At only their second regatta in the 52 Super Series the Galicia 52 Super Series Royal Cup, Andrea Lacorte’s Alkedo Vitamina team came tantalisingly close to finishing runners-up behind the triumphant American Magic Quantum Racing.
They were lying second going into the final day, but a penalty in Race 9 cost them some impetus. Nonetheless, third at the regatta, also leaving Baiona third in the 2025 standings, proves that a new team on the world’s most competitive grand prix circuit needs not always start near the bottom of the rankings! Another incentive to other competitive owners to test themselves at the highest level.
Lacorte recalls, ‘When we joined the class we said “OK, let’s get in there as an owner-driver and give it our very best and see where we get to. Hence we are already way ahead of our expectations.
‘But this is not easy! Everyone fights so hard but I love the head-to-head battles. Never again do I bother racing against time or rules. This is the peak of real-time sailing. I know the reputation of this series for being super-competitive, but I was still not expecting the class to be quite as tough as it is, with so many “fighters” all the way through the fleet. The level is so high and the podium can change dramatically in the last race… even the final leg
‘There are a couple of boats, Quantum Racing and Platoon, that are obviously better than us, plus both were helmed in Spain by professionals. But tough battles go on throughout the fleet.’
Passionate Italian Lacorte joined the circuit with big ambitions, wanting to test himself and the Vitamina Sailing Team at the highest level. Objectives that were tempered by an understanding of the level of competition. His team may be humble, but they are very strong and full of spirit. Lacorte comes to the 52 Super Series from the ClubSwan 36 and 50, before that he raced Melges 32s when the class was at its most competitive and before that a Melges 24. At the same time as the ClubSwans he also raced for six or seven years on the foiling M32 multihull circuit. He has even flirted with the tricked-out super-fast TF35 foiling cats on Lake Geneva.
For his first TP52 purchasing the former Interlodge was an astute move as the boat is still as perfectly optimised as it was when as Azzurra it won the 2019 Super Series. With project manager/ bowman Matteo de Luca they have blended key members of the Interlodge and Vitamina teams, adding Portugal’s four-time Olympian Álvaro Marino as strategist.
De Luca explains, ‘We have our strong core group who have been sailing together for more than 10 years, but I really wanted to also introduce the knowledge and all the tuning and experience of the previous Interlodge team. So in every area of the boat I tried to mix it up 50:50 – the old team and the more current TP52 specialists.
We brought our own mainsail trimmer, but the runner-trimmer stayed on from Interlodge, while the jib and kite trimmers are one and one. The navigator is from us, the tactician from them! And the strategist is new!! He was tactician on another ClubSwan 50 we were fighting a lot, and we liked the idea of having Álvaro on our side for a change.’
Dropping their rig within minutes of starting their first warm-up together was but a bump in the road. They found a replacement in a spare mast from the former Onda which became the IRC’d Admiral’s Cupper Beau Geste. De Luca: ‘The original mast was set up for a maximum headstay load of 7.5 tonnes, but we were able to find a “sister” mast that was good for 8.5 tonnes – which when the newest boats are running 9-9.2 tonnes is closer to what is needed. And the stiffer mast is performing very well.’
The sail programme has moved forwards steadily but with new downwind sails from North. Sail designer and trimmer Dave Armitage also rolls on from the previous Interlodge programme. The team also slightly modified the keel fin profile, working with Artemis Technologies, who created the original breakthrough appendage package for 2019 winner Azzurra.
De Luca adds, ‘We applied more fairing compound to give us a slightly thicker fin, for more consistent height upwind and to add grip in the “corners” and fighting for a lane. As we hoped, we have a much better high mode upwind but seem not to have lost anything downwind. We had just two months for the work, having purchased the boat in November and starting sailing in February!’
Alkedo Vitamina are in for the long run, says Lacorte: ‘I am 64. I have some limits because of my age, but hope to have a fouryear project at least. We want to stay with this boat one more year and then get another. We have been thinking about building a new boat but it looks like the new ones are not much faster than the older ones, plus the existing boats are so perfectly maintained and updated every year. Within a box rule the updating is steady too, no big jumps, so I don’t know which boat I will be driving in a year.’
One significant asset is Cameron Appleton as tactician. He also had some successes with the previous Interlodge programme. De Luca highlights, ‘We have sailed with Cameron for many years. I like his whole approach to the sailing day, both with problems and when it is time to celebrate. Of course as a tactician he is great but as a team leader he is super-good.
‘In an Italian team we get excited, and some of us are quite loud! On a boat with 14 all talking, at that level it is a bit too easy to get “in the casino”, with too much communication. Plus some strong characters pushing against each other. I think Cameron does an incredible job making this situation work.
‘And he is very technical. We received three lots of data analysis every day from different guys. And I said “this is a waste of money”, but I realised they were reading them all, so I said, “Hey, if you guys are spending every evening reading every bit of data, studying and commenting on them, then I am happy to pay!” Right now we are working to have a little less load on the rudder, it can be quite loaded in the pre-start, in waves especially, but Andrea is a very, very good driver. We are certainly fast…’
If it blows in Cascais in July as expected at the Rolex TP52 World Championship it might favour the more experienced teams, but for sure the hierarchy on the leaderboard is changing yet again.
