(Monday 16th July, Cascais) – The Rolex TP52 World Championship fleet today had a welcome taste of what the forecasters promise to be a “to order” typical week of northwesterly wind and waves as the nine-boat fleet completed their Official Practice Race.
After the light winds of Croatia and the stifling temperatures that have prevailed in Northern Europe for the last few weeks, a decent brisk, cool Atlantic breeze of 15kts with puffs up to 20kts for the practice race, which was won five times world titlists Quantum Racing, was very welcome.
Predictions are for winds averaging 20kts for the first days of the Rolex TP52 World Championship, with moderate sized waves. Quantum Racing sail with Dean Barker as helm. The Kiwi has fond memories of successes here:
“I have great memories of Cascais. I remember winning a MedCup event here before with Team New Zealand, and we won the RC44 World Championship here. We have a great level of experience here and the conditions are normally great, strong northwesterly winds, waves and great sailing. It’s a great challenge in up range conditions as it tests the whole team.”
Defending champion, owner-driver Harm Müller-Spreer remains relaxed around the dock at the Marina de Cascais. As a former Dragon class champion he has many year of experience in Cascais to complement his years in the TP52 racing here.
“What we achieved last year was great, but that is no reason to be any more nervous here. We just treat this like any other event. If we put ourselves under more pressure it will just go bad. We have done some keel changes, moved the weight around in the boat, have a new mainsail and some headsails. It would be great to win again, but this is so open.”
The fleet’s outstanding Olympic medallist with perhaps the most experience of Cascais is Onda’s Robert Scheidt. He has raced Lasers and Stars here dozens of times, and sailed the Prada TP52 in 2010, and he, and his Brazilian compatriots feel very much at home.
“It is a beautiful venue, the Portuguese people here are so nice to us, we love it. We speak our language here and there are not many places in Europe we can do that. We feel at home. This will be our first windy regatta and so that will be a challenge, but even today it was windy and there were some hopeful signs, so you never know.”
There will be live streaming of the Rolex TP52 World Championship Cascais 2018 all the way through the regatta, follow it via the website or on the app.
Entries:
Alegre – Andy Soriano (USA/GBR), 2018 Botin
Azzurra – Roemmers Family (ARG/ITA), 2018 Botin
Luna Rossa – Patrizio Bertelli (ITA), 2018 Botin
Onda – Eduardo de Souza Ramos (BRA), 2018 Botin
Phoenix – Hasso/Tina Plattner (RSA), 2018 Botin
Platoon – Harm Müller-Spreer (GER), 2018 Vrolijk
Provezza – Ergin Imre (TUR), 2018 Vrolijk
Quantum Racing – Racing Doug DeVos (USA), 2018 Botin
Sled – Takashi Okura (USA), 2018 Botin
2018 52 SUPER SERIES Overall Standings After Two Events:
1. Quantum Racing (USA) (Doug DeVos) 73 p.
2. Sled (USA) (Takashi Okura) 77 p.
3. Platoon (GER) (Harm Müller-Spreer) 77 p.
4. Luna Rossa (ITA) (Patrizio Bertelli) 81 p.
5. Phoenix (RSA) (Hasso/Tina Plattner) 91 p.
6. Alegre (USA/GBR) (Andrés Soriano) 96 p.
7. Azzurra (ARG/ITA) (Roemmers Family) 98 p.
8. Onda (BRA) (Eduardo de Souza Ramos) 103 p.
9. Provezza (TUR) (Ergin Imre) 110 p.
10. Gladiator (GBR) (Tony Langley) 128 p.
11. Paprec Recyclage (FRA) (Jean Luc Petithuguenin) 136 p.
