Puerto Portals 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week – DAY 4
Doug DeVos’ American Magic Quantum Racing emerge with a slender one point lead overall at the end of a long mentally and physically demanding three race programme today on the Bay of Palma at Puerto Portals 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week in Mallorca.
Winning the third windward-leeward contest today, Race 5 of the series, American Magic Quantum Racing head the scoreboard at the midpoint of the regatta, chased hard by Shawn and Tina Kang’s Alpha+ in second while Andy Soriano’s Alegre drop to third after a ninth and tenth, tied on the same aggregate, 28 pts, as Taksahi Okura’s Sled and Ergin Imre’s Provezza.
Although it was what many would consider to be a much more ‘typical Palma’ day with the breeze building to a sparkling 14kts at times, there was no continuous pattern to the race course area. Andrea Lacorte’s Alkedo Vitamina won the first heat of the day, working the left side of the upwind, beating American Magic Quantum Racing through the finish line.
On the second start Tony Langley’s Gladiator – with Guille Parada and Ray Davies calling the shots – recognised a big right shift on the right. They hung late to start at the boat and were able to peel right early and score a big win.
And on the third race Provezza had the early lead at the top mark but they fell to American Magic which went straight down the run when most ahead had gybed. They carried on on the left on the run to win, tactician Terry Hutchinson admitting later ‘We got lucky. We can’t claim anything else.”
Whilst the windspeeds remained solid through the day the combination of the subtle changes in wind direction and the sheer intensity of the close competition all the way though the fleet meant that high level consistency over the three races was really hard to achieve. Boat speeds are so even in these conditions that being able to hold out after making a small gain could go on to be conclusive. Conversely, big recoveries were elusive and the shifts and small changes in pressure meant places changed until the finish gun. The racing is definitively closer and more competitive than it ever has been and there were many many close finishes through the day.
Alpha+ have been making forward steps this season, indeed really since the back end of last year, enhanced by joining the Quantum race support program. Now with Ado Stead on board as tactician the super experienced Brit might prove to be the missing piece of the jigsaw. Alpha + have an eight points buffer between them and the three teams behind on 28pts but Friday has another equally demanding three race programme in store the leaderboard bears witness to how easy it is to fall from grace.
Meantime for American Magic Quantum Racing a comfortable lead on the 2025 circuit standings might suggest they can afford to be conservative but on these race courses the highest performance levels are needed at all time and the pursuit of incremental gains is unrelenting.
Terry Huthcinson, tactician on American Magic Quantum Racing reported, “It was a hard day. We are not really thinking about leading the regatta. We are just always thinking about the areas of continuous improvements on the boat. The last race was a little bit of a payback for the middle race. We had a really good race going and we just got gobbled up by boats on both sides going down the last run and the last race we were fouled by a couple of boats at the top mark, they did their penalty turns but it cost us a lot. We bore away set, the whole fleet gybed, we got a little puff and a left shift and we just kept going straight down the run, the breeze kept going left and we got lucky. We can’t claim anything other than that.”
Nick Egnot-Johnston the young Kiwi helm on Alpha+ noted, “It is really shifty out there and our guys really did a good job of keeping the boat going and playing the shifts really well. With these shifts it would have been easy to have a bad one. So it was nice to have a few tidy races today.”
Puerto Portals 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week leaderboard after 5 races
1. American Magic Quantum Racing, USA, Doug DeVos, 5+3+2+8+1 = 19
2. Alpha+, HKG, Shawn & Tina Kang, 3+8+4+3+2 = 20
3. Alegre, GBR, Andy Soriano, 1+2+6+9+10 = 28
4. Sled, USA, Takashi Okura, 7+1+10+4+6 = 28
5. Provezza, TUR, Ergin Imre, 4+7+5+7+5 = 28
6. Vayu, THA, Whitcraft Family, 2+11+8+2+8 = 31
7. Alkedo, ITA, Andrea Lacorte, 6+10+1+5+11 = 33
8. Crioula, BRA, Eduardo & Renato Plass, 8+4+7+11+3 = 33
9. Gladiator, GBR, Tony Langley, 9+9+11+1+4(+1) = 35
10. Paprec, FRA, Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, 12+5+3+6+9 = 35
11. Platoon Aviation, GER, Harm Müller-Spreer, 10+6+9+13(+3)+7 = 48
12. Teasing Machine, FRA, Eric de Turckheim, 11+13+12+10+12 = 58
