The Puerto Portals 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week & TP52 20th Anniversary Invitational is already history and it did so with the ‘Sled’ as the great winner. This Saturday neither of the two scheduled sleeves could be played due to the wind, which was falling and rolling, and this was used by the American ship to win the final victory. It is the second victory for the team owned by Takashi Okura in 52 SUPER SERIES after the one they achieved in 2019 in Porto Cervo. He was accompanied on the podium by Doug DeVos’ ‘Quantum Racing’, second, and ‘Phoenix’, third. As for the Invitational regatta, the winner was Richard Kwok’s Beau Geste.
Looking ahead to the day of this Saturday there were many illusions deposited in seeing two last exciting races, but the wind did not collaborate. At 1:00 p.m. the first of the two tests started and the nine 52 SUPER SERIES sailboats left normally, although minutes later María Torrijo decided to suspend it because the wind was falling and rolling considerably and it became impossible to dispute it. The ‘Sled’, who lived a day to frame last Thursday (surprised the ‘Quantum’ and snatched the leadership), got his reward and this Puerto Portals 52 Super Series took with a point of advantage over the ‘Quantum’. Murray Jones, cane of the ‘Sled’, explained that “we are very happy to win. It would have been nice to race today, but luck has been on our side as we were leading. I think we have a great team, we can sail well and win some races in the remainder of the season. We hope that Mr. Okura will come to the next two regattas, he is a very good helmsman and we sail very well with him, so we hope that he will come to sail with us in Mahón and Mallorca ”.
The truth is that, at some moments in the afternoon, they hoped to be able to play at least one round, but the passing of the minutes was devastating. Hence, at 3:00 p.m., the deadline for departure, the fleet was forced to return to land. The ‘Sled’ is the fifth boat to win a regatta in Puerto Portals and takes over from boats such as ‘Azzurra’, ‘Quantum’, ‘Platoon’ and ‘Provezza’. The Puerto Portals regatta was the first of the three events that make up the calendar in 2021 and in less than a month the Menorca 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week will be held and the first week of November the Rolex World Championship will be held in the bay of Palma, although the event will be hosted at the Real Club Náutico de Palma.
On the other hand, and as for the Invitational regatta, everything was decided last Friday in view of the Jury of the regatta. The collision of the ‘Beau Geste’ with the ‘Phoenix’ in the 20th anniversary regatta meant that Richard Kwok’s boat was unable to navigate either leg. The jury gave a repair to the sailboat driven by Gavin Brady and returned to the leadership of the regatta that the ‘Air is Blue’ had taken from him. And this Saturday, as there were no tests, the ‘Beau Geste’ was the one who climbed to the top of the podium.
Final classification of the Puerto Portals 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week
1. Sled (USA) (Takashi Okura) (4,7,1,1,2,7) 22 points.
2. Quantum Racing (USA) (Doug DeVos) (2,1,2, 6,7,5) 23 p.
3. Phoenix (RSA) (Toni Norris) (3,8,7,4,1,3) 26 p.
4. Provezza (TUR) (Ergin Imre) (7,3,4,3,9,1) 27 p.
5. Alegre (USA / GBR) (Andrés Soriano) (5,5,3,2,6,6) 27 p.
6. Platoon (GER) (Harm Müller-Spreer) (1,4,9,8,4,2) 28p.
7. Bronenosec Gazprom (RUS) (Vladimir Liubomirov) (8,2,6,5,5,4) 30 p.
8. Interlodge (USA) (Austin Fragomen) (6,6,5,9,3,8) 37 p.
9. Gladiator (GBR) (Tony Langley) (9,9,8,7,8,9) 50 p.
Final classification of the Invitational regatta
1. Beau Geste (HK) (1,1,1,1,1, RDG1, RDG1) 7 p.
2. Air is Blue (ITA) (2,3,4,5,3,1,2) 20 points.
3. XIO (ITA) (3, DNF8,2,3,2,2,1) 21 p.
4. THA72 (THA) (4,2,3,2,4,4,5) 24 p.
5. Arobas (FRA) (5,6, DNC 8,4,6,3,3) 35 p.
6. Zero Emission (FIN) (6,4.5,5,7,5,5,4) 36.5 p.
7. Blue Carbon (ESP) (7,4.5,6,6,7, DNS8,6) 44.5 p.