After eight years of absence in the Transpac 52 Circuit (monohulls with a length of 15.85 meters), the German Platoon owned by Harm Müller Spreer, with German America's Cup sailor Markus Wiesser as tactician, has started the 2015 World Championship in Puerto Portals (Mallorca) surprising the three top favorites.
A first and a fifth place finish by the German boat, with Majorcan Pedro Mas (bow) and Vigo sailorVíctor Mariño (runner), has left behind the Italian-Argentine boat Azzurra, skippered by Argentine Guillermo Parada, world champion in 2009, the Swedish boat Rán skippered by Niklas Zennström, world champion in 2013, who are now third, three points behind the leader, and the American boat Quantum skippered by Ed Baird, defending world champion, who is seventh, seven points behind.
The two scheduled races by the race committee, led on the water by Alicante's Maria Torrijo, were held in very difficult conditions marked by high temperatures (30-35°C) which prevented the southwest winds (typical Embat of the Bay of Palma) from exceeding ten knots (18 km/h), causing the fleet to cluster in the rounding of the marks and incidents, leading to several penalties.
In one of them, the American boat Quantum, who was third in the first race, fell to the second last place in the second race and this complicates their chances of winning their fifth world title, although this has just begun.
The Platoon dominated the first race from start to finish and had a lead of 1:11 over Azzurra with Guillermo Parada and 1:25 over Quantum.
The second race had another clear and surprising winner, the American boat Sled owned by Japanese nationalized Takashi Okura, with five New Zealanders in their crew and Canadian Olympic sailor Ross McDonald as tactician.
They finished sixth in the first race and took advantage of their good start to dominate the course ahead of the Alegre owned by Filipino-American Andy Soriano and the Bronenosec owned by Russian Vladimir Liubomirov.
The penalty for the Quantum, who was penalized for an irregular maneuver at a mark rounding, and for the Phoenix, also penalized, closed the race standings and placed the Platoon as the sole leader.
For tomorrow, Wednesday, two new windward-leeward courses (between marks) are scheduled, starting at 13:00 hours.