens and 2008 in Qingdao, loves the 52, sailing with the Turkish crew and remains realistic and objective about their learning curve.

“We have some reinforcements from some professionals now.” Imre continues, “ We have Nick Rogers here who is a two times Olympic medallist. Going back we have a lot of good relations with many English sailors all going back to 1993 when we raced for the British in the Admiral’s Cup then, so we have maintained good relations there. Now, here we have two Americans, two New Zealanders and one Dutchman, one Italian and one Spanish. We have more or less fifty per cent amateurs on the crew.”

The owner is confident that the changes made to the boat will allow them to be more competitive: 


“We have changed the rig which now has carbon standing rigging. That saves us 50-60 kgs on the mast. We already had a so called turbo keel which all helps to compensate for the fact that our boat is a little older than the other ones. Our crew is a little less experienced. But if you see us out there, speed wise we have our chances. We really have to be as aggressive at least as the other crews. We should be there when others make mistakes, we need to be there to take the opportunity. Last year there were eight boats in Palma de Mallorca when we raced and we finished seventh, so this year hopefully we are a little better and can make sixth!”

And, while Palma Vela was a good morale boosting win for the crew, he acknowledges that racing with the other 52’s on the 52 SUPER SERIES will be at a very much higher standard:

“Yes, we won the IRC class at PalmaVela but that is just no match to the quality and the standard that we have here. We could start the way we liked and were always first at the first mark. Here, other boats make mistakes and we aim to be in the mix when they do. Even if we are just getting a feeling that we are all just getting more into, getting better day by day then that is good for us.”

Rogers, who most recently raced in the 470 again in Hyères last month, enjoys the challenge of the 52:

“I love it.” He says, “ And on board I think we are now at a stage where more and more people are learning what they are doing. We are just trying to make sure we don’t have any one big mistake, and if we can do that we are making progress. It can actually be fine. I’d like to think that over the course of the series if we get a bit lucky we can win a race.

“I know Barcelona and it is a bit like Palma where sometimes you can get crucified for local knowledge. I have been here a bit. I think the best thing for us here is to find it feeling like the team is pulling together and then get the best result we can. Realistically we need to feel like we are pulling together, organising things better and better. There are things we are struggling a bit at the moment. There is usually one bit that is just a bit loose.”

“We have Tony Rey on board now who is just fantastic. He has taken on a lot of the organisation of things on board. I just concentrate on steering the boat. And of course the boats are just great, fantastic.”

“We will take whatever comes for wind.”

That is the stark, keynote objective for the coming months, as stated by Ed Reynolds (USA) director of the Quantum Racing 52 programme, and as the American flagged team complete their final days of training off Barcelona this week in preparation for Thursday’s start to the Trofeo de Vela Conde de Godo, it is clear the highly motivated crew are ready to rise to this challenge.

Two significant changes bolster the team line up. Terry Hutchinson (USA), who skippered Quantum Racing to win the MedCup title in 2008 and lead the crew through until 2011, returns to the line up, this time in the role of tactician.

He will be joined by 1992 Barcelona Olympic gold medallist and America’s Cup winner Jordi Calafat (ESP) who sails as Quantum Racing’s strategist.

Even as experienced and honoured as they both are, integrating the two new afterguard members has been one of the primary goals of the pre-regatta training period. Although of course Baird (USA) and Calafat sailed together as America’s Cup winners with Alinghi, Hutchinson and Baird are new to each other and so have been putting in some racing hours to optimise their partnership.

In mid April Baird and Hutchinson sailed together at the Congressional Cup off Long Beach finishing second. In fact that was Ed Baird’s first monohull match racing event since July 3^rd 2007 when he drove Alinghi to win the 32^rd America’s Cup against Emirates Team New Zealand on which Hutchinson was tactician.

“This is going to be really fun to be back with the guys on Quantum Racing,” Hutchinson smiles, “I was a little bit involved at the end of the World Championships in Miami when I watched them racing there. There are some very high quality teams as we saw there, like Azzurra and Rán Racing as examples which for the most part have shown they are capable of winning, and so I cannot wait to get out there and get racing in the fleet again.”

“I am looking to just help along the great work that Ed Baird has been doing. We jump started things by doing the Congressional Cup together and that was really good. We were mainly looking at developing our communications, getting to know how Ed likes things to be communicated as things unfold. My impression is that he is very comfortable with the boat and the way things are going, but the biggest challenge will be integrating us into the sailing team. The new appendages on the boat seemed to be working and for us it will be about not upsetting the applecart. This is a great team with a good track record and my role is to help and support where I can, maybe making sure eyes are guided where they should be if I see particular things I think can help.”

“I have the impression from Miami that Ed drives the boat very well, keeping it fast all the time. That may sound simplistic but it is very easy to get bogged down from time to time in this fleet. We worked on our communication and I understand more clearly what he wants, narrowing down 10 or 12 words to two or three words, short quick conversations is the big thing for us.”

Although Quantum Racing have not won a 52 regatta since Sardinia last year, Hutchinson says he does not feel any additional pressure coming back into the team to find a win.

“I always want to win, I always crack the whip to win and want no more or less.”

“The thing that stood out for me in Miami was that at certain times the boat could sail out of bad situations. It looked like the boat is going really well.”

Meanwhile team director Ed Reynolds is delighted with the strength of the afterguard that they have for the four European regattas of the 52 SUPER SERIES :

“I just could not be more excited, I am thrilled with the team we have. There were some conflicts which necessitated changes and so we took advantage of the opportunities to do so. Terry, Ed Baird and Jordi as an afterguard should be fantastic. Jordi grew up in Palma, sailed to a gold medal here in Barcelona and probably has sailed as much as anyone in the fleet has in Ibiza so I am sure he will bring a lot of local knowledge input.” Said Reynolds,

“We are very happy with the changes we made to the boat, boatspeed is just not an issue. After the last few events we feel we have eliminated some more variables, now I will be surprised if we are not going the right way most of the time. We don’t think we have to win regattas to win the 52 SUPER SERIES, but what we want is to show absolutely top level consistency. Now, with this fleet, you have to win races and that is a change and we have changed the mode of the boat to make more sure we can do that.”

Racing starts for the 52 SUPER SERIES in Barcelona from Thursday 23^rd May and runs through to Sunday 26^th. Follow the racing with live tracking, commentary and comment on www.52superseries.com

Zulueta joins the program with extensive sailing and management experience, directing multiple projects that have achieved notable results. Since 1990, he has been associated with all of the Spanish projects that have competed in the America’s Cup including Desafío Español, which reached the semifinals of the Louis Vuitton Cup in 2007. Zulueta is also well known within the TP52 circuit as team manager of the winning Soto 40 team Iberdrola, which competed during the 2011-12 seasons.

Niklas Zennström says Zulueta’s expertise and experience supports the growth that is taking place in the class and sets the stage for continued success. “When we decided to start the 52 SUPER SERIES in 2012, there were only a few boats committed to the season. In the Med this year, we’re expecting 10 to 11 boats. Zulueta’s skill set and reputation fits perfectly with our objective to attract more owners to join the racing while maintaining the highest level of monohull racing in the world.”

The TP52 has proven itself as a great platform, bringing together the world’s top sailors and providing incredible competition, notes owner Doug DeVos. “We set out to create a great experience for everyone involved and to grow the participation. Our business structure supports this and with Agustín at the helm, I feel confident in our ability to build on our momentum and realize our vision. It’s an exciting time to be racing the TP52s.”

The TP52 Circuit – first as the MedCup and now as the 52 SUPER SERIES – represents the most competitive monohull racing in the world, says Zulueta, and offers owner-drivers a unique opportunity for participation. “I was attracted not only by the class and caliber of competition, but also the business model and the commitment of the owners. Working with a dedicated group of people who are actively engaged in making this an all-around top tier program is very exciting. This is the right concept at the right time. I see great things for this class and I’m excited to be part of it.”

Following the Conde de Godo in Barcelona, the 52 SUPER SERIES will move to Ibiza with the Royal Cup, Palma de Mallorca with the Copa del Rey, and Porto Cervo, in mid-September with the Audi Week of the Straits.

The 40th Conde de Godo regatta sees the return of the 52 SUPER SERIES for the second year. Offering four days of racing, the popular spring time event usually offers a good mix of sailing conditions, often featuring a relatively reliable sea breeze, whilst the many attractions of the Catalan capital city ensure Barcelona remains one of the most popular venues.

Six of the 52’s which raced the US SUPER SERIES in Key West and Miami in January and March are joined Turkey’s Provezza which is owned by Ergin Imre and steered by Britain’s double Olympic silver medallist Nick Rogers with Peter Lester (NZL) as tactician. Provezza (ex Cristabella/Desafio), which raced at the Royal Cup in Mallorca last year, has been updated since they put a toe in the water last season and is now expected to compete at all of the Mediterranean regattas.

From the USA Manouch Moshayedi and his crew of Rio (ex Synergy) and Austin and Gwen Fragomen’s Interlodge both make their first foray into European waters.

Two different teams have won so far this season. Form in the USA suggests that any one of four or five crews have the potential to win a regatta. Whilst it was the current 52 SUPER SERIES champions Azzurra (ITA) which opened with a win at Quantum Key West 2013 in January, at the Gaastra 52 World Championships in Miami it was Niklas Zennström’s Rán Racing which won the title. But in the overall series standings to date Azzurra lead by just six points ahead of Rán Racing.

Doug DeVos’ Quantum Racing, the 2011 MedCup champions, lie third overall and welcome the return of former skipper Terry Hutchinson (USA) who will sail the Mediterranean season as tactician with skipper-helm Ed Baird. In preparation for their first 52 regatta together Hutchinson recently joined Baird at the Congressional Cup match racing regatta along with Quantum Racing’s Tom Burnham and Brett Jones.

Up to nine races will be sailed over the four days for the 52’s at the Conde de Godo regatta. The seven boat fleet is likely to be even bigger in early July in Ibiza at the Royal Cup whilst up to ten boats are expected to compete at Palma’s showcase regatta, the Copa del Rey.

“We are especially happy that the American teams have made their effort to join us to compete in Europe and we are sure that they will enjoy the variety of competition and the venues this season.” Concludes Rob Weiland, class manager for the 52’s. “It is pleasing to be able to report that the fleet has actually grown on last season and we are experiencing a period of stability which should allow us to build for next season with some confidence.”

Although Rán Racing started the three race finale with a lead of four points and increased that to six points after they placed second in the first contest of the day with Azzurra fourth, Zennström’s team then had what he later described as a ‘shocker’.

Early in the penultimate race they missed the key windshift and could only manage seventh as the Azzurra team sailed to a relatively comfortable win.

That left the pair tied on points going in to the final race. Head to head, the odds were perhaps stacked in favour of the Azzurra team with slightly more match racing experience.

Sure enough when the start gun went Azzurra had hounded Rán out to the extreme left side of the line, almost into the spectator fleet. But the Swedish owner and his crew kept cool heads and did a great job of damage limitation.

Azzurra retained control of Rán around the course but Zennström’s crew kept pushing and, in sixth and seventh place at the final top mark, the team which has lead the championship for longest were in a position to pounce.

As a small gust hit Azzurra appeared to broach and lose control allowing Rán to slide past only centimetres to windward. Reports as to what actually happened differ. Rán believe their rivals were trying to luff and force a penalty. Azzurra’s skipper Guillermo Parada later explained that it was a combination of small errors of timing which caused their costly broach.

Rán Racing’s coolness paid off and they held on to cross the line just ahead of Azzurra to clinch the title by one single point.

Owner Doug DeVos steered Quantum Racing to win the tenth and final race of the regatta, in so doing narrowing their points deficit in third place to finish only one point behind Azzurra and two off new world champions Rán Racing.

As was forecast at the beginning of the five day regatta, Miami dealt up a great range of different wind conditions and so Zennström and his team can be considered very worthy champions. They become the third team in the history of the event to win the world title after Quantum Racing. The tall Swedish owner-driver admitted later it was ‘one of the most stressful days of my life’.

“It is fantastic.” He said. “ I am relieved after one of the most stressful days of my life I think. We went into the day with a six points lead but we knew that anything could happen. We started with a very good second place and gained a few more points. Then in the second race it was a shocker. It came down to the last race and whoever would win between. In the pre-start Azzurra had their match racing helmsman on the start and they took advantage of that and they did a bit of a match racing trick on us. We don’t do match racing on our boats. But we managed to stay close and in a position to attack. They tried to luff is and broached out and we could just sail past them. They tried to trick us and force a penalty situation but they broached.”

For tactician Adrian Stead it is his third 52 World title as tactician:

“ It was a brilliant team effort from everyone in Rán Racing. We showed what we are made of. We kept fighting and came back from some tough positions. Coming out as world champions is just awesome. I love sailing here in Miami. We are only in early March in the season and we have won our first regatta of the year and it happens to be a world championship. We are ecstatic.”

Azzurra win the US 52 SUPER SERIES overall, the results aggregated between January’s Quantum Key West 2013 regatta and these Gaastra 52 World Championships where they finish runners-up.

Gaastra 52 World Championships, Results after 10 races.

1 Rán Racing (Zennström, SWE)  32pts (7,1,1,1,4,2,1,7,6)

2 Azzurra (Roemmers, ITA) 33 pts (1,2,3,5,2,5,3,4,1,7)

3 Quantum Racing (DeVos, USA) 34pts (3,4,2,3,3,4,6,3,5,1)

4 Vesper (Swartz, USA) 39pts (5,5,7,2,6,1,4,1,4,4)

5 Gladiator (Langley, GBR) 43pts (2,6,5,4,1,3,8,6,3,5)

6 Interlodge (Fragomen, USA) 49pts (4,7,4,7,5,8,2,8,2,2)

7 Rio (Moshayedi, USA) 61pts (8,3,8,6,8,7,7,5,6,3)

8 Gaastra-Pro (Blees, NED) 69pts (6,8,6,8,7,6,5,7,8,8)

US 52 SUPER SERIES final after Quantum Key West 2013 and
Gaastra 52 World Championships

1 Azzurra 57pts

2 Rán Racing 63 pts

3 Quantum Racing 66pts

4 Interlodge 78pts

5 Gladiator 85pts

6 Rio 112 pts

Best Owner driver Niklas Zennström

Quotes:
Niklas Zennström (SWE) owner-driver Rán Racing (SWE): “It is fantastic. I am relieved after one of the most stressful days of my life I think. We went into the day with a six points lead but we knew that anything could happen. We started with a very good second place and gained a few more points. Then in the second race it was a shocker. It came down to the last race and whoever would win between. In the pre-start Azzurra had their match racing helmsman on the start and they took advantage of that and they did a bit of a match racing trick on us. We don’t do match racing on our boats. But we managed to stay close and in a position to attack. They tried to luff is and broached out and we could just sail past them. They tried to trick us and force a penalty situation but they broached.

This is what our objective was for the US leg of the circuit. It is fantastic we have done the job we came here to do and so we are very, very pleased.”

Adrian Stead (GBR) tactician Rán Racing (SWE): “We probably made it a little hard for ourselves today. That meant it was all square going into the last race and it was who beat who. We probably squandered our lead on the middle race when we missed out on the left shift and we did not really get back into the game. On the start of the last race Azzurra came looking for us and we tried to minimise the damage. We managed to close them down and were on their transom on the gate. They did not manage to put any distance on us on the beat so we were in contention down the run. We had a good set. The guys did an amazing Indian gybe set which put us in a strong position to roll them. They tried to luff and we kept clear and we sailed away. It was proper seat of the pants stuff.

It was a brilliant team effort from everyone in Rán Racing. We showed what we are made of. We kept fighting and came back from some tough positions. Coming out as world champions is just awesome. I love sailing here in Miami. We are only in early March in the season and we have won our first regatta of the year and it happens to be a world championship. We are ecstatic.”

Guillermo Parada (ARG) skipper Azzurra (ITA); “It is sport. We would liked to have won but the final positions are what they are and are fair. Rán had a great week overall and are fair winners. We kept pushing as much as we could and got close. When you are not in your perfect week and you get into the fight for the title that is good. And we won the US 52 SUPER SERIES and are leading overall going to Europe. We have some homework to do but we are in good shape. It has not been an ideal week for us but we hung in there but congratulations to Rán, they sailed a great week and it was great fun.

We called for the manoeuvre a little bit late. It was a gybe set on the offset as we were hoisting the kite. We were a little bit late rotating the spinnaker, getting the tack in position and the backstay on and so we had people off the rail. We did have the back stay fully on and the tack of the spinnaker was a little too high and we were hit by a gust and we were not ready and so we broached. We were very close to Rán but they were able to squeeze to windward of us by centimetres.

The 52 SUPER SERIES is in great health with eight boats here with very tight racing, boats on equal points and everything decided on the last race, you cannot ask for more than that.

Ed Reynolds (USA) project director Quantum Racing (USA): “It was great to just see how close these great boats are. And to see two great crews like Azzurra and Rán Racing, when everything is on the line and it is a battle all the way around. There is nothing like having your best race when it means the most and so my hat is off to Rán Racing for the job they did. It was amazing.

We are third for the event. We always look at the season and come out of the two Florida events 10 points off first. We are third overall and like where we are at. We would like to be leading but there are some things with the boat we are really excited about and are really looking forwards to the European legs of the 52 SUPER SERIES.

A lot of it here was us not committing hard enough when we needed to. We thought we were going very well. But we probably took 60 % of the shifts when we needed 80%. And it is more difficult out there than people thought. And if you are going the wrong way more often than not, but when we went the right way we did well.

It was great to finish with a win. There is nobody loves sailing more than Doug DeVos and we had hoped to do better for him, but finishing with a win was really good.”