Two second places were enough. Harm Müller-Spreer's Platoon Aviation have opened a seven point lead at the Puerto Calero Lanzarote 52 Super Series Royal Cup, with two days of racing still to run, and the three-time winners of this event look well placed for a fourth.
Platoon started the day level on points with Ergin Imre's Provezza. By the end of it, the gap had opened up considerably. Provezza managed a first and a 10th, their worst score of the week, while Platoon's steady pair of seconds did the damage.
Conditions were tricky all day, with racing held in 15 to 16 knots and an awkward, choppy swell that made starts count for plenty.
Provezza won race one comfortably, getting away cleanly to take early control of the fleet. Race two told a different story. A poor start left them fighting through the pack, and they slid backwards to that costly 10th.
Sled were the other standout on the water. They nailed their start in the second race, showing good pace off the line to chase down Joakim Sundberg's Trinity Racing at the first windward mark. A smarter call at the leeward gate put them in front up the second beat, and twice they made sizeable gains downwind by working the left side into stronger pressure. On the final run they ran down Trinity Racing to snatch second.
It was Sled's first win of the regatta, and the mood back at Puerto Calero Marina reflected it after a difficult start to this, their second Lanzarote event in a row.
"We had a better day with nice starts and picking nice windshifts," said Don Cowie, Sled's project manager and mainsheet trimmer. "We sailed well on that first beat and generally it seems like if you can get around that top mark in first you can stay there. We had a nice puff away from the top mark and that allowed us to extend. It is shifty and puffy, you are going through a six or seven knot wind range. There is a lot of gear changing. It has been tough these last few days but, look, we are a strong team we have had conversations and debriefed, we recognised we were not starting well enough. We did no do a good job as a team. But there are four races to go here and a long way to go for the season yet. People are sailing well and are just going to keep getting better. We will keep chipping away."
Vasco Vascotto, tactician aboard Platoon Aviation, was cautious about reading too much into one good day.
"Today we made the right choices and the important thing in this breeze is we are choosing and the others are not choosing for us. We are sailing well, but this is one day, only one day."
Further back, the Whitcraft family's Vayu sit third overall, holding a two point buffer over Trinity Racing and three over both Sled and Crioula. The whole fleet remains tightly bunched.
On the season standings, Platoon and Sled are now locked together on 156 points apiece atop the 2026 table, with Sled having led since Mallorca back in early May. Four races remain in Lanzarote before the picture sharpens further.
