Two races in light, treacherous offshore breezes and suddenly the Puerto Calero Royal Cup has a dead heat at the top. Ergin Imre’s Provezza and Harm Müller-Spreer’s Platoon Aviation are locked on 15 points after day two, with the shifty Lanzarote wind sorting the quick thinkers from those caught napping.
Paprec stole the opening race, nosing ahead of Provezza when the course was shortened at the windward mark. Platoon Aviation responded decisively in the second windward-leeward, composing a clean victory that handed them equal billing with the Turkish flagged boat. The conditions demanded constant adjustment. Pressure pulses rolling off the land created significant direction changes, and the left side of the course generally favoured those who kept moving. Drop into traffic and you dropped places just as quickly.
For circuit leaders Sled, another rough day. The new world champions opened with 14 points but added a fifth and 11th today, watching their circuit lead compress to just two points over Platoon Aviation. They languish 10th in the 13-boat Royal Cup fleet, and skipper Takashi Okura’s Italian tactician Francesco Bruni knows the margin for error has vanished.
“We have made a few mistakes here and there, some tactical errors, and some situations have not gone our way,” Bruni said, his frustration evident. “The speed of the boat is still good but this particular place is very tricky. Here we are paying a price. We know we can come back. We feel like a strong team and we have had just a couple of bad days.”
Platoon’s recovery tells a different story. Victor Marino, their Spanish runner, noted they had ridden an emotional roller coaster in race one: over the line at the start, clawed back to fifth at the windward mark, then forced to slide back to 12th before storming through the fleet to finish sixth. Since then, they have been clean and quick. “We have discovered a few things on the boat which have made it quicker,” Marino explained. “We have had some good calls and better luck, and Vasco and Jordi are really working well together.”
Provezza, meanwhile, look every inch the class act they have shown themselves to be across many seasons. Cole Parada, their Argentine tactician, credited team cohesion after a rough run of events. “We had many debriefs and lots of things to work on. We knew the results were not as bad as they were showing. We kept together. We changed how we communicate at the starts, changed the system a bit. So we are starting better and that was a team effort.”
Vayu, the Thai flagged boat from the Whitcraft family, continues to thrive in the light airs, sitting third overall just two points back. With wind forecast to increase, the character of the racing will shift. Whether the current leaders have found answers that travel into stronger breeze remains the defining question heading into day three.
