HARD WORKS NETS POSITIVE RESULTS

Refocused Efforts Paying Off in the 2018 52 Super Series

The TP52 fleet is coming off the Rolex TP52 World Championship in Cascais, Portugal last week where North Sails powered four of the top five boats. The TP52s have one of the most competitive circuits in sailing today, and require the most progressive sail technology and design. A few years ago North Sails recognized an opportunity to improve results and their 52 market share by doubling down their efforts within the class. North designers Mickey Ickert and Juan Meseguer are both deeply involved in the development of North’s TP52 products and use events like the Worlds to see first hand the feedback they’re getting from the trimmers. Mickey and Juan are in agreement that the last few years of hard work are evident this season.

“There is no question that the communication and cooperation within the North Grand Prix designers has gotten even better,” said Juan. “Our design group is more effectively applying our use of software and data to help guide the design process and deliver performance information to trimmers. This is coupled with introducing 3Di RAW 880, the highest performance, most carbon dense sail developed specifically for the TP52. The key indicator of the performance shift is North clients are sailing with a lot of confidence this season.”

Three events down and two remain in the 2018 52 Super Series circuit. The season to date has been positive, but the results do not surprise Mickey. “North Sails has put a lot of smart people and powerful tools towards the TP52 fleet. You have to believe all that hard work will pay off and that’s what we’re seeing now. I really think the North 3Di product continues to show why it’s so good, especially towards the end of the season where the sail cards will be limited. It would not come as a huge shock to see two North powered boats on the podium in the Series overall results.”

The final day of 2018 Worlds saw the two top ranked owner-driver teams of Sled and Alegre going head to head with Alegre coming up a winner. Azzurra and Quantum Racing, the two top pro-driver teams, went to battle through the final racing in a who-beat-who for the World Championship crown. A special congratulations to Andy Soriano’s Alegre who not only won the owner driver award, but collected their first Super Series podium finish this season.

“The results from Cascais reflect the experience of the veterans teams, and their boat handling in the winder conditions,” commented Mickey. “Sled and Alegre both have very strong owner-drivers who have pushed their teams to the top limits. During the event someone commented that the gap between the owner-driver and fully pro teams is getting smaller and smaller. This is a great credit to the owners who keep improving their skills and building teams of great sailors.”