DAY 3 – Marina Rubicon Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week
The French Paprec team remain the most consistent performers from a fleet of 13 at a very breezy Marina Rubicón Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week and now lead the regatta by two clear points after four races.
In winds which again topped 25 knots at times and which saw big shifts in direction at the windward top turns, Jean-Luc Petithuguenin’s crew won the first race of the day and then pipped Vayu on the finish line of the second for a fourth place.
So Paprec moved clear of the newly crowned World Champions Sled who suffered their first and only problem of the event so far when they trawled a spinnaker on approach to the leeward gate ending up sixth.
Top scoring boat of the day were the Hong Kong team on Alpha Plus. Shawn and Tina Kang’s crew sailed to a pair of well earned, hard won second places to strengthen their hold on third place overall, five points up on Andrea Lacorte’s Alkedo Vitamina which was over the start line in the second race but battled back to a remarkable third position.
Provezza and Platoon Aviation led the first race at the top mark but with big shifts and a knot of current the laylines changed suddenly. Platoon Aviation had to bail out at the last second to avoid hitting the mark. Provezza rounded first and slingshot away from the top mark under spinnaker. But suddenly the Turkish flagged team lost their kite letting the hard driving French through to lead which they very quickly grew to over 400 metres by their finish gun.
Platoon Aviation made the best start at the pin end of the second race, Paprec mistiming their final approach and having to shoot the buoy. No repeat problem at the top mark for Harm Müller-Spreer’s German crew which streaked into a lead which very quickly evaporated when their kite exploded again! This time Sled were best placed to take up the running, going on to their second race win of the event which reaches its midpoint Thursday, also the theoretical midway point of the 2026 season.
“It’s a great day for the team.” Said Stephane Névé the Paprec project manager and mainsail trimmer, ” We had a fantastic first race, not fantastic start, but we had a good speed and the tactician and the navigator they did a fantastic job upwind. We were a bit lucky also because our competitor, had some kite problem, so that opened the door to a victory on the first race. Second race, it was quite difficult. We had not such a good start and we were really close to the pin, and we were close to the Platoon. It was a bit difficult. We had to fight with many boats. But again, a good speed downwind, so we managed to fight back and finally finish fourth. We are happy with the result and so tonight we are leading, so that that’s really nice of the team. When you are leading, you don’t need to gybe too much, you. We need to minimise the risk all the time.”
Ian Moore, Alpha Plus’ navigator summed up: “It is a tough, tough day out there. But it’s a good day, really tricky. It’s really hard. It’s very, very shifty, especially the top of course. Lumpy and with a a lot of current and it’s breezy and so it was great. We were really pleased. We have been lucky so far. There is a lot of gear failure, and we’re just trying to do our best to make sure that’s not us, but it can happen to anybody. But really a lot of stuff happening at the top of the course you have just got to stay calm.”
Tony Langley’s Gladiator had to miss both races today after damaging their forestay.
Leaderboard Marina Rubicón Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week
1. Paprec (FRA), Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, 2+1+1+4 = 8
2. Sled, Takashi Okura, 1+2+6+1 = 10
3. Alpha + (HKG), Shawn & Tina Kang, 3+8+2+2 = 15
4. Alkedo Vitamina (ITA), Andrea Lacorte, 7+3+3+3 = 16
5. No Way Back (NED), Pieter Heerema, 5+7+5+9 = 26
6. Platoon Aviation (GER), Harm Müller-Spreer, 6+5+9+6 = 26
7. Alegre (GBR), Andy Soriano, 4+9+8+10 = 31
8. Vayu (THA), Whitcraft Family, 9+6+11+5 = 31
9. Provezza (TUR), Ergin Imre, 11+12+4+7 = 34
10. Trinity Racing (SWE), Joakim Sundberg, 12+4+10+8 = 34
11. Crioula (BRA), Eduardo & Renato Plass, 14(DNS)+11+7+11 = 43
12. Teasing Machine (FRA), Eric de Turckheim, 10+10+14(DNF)+12 = 46
13. Gladiator (GBR), Tony Langley, 8+13+14(DNS)+14(DNS) = 49
52 SUPER SERIES
SAILING WEEK
