DAY 2 – Marina Rubicon Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week
Jean-Luc Petithuguenin’s Paprec team, a crew which has built something of a reputation as strong winds specialists, lead the Marina Rubicón Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week after the first two windy races of the circuit’s third regatta of the 2026 season.
The French team, which has welcomed Vendée Globe runner up Yoann Richomme on board as navigator, top the regatta standings on tie break after beating the circuit leaders Sled on the second race when the recently crowned World Champions finished a close second behin ‘Les Bleus’. Both teams scored a race win and a second place.
Sled who have long since proven their own credentials in the big breeze, sailed impeccably throughout the first windy race, launching themselves into an early lead by virtue of another mesmerising port tack start which saw them cross the fleet off the line to lead at the top mark by a clear 50 metres.
The French team, led by ocean racing legend Loick Peyron, showed great speed downwind at last year’s world championship regatta in Cascais, Portugal when they only missed the world title on the last day by a tiny margin. Today they were in ‘fast forward’ mode and composed two excellent starts and first beats which were enough to ensure they were top contenders all the way through both muscular races. Both contests saw the biggest number of shredded spinnakers – seven or eight by most accounts – seen for many years.
The conditions – winds to well over 25 knots in the second race – were uncompromising and placed a real premium on safe, composed manoeuvres and perfect crew work. In that respect Paprec and Sled were in a class of their own with no obvious breakdowns and no apparent mistakes. Indeed Paprec’s biggest problem was an electrical issue which mean they raced ‘old school’ with limited instruments.
Ocean racing ace Richomme enthused “I lost my connection to all the electronics before the first race and so sat down and did it with a compass, old school.”
He grinned, “It was an amazing day. We had two beautiful starts and Loick Peyron was amazing as tactician he weaved us through the holes in the wind and through the fleet. It was incredible. The first thing we do have is speed downwind. We have great speed and good manoeuvres and upwind we managed to pull it off quite nicely. We did not break anything we did not make any mistakes. We saw so many spinnakers breaking and we had some safe calls and that was the way to go today.”
That port tack was Sled’s passport to the front of the fleet in Race 1, their audacious initiative unfolding in front of a slightly incredulous fleet which was largely gathered at the committee boat end of the start line.
Back at the dock in the Marina Rubicón, which lies in the south west of the island across from Fuerteventura, Sled’s mainsail trimmer Don Cowie could hardly contain himself, “Another port tack start!”
He expanded, “ This one was out of the box again. It was another good call by the back of the boat. We pulled it off but maybe not quite as well as last month in Porto Cervo. Everybody was piled up at the right end of the line and wanted to go right. But we are not sure of the race track here and it left the option open. But here we are, breeze on which we all love, a new venue and so an exciting way to start for us. Keeping the boat and everything in one piece was key, we saw 27 knots in that second race with some big squalls. The key was to get round without breaking a spinnaker, without breaking any thing or any one. It was hairy, we were pretty much on the limit. We have a good downwind trimmer, we have a good helmsman and good people calling the pressure and we were conservative at times. We probably did not sail the boat as fast as we could downwind at times, we tried to keep a little in the bank to not break sails.”
After a third and an eighth Andrea Lacorte’s Alkedo Vitamina lies third one point up on fourth placed Alpha Plus (Shawn and Tina Kang). Racing continues Wednesday from midday with more strong tradewinds forecast.
Marina Rubicón Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week standings after two races.
1. Paprec (FRA), Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, 2+1 = 3
2. Sled, Takashi Okura, 1+2 = 3
3. Alkedo Vitamina (ITA), Andrea Lacorte, 7+3 = 10
4. Alpha + (HKG), Shawn & Tina Kang, 3+8 = 11
5. Platoon Aviation (GER), Harm Müller-Spreer, 6+5 = 11
6. No Way Back (NED), Pieter Heerema, 5+7 = 12
7. Alegre (GBR), Andy Soriano, 4+9 = 13
8. Vayu (THA), Whitcraft Family, 9+6 = 15
9. Trinity Racing (SWE), Joakim Sundberg, 12+4 = 16
10. Teasing Machine (FRA), Eric de Turckheim, 10+10 = 20
11. Gladiator (GBR), Tony Langley, 8+13 = 21
12. Provezza (TUR), Ergin Imre, 11+12 = 23
13. Crioula (BRA), Eduardo & Renato Plass, 14(DNS)+11 = 25
