Over two short, sharp one-lap practice races, the final dress rehearsal ahead of tomorrow’s start to the Rolex TP52 World Championship Newport RI, Tony Langley’s British flagged Gladiator were the most consistent performers, taking a second and first in a fleet of 10 teams representing seven different nations.
Today’s ideal racing conditions – 12-14 knots of SW’ly sea breeze – look set to continue, at least for the first few days of what promises to be a very hotly contested world title challenge. Takashi Okura’s 2021’ Rolex TP52 World Champions Sled, who represent hosts the New York Yacht Club, won the first race comfortably, laying down a marker that they should be among the main contenders over the coming five days.
But Sled’s Italian navigator Andrea Visintini cautions that it will be the team which reads the complex Newport race course best rather than necessarily the fastest team which might be the one which wins the 2024 Rolex TP52 World Championship. For one thing the current here needs to be a considered a significant part of the race winning strategy.
“With the current this is not an easy race course. Even over a two miles beat here we have completely different conditions between the start and the upwind. And of course it changes every day. But today we were in between the current changes, there was not much we had between 3 and 4 tenths of a knot at the start and evening out as we went towards the top mark but we will see half a knot at times or more. So right now we are all trying to model the current as best we can.” He explains. Visintini fancies Sled’s chances, “We are going very fast we have made a lot of improvements. But in saying that the boats are so evenly matched”
The first two regattas of this season, in Palma late April and last month here in Newport, have been compact and high intensity because both saw multiple days lost to lack of wind. Most of the leading navigators concur that we should get racing every day of this championship.
From the defending world champions Platoon Aviation, English navigator Jules Salter might have spent some of today taking a ribbing from the Spanish members of the crew after England lost the Euro 2024 football final, but he, too, considers the outlook is good for the week and that the Platoon team should be in the final mix.
“It is a better time now for the sea breeze.” Salter says, “These first two regattas this season have not been ‘as advertised’ but I think this week it will be. We will at least start with a couple of good days. Overall we don’t tend to look towards the end of a regatta at this point. IN terms of looking at what the breeze will be doing we take one race at a time. Maybe as we get there we look at the last day and see if it’s going to be one or two races. But right now we need all the races we can get……and we like racing! We want to just go racing, the more we can do the better. The boat is going well, training has been good.”
And the world champions’ Galician ace Victor Marino reflects the building confidence aboard the boat which was new in Palma, “For us, the Worlds is the standout regatta this season, it’s our Champions League. After two learning events, we have drawn our conclusions, we have made some important changes and these days we have been able to sail competitively and we feel the boat is better. We are starting to have a competitive boat and now it is in our hands to do well. The sensations are good, and we can have a good week. Newport is a good place to race, and with the wind forecast and the currents, it opens up a lot of options”.
Racing starts at 1200hrs midday local time Newport each day (minus 4 hrs UTC).
