Puerto Portals 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week – DAY 2
Andy Soriano’s Alegre team made the best start to the Puerto Portals 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week winning the only race sailed today, the first day of competition as the 12 boat fleet returns to Puerto Portals for the tenth successive year. The victory marked a promising debut with the Alegre team for Olympic gold medallist Paul Goodison, all three top boats today profiting from some kind of line up change to their afterguard.
For Alegre, who finished sixth at last month’s Rolex TP52 World Championship, it is their first race win since the first day in Baiona, Galicia in June and marks a promising start for Goodison who is delighted to return to challenges of the 52 SUPER SERIES. The race win is also an early reward for the Alegre tech team who have worked hard implementing a technical update since Cascais last month, a change that saw Alegre going well upwind and down in the 12-17kts wind range of today’s one and only race which also saw an awkward chop on the Bay of Palma.
Three changes….
Alegre led at the top mark and were never challenged whilst the Whitcraft family’s Vayu took second through the finish line, welcoming Mallorcan Elvira Llabrés on to the team as navigator whilst Shawn and Tina Kang’s Alpha + opened with a third today with Ado Stead joining as tactician.
Alegre started to the left of the fleet and were able to control the race early on the first upwind. Doug DeVos’ circuit leaders American Magic Quantum Racing were well positioned at the first top turn, rounding side-by-side with Vayu but at the top of the second beat slipped a couple of places in quick succession to open their account with a fifth.
Past International Moth World Champion Goodison is enthusiastic to join the Alegre programme, “ It was a fantastic way to start with Alegre, the guys did a really good job sailing the boat and Andy was really locked into steering the boat, it was a really nice start to the regatta. For me adjusting to the speed of the TP52 from the fast foiling boats is the challenge, on the foiling boat you will get another go after a mistake whereas with these boats you make a mistake and you have to wait a long time for another chance or you may well not get one, it is a different sort of pressure but for sure a pressure I am enjoying coming back to. I enjoy both, this is really challenging tactically as a contrast to the foiling boats but I enjoy both.”
And Ado Stead is pleased to return to the world’s leading grand prix monohull circuit Alpha +, a team he sees as having great potential, “This is a super team to be part of and Nick Egnot-Jones did a really good job of steering the boat and we worked hard. It was tricky out there, the chop coming from the right of where the breeze was coming off the cliffs. We maybe put ourselves a little bit back from the start but we had a good first run, a good bottom mark rounding and got a couple of boats up the second beat so we did well.”
A native of Mallorca who served on the Rán Racing tech team, worked with BMW Oracle and most recently INEOS Britannia, Llabrés was happy with her debut with Vayu alongside Mallorcan Manu Weiller and double Olympic silver medallist Nick Rogers, “I’ve been sailing a TP52 in regatta mode for only three days, and the truth is that what we did today was very similar to what we had already trained for. Manu (Weiller) is great, he’s very calm, I’ve sailed with him before in other classes and communication is very easy because we know each other. The only difference is that now we communicate in English.”
Racing is scheduled to start Wednesday with a midday local time warning signal with the aim to complete up to three races.
Puerto Portals 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week – Leaderboard after Race 1
1. Alegre, GBR, Andy Soriano, 1
2. Vayu, THA, Whitcraft Family, 2
3. Alpha+, HKG, Shawn & Tina Kang, 3
4. Provezza, TUR, Ergin Imre, 4
5. American Magic Quantum Racing, USA, Doug DeVos, 5
6. Alkedo, ITA, Andrea Lacorte, 6
7. Sled, USA, Takashi Okura, 7
8. Crioula, BRA, Eduardo & Renato Plass, 8
9. Gladiator, GBR, Tony Langley, 9
10. Platoon Aviation, GER, Harm Müller-Spreer, 10
11. Teasing Machine, FRA, Eric de Turckheim, 11
12. Paprec, FRA, Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, 12
