Two teams now share the lead at the Puerto Calero Lanzarote 52 SUPER SERIES Royal Cup, after a day in which the venue's tricky, shifting offshore breezes made a mockery of the fleet's best-laid plans.
Ergin Imre's Provezza and Harm Müller-Spreer's Platoon Aviation are locked together on 15 points apiece, at the head of a 13-boat fleet that is finding this venue anything but straightforward.
Two races were completed. Paprec, winners of last month's Lanzarote regatta, took the first after the French crew pipped Provezza to the line when the course was shortened at the windward mark. Platoon Aviation then produced a composed win in the second windward-leeward to draw level at the top.
The wind pulsing off the land kept changing in both pressure and direction, and the left side of the track generally paid. But timing mattered more than positioning. Get the gear changes wrong through the transitions and boats found themselves swallowed by traffic, losing places fast.
It has been a rough couple of days for circuit leaders Sled. The new world champions, who racked up 14 points on opening day, added a fifth and an 11th today. Their overall series lead is now down to just two points over Platoon, and they sit 10th in the Royal Cup fleet itself.
Italian tactician Francesco Bruni did not sugar-coat it. "We have made a few mistakes here and there, some tactical mistakes, and some situations have not gone our way," he said. "The speed of the boat is still good but this particular place is very tricky. Here we are paying a bit of a price. We know that we can come back, we feel like we are a strong team and we have had just a couple of bad days. We need to trust each other as we always have done but it is important we don't start to change anything much."
Platoon, by contrast, have been quick and largely clean. They were over the line early in race one, alongside Sled, clawed back to fifth by the windward mark, then slid to 12th after a messy port-tack approach. By the finish they'd recovered to sixth, a rollercoaster but a productive one.
Spaniard Victor Marino, running on Platoon, credited small gains. "We have discovered a few things on the boat which have made it quicker, just different things over the year so far," he said. "At the same time we have had some good calls and better luck and for sure Vasco and Jordi are really working well together. They are in a good way doing nice work. It is a super difficult race course here but Vasco and Jordi have won here, it is super shifty and so you have to be patient and have your options. The wind is set to increase so we will see if it works as well when the breeze is up."
Provezza, meanwhile, look back to their old selves. Both leading boats, ironically, were hardest hit by spinnaker damage at last month's Marina Rubicon event, losing 11 sails between them.
Argentine tactician Cole Parada put it down to hard work off the water. "We had many debriefs and lots of things to work on," he said. "We changed how we are communicating at the starts, we changed the system a bit. So we are starting better and that was a team effort. Everything is easier when you start at the front of the pack."
The Whitcraft family's Vayu, out of Thailand, sit third overall, just two points off the pace, keeping the battle for the Royal Cup finely poised heading into the final stages.
