Puerto Calero Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Royal Cup
Jean-Luc Petithuguenin’s French team on Paprec secured their first ever regatta win on the 52 SUPER SERIES when they held their nerve across two difficult, breezy final races, making no significant errors when their main title rivals both faltered, to win the Marina Rubicón Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week, the third event of the season for the world’s leading Grand Prix monohull circuit.
In some ways victory is especially sweet for the French team who came within one point of winning the Rolex TP52 World Championship in similarly breezy conditions in Cascais, Portugal in early July last year but lost out to American Magic Quantum Racing. But today they remain steadfast, stuck to their task and sailed clean.
They went into the regatta finale, the seventh race of the week, in a very narrow third place, one single point behind this year’s freshly crowned world champions Sled and Andrea Lacorte’s Italian crew on Alkedo Vitamina.
With the current pushing the fleet on to the start line Alkedo were one of three boats to jump the start gun. Paprec sailed a fantastic final race, always staying in step with the shifting breeze. At the top mark they were fourth with Sled one place behind. But Sled were then penalised and dropped right back to 12th whilst Alkedo fought back from their early start to take four boats on the last run and finish fifth whilst Sled could only make a tenth. So the French team which has Loick Peyron calling tactics and Vendée Globe runner up Yoann Richomme as navigator for his first time, triumphing by two points ahead of Alkedo and five ahead of Sled.
Paprec were one of the first teams to join the 52 SUPER SERIES back in 2012 and Petithuguenin has been one of the most passionate supporters of the circuit. The team has made notable upwards progress since Peyron joined in 2024 but Petithuguenin paid a warm tribute to his crew not least Stephane Névé who he confirmed sailed with him on his first races with his family 30 years ago. “They are my second family.” Smiled the charismatic owner who contributes so much to French sailing for whom this is the biggest success for the sailing team he is at the heart of.
Wearing the widest smiled Jean Luc Petithuguenin said, “I have been waiting for the last 17 years to win at the end of a TP52 regatta and I am so happy. You can’t realise. You know I started with nothing. I start with my family 30 years ago at my first regatta with Stephane Névé in Brest. And so for me it’s something, incredible for me, a small French team from Brittany, French Brittany, we were able to win, to be able to win against all these startsr, all these guys, the very best level in the world of sailing. It’s so amazing. I’m so happy. And you know that it’s going to cost me a lot because I promise to have container of champagne when I come back to Lanzarote there will be champagne for everyone!”
An emotional project manager and mainsheet trimmer Stephane Névé blinked back a tear, “It was too much emotion for me after we passed the finish line. I mean, just thinking that our first race in the TP52 was in 2009 and we have been waiting 17 years for this win, so it was really crazy for us today. We also had some issues during the race. We lost the helm and so we have been working on the boat the whole race. So it has been really up and down for the emotions.”
He added, “So of course, it’s a big achievement. I’m very happy for all the team. I think about the guys that have been racing with us that are not here anymore, the ones that could not come and the one we lost (ed note Paprec miss kite trimmer Olivier Camebourg who died suddenly in 2024). So I’m feeling all of this today right now. Thank you to them too.”
Névé noted, “There was a lot of pressure on us today on the boat. I think we sailed pretty nicely the first two days, and then we had a difficult day on Wednesday. Today we tried to keep focus on what we have to do. We only had to face this technical problem. I think we have been also quite lucky with the other team because I think that Sled had two penalties, one in each race and Alkedo were over the start on the second race. So I think we have been fortunate in what’s happened to the other boats as well, because what we did today was not 100% perfect. But I mean, that’s the way it is sometimes. Missing out in Cascais was really motivating to do knowing we could do it. Last year we were not expecting to finish second at the worlds, so from that time, we realised that we could do this We just had to work, continue to work and do better. And we know now that we are normally quite strong in the wind. So let’s keep focus and let’s see what can be done in Puerto Calero next month!”
Blue is the colour
It was a great day for the blue boats as Lacorte’s Alkedo took second. The team which is called to the stage by The Prodigy’s Twisted Firestarter have been on fire in the strong winds this week, often able to recover many places after problems. They will regret their early start today but seeing the French win today will assure them that their first regatta win cannot be far away.
Of their second ever podium Lacorte enthused, “A classic regatta. We have shown ourselves that we can recover from the last to the podium in only one leg. The boat is fast the crew is fantastic and we are pushing hard, very hard. We got penalised in the last race because we already had the taste of victory in our mouths, but being second overall and first owner-driver is a great success, a great satisfaction in this the pinnacle of sailing.”
And for the Sled team which now has a 17 points circuit lead, as the fleet head up the coast to Marina Puerto Calero for August’s next regatta there is a need to not give up hard earned points with penalties. They had two uncharacteristic aberrations in successive races today and in one race in Puerto Portals at the start of the season had two in one race. A couple of days ago they were 30 points clear and so there can be no let up.
Francesco Bruni acknowledged, “It was a very disappointing day for us, we made two good starts and then could not consolidate from there. We made mistakes. The fleet was very close and we made a couple of errors on boat on boat situations and that cost us the day and the overall. We are still on the podium but not the day we wanted.”
Overall Results Marina Rubicón Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week
1. Paprec (FRA), Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, 2+1+1+4+9+5+2 = 24
2. Alkedo Vitamina (ITA), Andrea Lacorte, 7+3+3+3+2+3+5 = 26
3. Sled, Takashi Okura, 1+2+6+1+3+8+10 = 31
4. Platoon Aviation (GER), Harm Müller-Spreer, 6+5+9+6+5+1+1 = 33
5. No Way Back (NED), Pieter Heerema, 5+7+5+9+7+2+9 = 44
6. Trinity Racing (SWE), Joakim Sundberg, 12+4+10+8+1+7+4 = 46
7. Alpha + (HKG), Shawn & Tina Kang, 3+8+2+2+8+12+14(DNF) = 49
8. Alegre (GBR), Andy Soriano, 4+9+8+10+4+4+11 = 50
9. Vayu (THA), Whitcraft Family, 9+6+11+5+12+6+6 = 55
10. Provezza (TUR), Ergin Imre, 11+12+4+7+10+10+8 = 62
11. Crioula (BRA), Eduardo & Renato Plass, 14(DNS)+11+7+11+11+9+3 = 66
12. Teasing Machine (FRA), Eric de Turckheim, 10+10+14(DNF)+12+6+11+7 = 70
13. Gladiator (GBR), Tony Langley, 8+13+14(DNS)+14(DNS)+14(DNS)+14(DNS)+14(DNS) = 91
52 SUPER SERIES 2026 Provisional Standings after three events
1. Sled, Takashi Okura, 42+47+31 = 120 pts
2. Platoon Aviation (GER), Harm Müller-Spreer, 51+53+33 = 137
3. Alkedo Vitamina (ITA), Andrea Lacorte, 58+56+26 = 140
4. Paprec (FRA), Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, 72+61+24 = 157
5. No Way Back (NED), Pieter Heerema, 52+69+44 = 165
6. Trinity Racing (SWE), Joakim Sundberg, 73+49+46 = 168
7. Alpha + (HKG), Shawn & Tina Kang, 67+55+49 = 171
8. Provezza (TUR), Ergin Imre, 56+71+62 = 189
9. Crioula (BRA), Eduardo & Renato Plass, 59+76+66 = 201
10. Alegre (GBR), Andy Soriano, 90+72+50 = 212
11. Vayu (THA), Whitcraft Family, 86+73+55 = 214
12. Teasing Machine (FRA), Eric de Turckheim, 83+82+70 = 235
13. Gladiator (GBR), Tony Langley, 59+88+91 = 238
14. Caballo Loco (BRA), Mauro Dottori & Fabio Cotrim, 100+102+98 = 300
15. Vudu (ITA), Mauro Gestri, 135+126+98 = 359
16. Katana (USA), John Huhn,125+144+98 = 377
