52 SUPER SERIES Valencia Sailing Week
While Harm Müller-Spreer’s German flagged Platoon Aviation ran away with the regatta title to lift the Royal Cup for the fourth time, Eduardo and Renato Plass and their tightly knit Crioula team from Brazil’s Valeros do Sul YC in Porto Alegre secured a dream second place after a thrilling conclusion to the Puerto Calero Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Royal Cup. Ergin Imre’s Turkish flagged Provezza scored a bittersweet third place, slipping from second overall on the last race.
For Platoon Aviation, steered by the owner, a prominent Hamburg businessman, it is their first regatta win since September 2024 in Valencia, Spain when last they won the Royal Cup in similar shifty, breezy offshore wind conditions. Back then it was Provezza who finished runners up when Crioula took fourth in their debut season with the Vrolijk designed former Provezza.
The 2026 world champions and winners of the first two regattas of the season, Takashi Okura’s Sled had very mixed regatta. Though they finished on a high note, second in the second race today, that had a slightly hollow feel as the 17 points lead they started the regatta with has become an 11 points lead that Platoon carry forwards to the season finale in early October in Valencia, Spain.
Sled fought back from a technical breakdown sustained during Friday’s second race, a broken forestay ram requiring a replacement as well as some composite repair work in the bow undertaken through the night. They repaid their tech team’s endeavours with that good second place, but their scores – finishing fifth overall – do not reflect the level they have sailed at this season.
Though they won that 2024 event with what was then their new boat, Platoon have struggled for speed at times, have often compromised otherwise good regattas with too many penalties, technical breakdowns or indeed kite failures in last month’s breezy conditions here in Lanzarote, this is a welcome return to form for Platoon Aviation.
Müller-Spreer smiled on the dock in the Marina Puerto Calero, “Winning with a race to spare? It is a while since that has been achieved on the 52 SUPER SERIES. For me it feels good, very special on the day after the donor of the Cup passed away, King Harald. For me, it’s so good to see that we got the boat going right now after a long, long way. Right now, we are really competitive. Technically we have made so many changes, so many little changes, and I’m happy with the team and with everybody who is involved. I am very proud, a bit emotional but we need to focus because right now, we are 11 points ahead in the whole season and if somebody told me that before, that we are here after this week, 11 points ahead, I would sign it right away.”
The core of the Brazilian crew have been together for more than 15 years. With a TP52 at home they sail almost 12 months of the year led by tactician three times Olympian Samuel Albrecht. Both races today they started very badly but picked the right side and sailed fast and out of trouble on the former Provezza finishing fourth in the second race to pip Imre’s team by a single point.
Co-owner Renato Plass enthused, “Yes, finally a great result! After bad starts and bad days we came from the back of the fleet. We never started first, always the last or 11 place but we managed to get there. We never give up. That’s our thing. This is incredible. We have liked the wind, I think. We like the wind. We sail many times in those conditions. And we are sailing together for many, many years. Now we will party with a pizza with our 22 people and a few drinks of course.”
Ergin Imre’s Provezza rounded off the podium. Nacho Postigo, navigator for the Turkish team, explained on returning to shore: “It’s a shame, really, because we were well prepared and I can’t quite say why, but yesterday and today we’ve had poor results. The penalties really cost us today; in the last race we set off where we wanted to and headed left – which had been the favoured side all week – we forced Crioula to tack and she had to go to the opposite side, but in the end the right paid and we ended up behind. Oh well… One of those days when everything goes wrong. But after two events in Lanzarote, I’ll tell you that I’d never raced in the Canary Islands in summer before, and it’s been fantastic.”
Sled’s tactician Francesco Bruni commented, “We didn’t do a good job on the last race. I’m not very happy with how I sailed the week and unfortunately, we lost a lot of points. But, I mean, we are still a strong team, we still in in touch for a potential win of the season, so we will fight it out in Valencia. Now we need to gain 11 points on a Platoon. We have to do a good event, first of all, which we didn’t really do here. We had a few problems, and we were not far away from the podium on this event, but definitely a regatta not up to our usual standards.”
Puerto Calero Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Royal Cup Results
1. Platoon Aviation (GER), Harm Müller-Spreer, 6+2+6+1+2+2+1+4+1+9 = 34
2. Crioula (BRA), Eduardo & Renato Plass, 7+4+4+6+11+4+4+3+12+4 = 59
3. Provezza (TUR), Ergin Imre, 1+7+2+5+1+10+5+9+8+12 = 60
4. Trinity Racing (SWE), Joakim Sundberg, 10+6+3+7+6+3+10+5+6+5 = 61
5. Sled, Takashi Okura, 4+10+5+11+5+1+2+13(DNF)+9+2 = 62
6. Vayu (THA), Whitcraft Family, 2+3+9+3+8+8+11+10+4+8 = 66
7. No Way Back (NED), Pieter Heerema, 8+5+12+2+12+11+3+6+7+3 = 69
8. Alpha + (HKG), Shawn & Tina Kang, 11+1+8+10+7+6+12+7+2+6 = 70
9. Paprec (FRA), Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, 9+11+1+4+9+12+8+1+5+11 = 71
10. Gladiator (GBR), Tony Langley, 3+12+7+8+10+7+6+2+11+10 = 76
11. Alegre (GBR), Andy Soriano, 5+8+11+9+4+5+9+8+10+7 = 76
12. Alkedo Cetilar (ITA), Andrea Lacorte, 12+9+10+12+3+9+7+11+3+1 = 77
13. Teasing Machine (FRA), Eric de Turckheim, 14(DNS)+14(DNS)+14(DNS)+14(DNS)+14(DNS)+14(DNS)+14(DNS)+13(DNS)+14(DNS)+14(DNS) = 139
2026 52 SUPER SERIES Standings after four of five regattas
1. Platoon Aviation (GER), Harm Müller-Spreer, 51+53+33+34 = 171
2. Sled, Takashi Okura, 42+47+31+62 = 182
3. Alkedo Cetilar (ITA), Andrea Lacorte, 58+56+26+77 = 217
4. Paprec (FRA), Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, 72+61+24+71 = 228
5. Trinity Racing (SWE), Joakim Sundberg, 73+49+46+61 = 229
6. No Way Back (NED), Pieter Heerema, 52+69+44+69 = 234
7. Alpha + (HKG), Shawn & Tina Kang, 67+55+48+70 = 240
8. Provezza (TUR), Ergin Imre, 56+71+62+60 = 249
9. Crioula (BRA), Eduardo & Renato Plass, 59+76+66+59 = 260
10. Vayu (THA), Whitcraft Family, 86+73+55+66 = 280
11. Alegre (GBR), Andy Soriano, 90+72+50+76 = 288
12. Gladiator (GBR), Tony Langley, 59+88+89+76 = 312
13. Teasing Machine (FRA), Eric de Turckheim, 83+82+69+111+139 = 373
14. Caballo Loco (BRA), Mauro Dottori & Fabio Cotrim, 100+102+98+140 = 440
15. Vudu (ITA), Mauro Gestri, 135+126+98+140 = 499
Royal Cup winners
2012 Rán Racing, Palma
2013 Quantum Racing, Ibiza
2014 Quantum Racing, Ibiza
2015 Quantum Racing, Cascais
2016 Quantum Racing, Scarlino
2017 Azzurra, Miami
2018 Luna Rossa, Zadar
2019 Provezza, Puerto Sherry
2021 Platoon, Menorca
2022 Quantum Racing, Scarlino
2023 Platoon, Menorca
2024 Platoon, Valencia
2025 American Magic, Baiona
2026 Platoon Aviation, Puerto Calero
