Paprec’s maiden victory at Marina Rubicon last month has sent a tremor through the 52 SUPER SERIES fleet ahead of next week’s Royal Cup showdown in Puerto Calero. After 14 years chasing a regatta win since joining the circuit in 2012, Jean-Luc Petithuguenin’s French team finally cracked it, and that breakthrough is reshaping the entire competitive landscape as the circuit heads into its second half.
The 13-strong fleet lines up for the fourth of five regattas in the 2026 season knowing that any team can win in these Lanzarote trade winds. Alkedo finished just two points behind Paprec last month and arrives determined to convert near-misses into victory. “We were very well prepared,” says Matteo De Luca, Alkedo’s bowman and project manager. “The boat was reliable and the sails matched the conditions. We want to win a regatta like the French did, but we sail our best all the time and figure both goals can be achieved.”
For Takashi Okura’s Sled, defending their circuit lead is proving harder than the opening salvos suggested. After winning the Rolex TP52 World Championship in Porto Cervo and the first two regattas, they stumbled in Marina Rubicon’s closing races, bleeding 18 points across the final two days. Now they hold only a 17-point advantage over Harm Müller-Spreer’s Platoon Aviation, a margin that feels alarmingly thin with 20 races still to sail. Francesco Bruni, Sled’s Italian tactician, refuses to panic. “A bad day was always going to come this season,” he says. “We have to accept it. Our objective is reaching Valencia with a healthy lead, but no lead is comfortable in this fleet.”
Müller-Spreer smells blood. A three-time world champion and 2023 season winner, he has claimed the Royal Cup itself three times: Menorca twice and Valencia in 2024. “We are sailing well enough to have won at Marina Rubicon if we hadn’t torn five or six kites,” he reflects. “Seventeen points is nothing. Three good days and we make it up.”
Paprec’s Stéphane Névé, the project manager and mainsheet trimmer, is bullish about doing it twice. “Now we know we can win, we will work doubly hard,” he says. “Fifty per cent of the fleet can win a regatta.”
Away from the championship battle, Gladiator’s shore team deserves a salute. After a forestay hanger failure left substantial carbon damage at Marina Rubicon, the British boat missed two races. A herculean repair effort involving Rig Pro, Southern Spars and Carbo-Link means they will launch this weekend. Project manager Feargal Finlay praised the logistics chain and the support from rival teams. “Everyone rallied around us,” he says. “It is great to have had everyone involved.”
Racing runs from Tuesday 25 August to Saturday 29 August. The Royal Cup itself, originally gifted to the IMS 50 class by King Harald of Norway in 1995, remains one of the circuit’s most coveted trophies. With Platoon holding three victories in the last five years, and the wider fleet hungry to break through, it promises to be a proper scrap.
