Ran Overtakes The Fleet

Niklas Zennström’s Rán Racing are the new leaders of the Gaastra 52 World Championship after they won both of the second days races in great sailing conditions off Miami’s Key Biscayne.

Rán Racing excelled in the stronger breezes, blowing from an offshore direction which brought some fast downwind runs in the puffy, gusty wind which peaked at 22kts in the first race and eased down to 12-13kts at times in the second as a frontal system moved through.

View highlights from the second day on the ISAF TV Player here.

From the four races sailed so far Rán Racing have won three in a row, whilst day one’s strong starters Azzurra could not replicate their same top scoring consistency. Although they lead early in the first race they were overhauled by Rán Racing and Interlodge on the first run.

At the first leeward mark the reigning 52 SUPER SERIES champions had to take a penalty for infringing Interlodge but they did fight back for a useful third. Then in the second race Azzurra faded to a fifth, their worst score of the regatta so far, which dropped them to second overall, one point behind the new leaders.

Doug DeVos’ Quantum Racing also made points against Azzurra thanks to their solid second and third for the day, holding third overall. But only three points separate Rán Racing from Quantum Racing at the top of the eight boat fleet.

Both races held their own special challenges but Rán Racing’s tactician Adrian Stead was able to stay on top of the changes. They started cleanly in both races and were able to make the key gain at the first leeward gate.

They sailed smartly on the first downwind on the second race when they made big gains against their key rivals when they held patiently out to the right to outstrip Quantum Racing and Azzurra by some distance. Jim Swartz’s Vesper team scored a good second place in that race.

The first two days have followed the expected pattern of different wind conditions each day and further change is anticipated. After a light winds opener, today’s puffy, stronger breezes are expected to be followed Thursday with a light to moderate north westerly, blowing almost directly off the beach. Rán’s Stead comments, “What’s nice is that tomorrow is going to be something different again. We identified at the start of the week that every day is going to be different and it is being able to perform equally well each and every day that will be key.

“I am pleased we have won three races on the trot and in that first race we left quite a lot out there on the race track. And now we are back in the running for the worlds and that feels good.

“From here we just keep chipping away. We are only four races in to an 11 race series, but today has shown that Quantum Racing and us have come through, we have pulled back some points on Azzurra who had a blinding first day.”

Gaastra 52 World Championships, Results after 4 races.
1 Rán Racing (Zennström, SWE) 10pts (7,1,1,1)
2 Azzurra (Roemmers, ITA) 11 pts (1,2,3,5)
3 Quantum Racing (De Vos, USA) 12pts (3,4,2,3)
4 Gladiator (Langley, GBR) 17pts (2,6,5,4)
5 Vesper (Swartz, USA) 19pts (5,5,7,2)
6 Interlodge (Fragomen, USA) 22pts (4,7,4,7)
7 Rio (Moshayedi, USA) 25pts (8, 3,8,6)
8 Gaastra-Pro (Blees, NED) 28pts (6,8,6,8)

Full Results

Highlights from the second day of racing at the TP52 World Championship in Miami, USA.

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