Managing Risk In The Superyacht Industry
In the last decade, the superyacht industry has boomed. Of course, with the growth of any luxury market also comes an in...
Read full blogThe official 52 SUPER SERIES begins eight weeks from now, but already teams are working around the clock to prepare for the initial launch on Tuesday the 21st of May in Mahón, Menorca.
In the meantime, practice races are taking place, with boats racing to test strategies as well as to see what the competition can do. All the teams are up against a tight deadline to finalise sail designs, going alongside other modifications they’ve made since the last series. Many of the yachts have new keel bulbs, keels, and rudders. Any new modifications or designs need to be thoroughly tested in terms of stress, performance, and usability to ensure they hold up under pressure. They also need to comply with all racing regulations.
To make things more complicated, several teams have changed line-ups since last season, so they’ll have to work twice as hard to get up to speed. All the crews are expected to engage in practice races with each other to hone their skills and test their new boats.
Soon the boats will be moving to Menorca, so there isn’t much time to practice and optimise tactics before the real pre-season begins. With little time left, the teams will have to rely on what they’ve worked on to see them through to victory.
The series was founded in 2012 by the owners of Quantum Racing, Azzurra, and Rán Racing, who all enjoying racing in their TP52s so much that they decided to start a racing series just for that model. In five years the series had become one of the highlights of the marine calendar, attracting Rolex as a sponsor and drawing in fans from all around the world. It is now the world’s leading grand prix monohull circuit.
Similar to the rules of Formula One, all the yachts must conform to specific builds in terms of sail area, hull length, keel depth, and weight, but are still free to express their own designs. The TP52 is an excellent model for racing, providing a high power-to-weight ratio, which is great fun to sail.
Each of the five regattas consists of around ten races. First past the post wins, and over the course of the season all results stand. There are no discards, and typically that means around 45 to 50 races in the season, all of them potentially meaning dramatic shifts in the standings of each team.
VHR’s Valencia office overlooks where some of the yachts are currently stationed:
Around 3 boats’ worth of equipment has been delivered to help improve the crews’ performance. The Marine Team are eagerly waiting the races to start in May, and can’t wait to see the new designs in action.
Read more about super yacht design, or learn about the next generation of boat building materials.
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