August 26, 2019
“Battleship” started in the world championship class TP52 in Mallorca
On August 25, in Puerto Portals in Mallorca, the test competitions of the World Championship in the TP52 class started, which is part of the 52SuperSeries series as the fourth, last but one stage of the season. According to the results of two races held, the team of the Yacht Club of St. Petersburg “Battleship” is the seventh.
Compared to last year’s championship, the current fleet has added two boats and now represents eight countries. At the disposal of the titled fleet, the water area of the island of Sails, as Mallorca is sometimes called, provided excellent conditions with light wind and even water. But the title being played seems to exert too much psychological pressure on the participants – even in the official training race a serious fight broke out a day earlier in the race.
Needless to say about the first day of the competition races. After a good start, the Battleship took the lead in the first leg of the race, but it turned out to be on the left tack closer to the mark, and was implicated in the incident and fined. The German Platoon, being in the internal position, lightened the crew sails under the Russian flag, and the latter became an obstacle to other yachts.
But the crew of the “Battleship” did not give up: having stepped on the first leeward of the penultimate, the team managed to impose a fight on the rivals and finished fifth.
In the second race, the fleet behaved calmer, there were no incidents, but a surprise brought a wind after the start. The fleet leaders, such as the vice world champions Azzura (Italy), after the start were on the left side of the maneuver, while those who left the second echelon and “twisted” to the right got more wind. Accordingly, the finish of the second race seriously mixed the results in the table.
As a result, one of the two teams of South Africa “Phoenix 2” (3.3) became the early leader of the standings. The current world champions Quantum Racing unstably spent the day and with a result of 1.7 go second with the advantage of only one point to the German Platoon (4.5).
Anticipating surprises, the second race "Battleship" held smoothly, starting from the middle of the line. At a distance, the team balanced between 5-6 places, but in the last segment lost in speed and finished eighth. With arrivals of 5.8, the Battleship opened the championship in seventh place.
A really bad day was for the Turkish-British team Provezza. One of the likely contenders for the medals, the winners of the second stage of this season, Provezza lost the mast in the first race literally “out of the blue”, after the first rounding.
“As expected, the day turned out to be tense and not the best for our team,” says Bronenosets skipper Vladimir Lyubomirov. – A lot of energy was given in the first race, where we from line 11 climbed to fifth. Several boats from different tacks entered the finish line of the second race at once, it seemed to me that we were sixth or seventh, but the judges knew better how annoying this result was for us. There is only one solution: to go the distance and fight on! ”
Competitions of the world championship in the class TP52 will last in Mallorca until August 29 inclusive.
Results: http://www.52superseries.com/events/2019/eu/rolex-tp52-world-championship-puerto-portals-2019/
62 August 26, 2019 # 9415
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