Joakim Sundberg's Swedish entry Trinity Racing claimed their first race win of the Marina Rubicon Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week on day three, but the bigger story was Sled consolidating at the top of the standings. PRO Maria Torrijo's race committee threaded the needle between 30-knot gusts to send the fleet around a two-lap windward-leeward track, and when the boats came home, Takashi Okura's Sled had taken third to move four points clear at the halfway point of the week.
Trinity's approach has been consistent all week: keep it simple, find open lanes, avoid the brawl. Tactician Ed Baird and Sundberg at the helm started off the right end of the line, went right immediately, and led wire to wire. "Those were some pretty complicated conditions, but the team is super excited," Baird said. "Our whole season is going to be about keeping it simple. The one time we got in a complicated situation yesterday it really went bad."
The right side of the course was the key call. Baird explained they gave away a little line bias to secure the right, and the rest of the fleet piled onto the left. "The fleet really fought a lot more for the left side of the line than they have. And then we just tacked right away. And once we got about halfway out to the right, the fleet on the left started to fade into us, and we got a little right hand shift. It was strong."
Regatta leaders Paprec had a miserable afternoon. They bailed from a port-end start, crossed many sterns to chase Trinity right, fought back into contention, then got caught in port-tack traffic at the windward mark. A spinnaker sheet going under the boat forced a double gybe at the offset mark, and they crossed ninth. The problems had started with their pedestal winches overdrive failing. Tactician Stephane Névé was blunt: "First we had some technical issue with our pedestals, so we have been working part of the race on this. And at the top mark, I think we made some mistake on our choice. And we should have stayed more to the right side of the race course and ended up taking so much risk with Sled and the other boats that were coming in from the left, so that cost us a lot."
That ninth place dropped Paprec to second overall on 17 points, six places behind Sled on the water and four points adrift on the leaderboard.
New Zealand sailor Murray Jones, calling tactics aboard Sled, described a race that was anything but straightforward. "None of the days so far have been easy. That's for sure. Today was complicated actually. The breeze's shifting a lot up at the top mark. It was all on. We were dipping boats, tacking and slam dunking." Jones was equally measured about the season standings, where Sled lead overall by 30 points. "I haven't even looked at it and we're not focussing on that, you know, it's one day at a time. We just focus on this regatta."
Andrea Lacorte's Alkedo Vitamina took second, moving to third overall on 18 points. New Zealand tactician Cameron Appleton had kept them in the fight throughout a scrappy race. "That race was probably one of the more tightly fought with all the fleet now everyone's getting more comfortable and understanding the conditions a little bit," Appleton said. "Other than Trinity, who got away and did a really nice job of that race, all the people that we stayed with, which was Alegre, Platoon and Sled, we all had a huge fight the whole way."
Trinity's win moved them to seventh on 35 points, two behind Pieter Heerema's No Way Back. Baird acknowledged the week has had its rough edges. "We've had our moments. We were in good shape on day one, and then trawled our gennaker in the water. That cost us seven or eight points." On the learning curve of sailing these boats in heavy air, he was philosophical. "For this group it's the first time we've ever as a team, and especially the Swedes, have ever sailed these boats in this much wind, in this kind of condition, and it is tough. Each day we are figuring some new things out and we're learning. I'm enjoying it. It's always fun to learn."
Marina Rubicón Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week, standings after day three:
1. Sled, Takashi Okura, 1+2+6+1+3 = 13pts 2. Paprec (FRA), Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, 2+1+1+4+9 = 17 3. Alkedo Vitamina (ITA), Andrea Lacorte, 7+3+3+3+2 = 18 4. Alpha+ (HKG), Shawn & Tina Kang, 3+8+2+2+8 = 23 5. Platoon Aviation (GER), Harm Müller-Spreer, 6+5+9+6+5 = 31 6. No Way Back (NED), Pieter Heerema, 5+7+5+9+7 = 33 7. Trinity Racing (SWE), Joakim Sundberg, 12+4+10+8+1 = 35 8. Alegre (GBR), Andy Soriano, 4+9+8+10+4 = 35 9. Vayu (THA), Whitcraft Family, 9+6+11+5+12 = 43 10. Provezza (TUR), Ergin Imre, 11+12+4+7+10 = 44 11. Teasing Machine (FRA), Eric de Turckheim, 10+10+14(DNF)+12+6 = 52 12. Crioula (BRA), Eduardo & Renato Plass, 14(DNS)+11+7+11+11 = 54 13. Gladiator (GBR), Tony Langley, 8+13+14(DNS)+14(DNS)+14(DNS) = 63
