With the wind blowing offshore for the one race which was sailed at the 52 SUPER SERIES Puerto Portals Sailing Week & 20^th Anniversary Invitational tacticians and strategists had a more challenging day than might be usually expected on the Bay of Palma.

In the 52 SUPER SERIES fleet it was Adam Beashel supported by Jeremy Lomas at the back of Sled who made the most of the opportunities on the first beat and the team which conclusively won the Porto Cervo regatta in 2019 took their first win of the regatta to move into second overall.

With the breeze at a promising 12-15kts on the start line it was the Plattners’ Phoenix which made the best opening at the pin end of the line working the early left along with Bronenosec and Platoon. But as this trio pressed each other across more to the right Phoenix left just enough of a gap for Sled and Quantum Racing to squeeze inside and ahead at a very tight first mark rounding.  

Takashi Okura’s team, which has Murray Jones steering this week and welcomes America’s Cup winner and double Olympian Josh Junior to the crew, were able to extend away to build a comfortable lead which proved more than enough as the late afternoon breeze dropped away and became even more unsettled. Phoenix was judged to have fouled Quantum Racing on the first run and had to take a penalty, leaving Quantum to a comfortable second which allowed them to extend seven points clear at the top of the leaderboard.