And so it was no surprise that the first pre-season training sessions in Valencia were even more intense than usual, with Platoon Aviation, Provezza, Gladiator, Alegre, Paprec and the new Italian team on Andrea Lacorte’s Alkedo by Vitamina all battling it out to be pre-season favourites.
A few weeks later the 2024 champions Quantum Racing took to the water on their own on Palma Bay. After a long three years of America’s Cup campaigning 2025 sees last year’s champions welcome back Terry Hutchinson to the tactician’s role, while talismanic owner-driver Doug DeVos will steer at least two or three regattas this season.
Also returning to the circuit from Cup World will be Italy's Francesco Bruni in the Sled afterguard and Kiwi Ray Davies (coach to the America's Cup holders Emirates Team New Zealand) bolstering Gladiator as strategist. There are also growing expectations of Tom Slingsby making guest appearances back in the Phoenix fold when his SailGP commitments allow it.
Meanwhile, at the time of writing Alkdeo by Vitamina – the former Interlodge – were looking for a replacement mast after breaking their existing spar during early training.
As an American Magic initiative, the focus of champions Quantum Racing remains very much on developing a top-level grand prix pathway for young talent. There will be some new, young faces onboard again this year plus several American Magic Cup sailors returning to the fold.
Sadly Kiwi lynchpin and mainsheet trimmer Warwick Fleury has had to step down for 2025 with health issues, and so American Magic AC75 helm Lucas Calabrese will be on mainsail, Victor Diaz de Leon assumes the role of strategist and Sara Stone moves back in the boat to take on the role of navigator. Harry Melges will steer when DeVos is elsewhere. The grinding duo are Trevor Burd and Luke Muller, again from the American Magic Cup team.
Hutchinson cannot hide his enthusiasm for returning to the TP52 fleet. ‘We have a couple of new pieces in the puzzle that we have to work on for the season. There is quite a slew of new people which is exciting and also nerve-racking stepping back into it again.
‘I am especially looking forward to sailing with Victor again, he is sailing really well right now and his support will be invaluable. The goal is always the same, to be better in the second half than the first half. So with lots of changes our challenge will be making sure we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot too early.
‘Plus it will be so much fun racing with Doug again. I have missed it. It is such great racing, the boats are so good, the fleet is so tight, so competitive that you miss the adrenaline of this racing.
‘There are certainly a few nerves stepping back into a team that won last year – and with that comes a responsibility to make sure we perform to the same level if not better.’
Tony Langley’s Gladiator leads into the top mark at last year’s TP52 Worlds in Newport RI. Langley went on to win the 2024 title and finish third overall in the Super Series rankings; on the way he also collected a tidy haul at Cowes Week racing one of the older members of his Gladiator fleet. Langley shares the helm on this 2017 Botín design (ex-Alegre) with four-time Super Series champion Guillermo Parada who joined the British team in 2024
Among the teams to have made appendage updates are Alegre, Platoon, Sled and Alkedo while Provezza have a brand-new rig for their latest Judel-Vrolijk design which launched in late 2024.
Runners-up in 2024, 2023 champions Harm Müller-Spreer’s Platoon field an unchanged crew, sticking with their fundamental philosophy of steady-as-she-goes. But they have updated their keel fin for a second time, the original being changed hastily in the middle of the boat’s first season last year.
Platoon’s strategist Jordi Calafat reports, ‘We made some changes to the systems, refinements that are not directly speed related. But we have also done a fair bit of work on the upwind sails, introducing another mainsail code.
‘When we changed the fin in the middle of the season it was quick and dirty, a real rush job, and we were very constrained with what we could do. Now we have made the change that we always wanted, maximising the bulb weight and refining the sections that we could not do before.
‘It was hard for us to really analyse what was down to us sailing better and what were gains we made with the boat, especially changing the fin. The first event we had so many issues with the boat and we sailed terribly, probably the worst regatta we ever did. Then at the second event in Newport we were on the podium and from then once we had changed the fin in the second half of the season we raced pretty well.
‘The tendency now is going to fatter fins, a trend we started a few years ago. That gives you an easier boat to race around the course when you are so often in tough positions, holding a lane off the startline, or when you are living in a tight lane approaching the top mark, for example. It is not necessarily faster in a straight line, but you have more grip, more feeling for the rudder, less leeway.
‘I don’t think we need to change much to win. Look at the Platoon team since 2017 and we are one of the most consistently success - ful. We need to improve our game slightly, but I don’t think we need to change much. Our weakest venue will probably be Cascais, never a strong event for us in the breeze; for there we still need to work harder on our up-range set-up.’
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Calafat and the Platoon team especially are pleased to see the Cup sailors return: ‘We always want to race the best, especially Harm, having the best sailors will make it harder and we are looking forward to it. The owners want to race against the best and Harm has proved he is competitive with the best helms in the world.’
Provezza will be among the title favourites with their new boat and another largely unchanged crew. Of their new Vrolijk boat navigator Nacho Postigo observes, ‘Actually, the new boat seems very similar to the last but with just some subtle differences.
‘As we asked for, this boat is better upwind, maybe losing a little downwind as we saw in Puerto Portals where we found we maybe couldn’t get out of situations. So downwind we will have to adapt our style. We are very much looking at the season overall, looking to get to the last regatta with a chance to win; we have been there before so this time we have to make sure we do the job properly!’
The newest team in the fleet is Lacorte’s which has retained a few of the Interlodge crew including Cameron Appleton as tactician. Lacorte is interesting as a ClubSwan 50 owner-driver making the step-up to the top level. He enthuses, ‘Be warned, as a rookie on this circuit anything can happen!!
‘But we approach this project with humility as we are the last to enter the class… and this is the flagship class of non-foiling boats. We have a lot to learn, for the crew, and especially myself; I am the weakest link, since I am certainly not a professional sailor!
‘So heads down, push hard and try to have a few boats behind us. It is a great and ambitious challenge, a dream I’ve had for a long time. I’ve always wondered if one day I would be able to race in the 52 Super Series. It’s a bit of a dream for anyone who races in one-design boats. Now we are here, and we will give it a try.’
Meantime, fleet numbers look good for another season, even with some owners and teams stepping in and out from time to time to pursue other options. Mostly there will be an average of 11 boats racing, peaking with 13 in Porto Cervo.
Andi Robertson.
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