The home straight of the 2014 BARCLAYS 52 SUPER SERIES is in sight. The Zenith Royal Cup Marina Ibiza starts Wednesday 17th September and will see eight 52s from eight different nations competing at a less well known venue, one which promises to reveal tricky race tracks with a broad range of different racing conditions expected.
Each of the different teams will arrive in Ibiza this weekend holding slightly different agendas. Quantum Racing, Doug DeVos’ American-flagged crew, who are the 2013 52 SUPER SERIES champions, will be looking to close out the season holding the same position on the circuit leaderboad that they start the Ibiza event in. On top.
Quantum Racing lead the BARCLAYS 52 SUPER SERIES standings – which aggregate all the points from the four constituent regattas in Capri, Sardinia, Palma and Ibiza – by only eight points.
Niklas Zennström’s Rán Racing are in second. Eight points is considered to be ‘nothing’ in this white hot fleet. Rán Racing have the talent, the speed and the sheer momentum required to overhaul Quantum Racing and cause an upset. In Palma last month they only lost out winning the Copa del Rey on the last day, proving to be faster in many conditions than the series leaders. It would not be any kind of surprise for Rán Racing to finish their TP52 with a regatta win. Indeed thei last major trophy win was the Royal Cup itself.
If cast iron continuity among the crew, running a solid line up which does not change through the season, is a touchstone of the Rán Racing team, Azzurra – who lie third at 12 points – have varied their trimmers, by necessity. But they will welcome the return of America’s Cup and Med Cup winner Grant Loretz. With the highly successful Kiwi trimming Azzurra won the opening regatta, Rolex Capri Sailing Week. And tactician Vasco Vascotto (ITA) believes that they can return to the top of the podium in Ibiza:
In Palma we suffered some speed problems and part of our skills is to find the right solutions. We analyzed the problems and we think we have identified the reasons. In Ibiza Grant Loretz will be back with us. He’s for sure a very good sailor and makes a difference, but also we won the first stage in Capri with him, so we like to think that he also brings good luck! And we need some luck in terms of wind: last year in June in Ibiza it was too light for us, now in September there is expected to be some to have more wind.
One of the most successful and popular tacticians in the TP52 fleet returns after a significant absence. Emirates Team New Zealand’s Ray Davies – who initially won the Med Cup with Peter de Ridder’s Mean Machine and then twice with Team New Zealand – comes back to the TP52 to sail on Tony Langley’s Gladiator, partnering Volvo Ocean Race and MedCup winning navigator Jules Salter.
And as the crews already contemplate the 2015 season, looking forwards to a significantly heightened level of competition, Takashi Okura has chosen to bring Sled over from the USA to join the BARCLAYS 52 SUPER SERIES for the first time, to learn more before they launch their new boat for 2015. Sled’s tactician, double Olympic medallist Ross MacDonald, notes:
We are really focusing on next year when we will have a new boat, and we really just want to keep moving along in the right direction, to keep learning. Mr Okura wanted to come to Ibiza to check in with the fleet. We will get a few days training before but we just want to be in the mix, that would be great. Next year? Well then we really are running out of excuses. It will be our second year, we will have a brand new boat and everything will be new and off the shelf, so then there will be no excuses.
The racing calendar is rich with opportunities just now and with some sailors coming to Ibiza on the back of two or three weeks straight of intense competition, avoiding or dealing with fatigue might be an issue, when a momentary loss of concentration or focus, could compromise the final result. Rán Racing should arrive in Ibiza after a week off. Others will come straight from two weeks in Sardinia.
Quantum Racing’s tactician Terry Hutchinson says sagely:
A few of us will be coming off of two events leading into Ibiza and so we have to monitor our energy levels. But at this point of the season if we have not reach exhaustion by the end of Ibiza then we are not working hard enough. Maximum effort is required to be successful!
At all times their focus will be looking forwards, not worrying about the opposition might be doing: . Ran and Azzurra are both close and so our continual focus has to be in front of us as if we stop to look and see what is coming they will go right by!
BARCLAYS 52 SUPER SERIES sailors have fond memories of Olympic gold medal winner Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson who was pivotal and popular member of the Team Origin crew, sailing as strategist alongside Iain Percy and Ben Ainslie. The circuit and the regatta will be active and enthusiastic participants in the global event Bart’s Bash which falls on the last day of the Ibiza event.
Racing starts Wednesday with a series of windward-leeward races and one coastal race between then and Sunday night’s glittering prizegiving.
Quotes:
This is very much a regatta we can win. We have been sailing the boat better every regatta. We are pleased with our progress across the board, our speed, our strategy, our starting and our teamwork. We are pushing for the win very hard. We are just eight or nine points behind Quantum Racing and that is not insurmountable at all, and now have a little lead over Azzurra and Phoenix. We would love a regatta win and if that achieved second overall that would be great. We are really pleased. We are having a week off before the regatta and we are hungry and focused. It is a testing venue we know it is a tricky venue and we will be ready for what conditions we get. I was there in September in 2006 with the TP52s and we all remember a coastal race with 20 knots of breeze and there were fantastic conditions. We are happy and will take whatever conditions we get. Copa del Rey we showed good speed upwind, we felt able to pass Quantum Racing both upwind and downwind and so we really do feel competitive against every one in the fleet. A mixed bag of wind would be ideal for us. We are strong downwind in 14-16kts of wind, we get going before the others. But as long as there is a reasonably open race track that we can work with, who knows?
Ado Stead (GBR), tactician Rán Racing (SWE)
We are really focusing on next year when we will have a new boat, and we really just want to keep moving along in the right direction, to keep learning. Mr Okura wanted to come to Ibiza to check in with the fleet. We will get a few days training before but we just want to be in the mix, that would be great. Next year? Well then we really are running out of excuses. It will be our second year, we will have a brand new boat and everything will be new and off the shelf, so then there will be no excuses.
Ross MacDonald (CAN) tactician Sled (USA)
In Palma we suffered some speed problems and part of our skills is to find the right solutions. We analyzed the problems and we think to have identified the reasons. In Ibiza the trimmer Grant Loretz will be back with us. He’s for sure a very good sailor, but let me say that we won the first stage in Capri with him, so we like to think that he also brings good luck! And we need some luck in terms of wind: last year in June in Ibiza there was too light air for us, now in September is expected some to have more wind.
Are we fatigue at this stage of the seasons because too many races around the world? For sure we are very well trained!! What is fatiguing is if you don’t feel you are competitive, but we are coming to Ibiza very confident. For sure we’ll try to win and we like to do it not only for us but also because in the last regatta, Azzurra will race for the Bart’s Bash global event. This is an opportunity to remember a great friend of us, a great man with a sailing career that inspired the new generation of sailors.
Vasco Vascotto (ITA) tactician Azzurra (ITA)
We have sailed in Ibiza twice once in the summer and once this time of year. Both times the venue proved to be quite tricky and I would suspect that this time will be no different.
A few of us will be coming off of two events leading into Ibiza and so we have to monitor our energy levels. But at this point of the season if we have not reach exhaustion by the end of Ibiza then we are not working hard enough. Maximum effort is required to be successful!. As always winning on this circuit takes a lot of hard work and effort and to close out this season will be no exception. Ran and Azurra are both close and so our continual focus has to be in front of us as if we stop to look and see what is coming they will go right by!
Terry Hutchinson (USA) tactician Quantum Racing (USA)
