Marina Rubicon Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week
As the 52 SUPER SERIES heads to Lanzarote for the first time in the history of the world’s leading grand prix monohull circuit, for the Marina Rubicon Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week, Takashi Okura’s recently crowned World Champions Sled are the team to beat.
After winning last month’s Rolex TP52 World Championship in Porto Cervo, albeit by a slender two points, Sled will be looking to complete their fourth regatta victory in a row. The team which counts on six-times America’s Cup winning Kiwi Murray Jones and Italian Francesco Bruni as strategist and tactician, won the final event of 2025 and so far remains unbeaten this season. If Okura’s crew could go four-straight they could equal the streak of Quantum Racing ten years ago in 2016.
The Sled team have shown great all-round speed and have consistently sailed smart, minimising risk so far this year. But historically they have always sailed well in uprange winds and bigger waves such as are expected in the Canary Islands’ trade winds zone.
But, as ever, project manager Don Cowie and the entire team take nothing for granted and start each regatta afresh.
“Hopefully that is the light winds regattas done for the year!” grins Cowie before asserting, “ As a new spot for the circuit, Lanzarote levels the playing field a bit, that will make it interesting. The weather studies show between 10 and 18 knots and so hopefully we see that or maybe a bit more.”
Although confidence is high he refuses to consider they have a winning momentum, “Look back and the the worlds was a classic situation for the 52 SUPER SERIES right now, Alpha Plus went into the last day with a one point lead and then the Swedish boat Trinity came through as well on the last day, so momentum is a nice thing, but you have to be cautious as you just cannot take it for granted. We take every regatta as they come one by one. The fleet is definitely getting tougher every event. There are several boats can win in Lanzarote and that makes it exciting.”
For racing at a new venue, racing in the open water between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura offshore of Marina Rubicon and Playa Blanca, the teams have all done their background research and weather studies,
“And we have a good bunch of guys in the chase boat to do all the important readings. Now we need to just keep our heads out of the boat and take every day as it comes along.” Concludes Cowie.
Big fleet anyone’s regatta
Thirteen boats from 11 different nations are mustering in Lanzarote and of them most observers consider any of them could win the regatta. But the stronger breezes might tend to favour the more experienced teams which can count on really solid, mistake free boat handling. Among those could be Harm Müller-Spreer’s Platoon Aviation – third in Porto Cervo, Ergin Imre’s Provezza, Jean-Luc Petithuguenin’s Paprec who narrowly missed out on the world title at a windy Cascais event last year or indeed newcomers No Way Back, Pieter Heerema’s Dutch flagged team which is comprised of many past Quantum Racing alumni.
For No Way Back the conditions might be a bigger test for Heerema who is new this year to the class but the crew laid the foundations for their season in strong breezes just before Easter in Majorca. And they welcome back Argentinian Olympic bronze medallist Lucas Calabrese as strategist working alongside tactician Terry Hutchinson and Italian navigator Michele Ivaldi.
Back to Zero, Sled are not unbeatable.
“Sled are sailing really well.” acknowledges Ivaldi, “They are a team which has been together for a long, long time. Adam Beashel is doing a good job driving the boat and he is putting in the one per cent that makes a difference in a lot of situations. But we don’t think Sled are unbeatable. I honestly think ten boats can win an event. Every time we start a regatta it is back to zero, with no history.”
He reports, “We are back to the original configuration we had in 2021 and the set up that we planned for the season so that is good. Lucas has a very good eye and has a very good relationship with Terry who trusts him 100 per cent. It is a solid pillar to build strategy and tactics on. Lucas and I can have our private conversation between ourselves and then ‘download ‘to Terry what we are seeing and what we think. At the last regatta I was doing strategy and navigation and that really is two full time jobs, so having a dedicated strategist really helps.”
Ivaldi seems to believe there could be more wind than others anticipate, but is looking forward to more demanding, physical, fast and high adrenalin sailing.
“It could be very windy with big waves, maybe not quite as windy and wavy as Cascais but it will be fun racing.”
And he believes they can do much better than the bitterly disappointing seventh at last month’s worlds,
“Our result in Porto Cervo at the worlds does not really reflect how we sailed as we really had the one bad day taking 28 points out of the 30 available. I think that one bad day rather defined the result. But we are a ‘semi-new’ team and we are still learning together, there are manoeuvres and situations that are new and for Pieter it is a learning curve, learning to drive the boat and start the boat in different conditions. We don’t have to change a lot as the platform is very solid. We made a few mistakes in our starts and we worked on that, the starts in the light breeze. The level of the class is so high that the magnitude of the changes you have to do to make a difference are very small. We keep working on our solid platform and keep looking for the one per cent that will make the difference of five or six places on the final regatta standings.”
Solo round the world ace goes grand prix
The French team on Jean-Luc Petithuguenin’s Paprec have consistently proven good in the stronger winds not least when they nearly won last year’s Rolex TP52 World Championship in Cascais. They are relishing the opportunities two back-to-back regattas in Lanzarote are offering. At this event they welcome double Route du Rhum winner, Vendée Globe runner-up and two times La Solitaire du Figaro winner Yoann Richomme as navigator. It will be Richomme’s first experience of crewed grand prix monohull racing at this level. The skipper of the Paprec IMOCA may be a solo specialist but the Southampton, England trained naval architect also loves racing as part of a team.
Stephane Névé, project manager and mainsail trimmer explains, “We like the wind and we hope we can do better again if there is more wind. I think maybe the strong winds remind us of Brittany and Normandy where we are from. We love these conditions when we tend to be fast. We hope to be as fast at least as last year in Cascais.”
He observes, “I think we are good in the winds for, a combination of things. Looking back to Cascais last year we only made one mistake at one upwind mark. We did not break any sails in the whole season. As soon as you lose a kite or miss a gybe or make a mistake in this fleet you are losing. But we have a very good crew and Cedric on the helm is fantastic and that gives us more confidence. Between 20 and 25kts we are good as we showed in the last race in Puerto Portals.”
Meanwhile the mid-point of the Marina Rubicon Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week also marks with the theoretical mid-point of the five regatta season. Sled start the first of two Lanzarote regattas with a lead of 15 points ahead of Platoon Aviation with Andrea Lacorte’s Alkedo Vitamina in third ten points behind Platoon Aviation.
Monday 20th July is official practise race day
Racing runs Tuesday 21st July to Saturday 26th July
All racing is streamed LIVE on the 52 SUPER SERIES platforms with commentary in English and now also in Spanish
Marina Rubicon Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week. Entries
Alegre (GBR), Andy Soriano
Alpha + (HKG), Shawn & Tina Kang
Alkedo Vitamina (ITA), Andrea Lacorte
Crioula (BRA), Eduardo & Renato Plass
Gladiator (GBR), Tony Langley
No Way Back (NED), Pieter Heerema
Paprec (FRA), Jean-Luc Petithuguenin
Platoon Aviation (GER), Harm Müller-Spreer
Provezza (TUR), Ergin Imre
Sled, Takashi Okura
Teasing Machine (FRA), Eric de Turckheim
Trinity Racing (SWE), Joakim Sundberg
Vayu (THA), Whitcraft Family
52 SUPER SERIES 2026 Provisional Leaderboard after two of five regattas
1. Sled, Takashi Okura, 42+47 = 89 pts
2. Platoon Aviation (GER), Harm Müller-Spreer, 51+53 = 104
3. Alkedo Vitamina (ITA), Andrea Lacorte, 58+56 = 114
4. No Way Back (NED), Pieter Heerema, 52+69 = 121
5. Trinity Racing (SWE), Joakim Sundberg, 73+49 = 122
6. Alpha + (HKG), Shawn & Tina Kang, 67+55 = 122
7. Provezza (TUR), Ergin Imre, 56+71 = 127
8. Paprec (FRA), Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, 72+61 = 133
9. Crioula (BRA), Eduardo & Renato Plass, 59+76 = 135
10. Gladiator (GBR), Tony Langley, 59+88 = 147
11. Vayu (THA), Whitcraft Family, 86+73 = 159
12. Alegre (GBR), Andy Soriano, 90+72 = 162
13. Teasing Machine (FRA), Eric de Turckheim, 83+82 = 165
14. Caballo Loco (BRA), Mauro Dottori & Fabio Cotrim, 100+102 = 202
15. Vudu (ITA), Mauro Gestri, 135+126 = 261
