23 July 2018
Advertisement
Ten years after their first world title together in the class’ formative years in Lanzarote, Quantum Racing lifted the Rolex TP52 World Championship crown in Cascais, winning a spirited ding-dong battle with rivals Azzurra in the typically muscular Atlantic breezes that the Portuguese hotspot has long since been renowned for.
With Dean Barker steering and Terry Hutchison leading a concerted, big Quantum team effort, they mastered what proved a challenging, breezy race area, which often favoured the opportunists. With nine boats racing, all brand new this season, and all with an equal chance of winning, there is widespread acknowledgment that Quantum Racing were a step ahead in their execution throughout the five day championship.
Several times over the course of the nine-race world championship regatta Hutchinson and the Quantum Racing afterguard had deftly and doggedly turned modest positions into premium points scoring top three positions, only to then lose those places to rivals’ runway downwind gambles.
Advertisement
Several times, searing downwind sleigh rides saw gains and losses of hundreds of metres at times, during what proved a thrilling world championship. There was little scope for precision, percentage sailing and over the last five races Quantum Racing sailed 1,5,1,5,1 to Azzurra’s 6,1,5,1,2. The American-flagged team of Doug DeVos won the world title by four points from their Argentine-Italian rivals, whose best result of the season this is.
Quantum Racing’s Hutchinson revealed that during their pre-season, they identified these World Championships and the attendant expectation of strong breezes as fundamental to how they optimised and set up their newly launched boat:
“We hedged our boat towards this regatta. A lot of little things inside the yacht and in the rig program were hedged towards this event, so it’s nice to see it come to fruition,” an emotional and visibly relieved Hutchinson explained.
To bear witness to the Quantum Racing’s release, and pleasure, as they crossed the line to clinch the title underlines once again what makes the ultra-competitive Hutchinson tick. But, he cautions: “Of course you’re only as good as your last race, and fortunately for us right now that was a win. But you can’t say enough about the effort that the entire team did. This isn’t an individual win, this is a full team win: the shore guys, our sail program, everything that we’ve done here is with an eye of continually improving.”
Quantum Racing lead the 52 Super Series season standings now by 19 points, having come to Cascais leading by just four. Platoon dropped most, from a share of second along with Sled to now be 33 points adrift of Quantum after three of five regattas. Sled are second for the season now.
tp52superseries.com
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement