Who will bring the winning magic to Valencia and clinch the 52 Super Series season title

Almost every year it seems the 52 SUPER SERIES season title goes down to the wire. So close is the competition that the championship often is decided by the final race on the last day. As the circuit heads to Valencia, Spain, for 2026’s showdown it is too close to call, not just for the title but for the second and third steps on the podium.

And, if 2024’s emotional cliffhanger, which saw Quantum Racing powered by American Magic clinch overall victory by a single point on the last race, is anything to go by, Spain’s America’s Cup city offers the perfect arena for the big finale.

Platoon Aviation are leaders
After winning the Royal Cup event in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote Harm Müller-Spreer’s German flagged Platoon Aviation, 2023 champions, seem to be on the march, sailing at their best level for a couple of years. They head for Valencia with a lead of 11 points over Takashi Okura’s Sled, this year’s world champions who won the first two regattas of the season, but know all too well that they left too many points on the race courses at the two most recent events in the breezy Canary Islands.

But for all that the numbers may seem to favour Platoon, 2021 champions Sled have been sailing well and to some extent a heart breaking technical breakdown at the last regatta cost them most of the points they trail the German flagged team by.

The battle for the second and third step on the podium has exciting allure, ironically mirroring the battle for victory as Andrea Lacorte’s 2025 newcomers Alkedo Cetilar hold third by 11 points also, fighting to stay ahead of France’s Paprec winners of the first of the two events in the Canaries, who took third overall last season. And this year’s Swedish flagged newcomers Trinity are only one point behind Paprec and have designs on a podium in their first year of racing.

Making more magic moments, record sized fleet
Ed Baird, Trinity’s America’s Cup winning tactician observes, “Valencia will be all about who brings the magic for this week. Every one of the top teams have had their moments and Platoon have been coming on strong and Provezza just finished on the podium, and so maybe there will be some dogfights and that will help the rest of us!”

One of the most significant determinants on that final outcome will be the record size of the Valencia fleet. With John Huhn’s American flagged Katana stepping up to the top level with a super strong team on a very well sorted boat – the 2018 launch which as Platoon won the 2023 season, there will be no fewer than 16 teams from 11 nations doing battle.

Müller-Spreer is bullish, “We feel good. I feel we can win. That is the absolute objective we started the season with and nothing has changed. It has been a while to really get this boat working well and now I feel we have the boat to do the job and a team with the experience and the drive. We sailed well in Lanzarote – other than some sails damaged at Marina Rubicon – so I feel we have everything in place to perform.”

“It is such a privilege to be in this position leading at this time of the season. If you had told me this at the beginning of the season I would have signed up with a great big tick. I think generally we have sailed well but it will be a luxury to have a great fight with Sled at the last event.”  Platoon’s tactician Vasco Vascotto enthuses.

Sled ready to fight
Sled’s project manager and mainsheet trimmer Don Cowie says their crew are up for the fight, ready to give it everything until the last race is over. “It is going to be a tight regatta we have seen Platoon improve their performance dramatically over the last two or three events. They are tough competitors but we will go out swinging, giving it our very best shot, getting back those points and winning the season. I think we need to not give away silly penalties like we have and we had that gear failure which cost us nine points. We are not sailing as well as we were, we need to improve our starts and sail solid races.”

In 2024 Valencia dealt up a feast of different conditions including some days of hard, shifty offshore breezes which were great for the opportunists. But late in the season the race area off Malvarrosa Beach can deliver anything from light to too strong and everything in between. For sure it is not a race track where a consistent, copy paste strategy works day in day out. Expect the unexpected!

Podium under pressure 
The scrap for the podium is also wide open. Incumbent in third, Andrea Lacorte’s Italians on Alkedo Cetilar have prepared meticulously which gives Matteo De Luca, bowman and project manager confidence, “The latest forecast we see seems to suggest a light winds week and we are just receiving our new light winds sails, like a new light mainsail and J1 headsail, so we are happy with our long term planning for the season. We are confident we have the hardware and the weapons to do good and fight for the podium. We have nothing much to really put right, to do better. We have to put it all together. The race area is very well known to all of us when compared to Puerto Calero’s shifty conditions. We also think the competition will be a lot more fair and not so random.”

French ace Loïck Peyron, Paprec’s tactician is in a positive mood, “I think we are still getting better. To be honest racing with Yoann (Richomme) as navigator has been a fantastic experience but we are still learning all the time what each other wants and needs. And so we want to finish back on the podium like last year but there are so many good teams it will not be easy. We would like more breeze. Everyone is so looking forwards to being there and racing.”

And Ed Baird, tactician on Trinity Racing believes they are ready to take every opportunity that might come their way as the boats above them on the leaderboard maybe get into private battles, “We find ourselves in a nice position for the season, doing better than we hoped and better than we targeted at the start of the season and so we are really excited about that. But this is a bit like golf when you get a birdie you feel like you can do it all the time and should get off and do the tour, but really this is about achieving these moments more often and more consistently. Valencia too is very different in terms of the wind patterns to when we sailed the America’s Cup there because of all the different structures on land and so on.”

The 52 SUPER SERIES Valencia Sailing Week comes at the end of an intense few weeks of back-to-back high level racing for many of the very top sailors who cannot afford to arrive ‘running on empty’ and lose focus. The winners will be the team which brings their A Game to every race, to every start and every mark rounding, every tack and gybe. There is no room for unforced errors at this level!

Racing runs Tuesday 6th to Saturday 10th October, official practice day Monday.

52 SUPER SERIES 2026 Provisional Leaderboard
1. Platoon Aviation (GER), Harm Müller-Spreer, 51+53+33+34 = 171
2. Sled, Takashi Okura, 42+47+31+62 = 182  
3. Alkedo Cetilar (ITA), Andrea Lacorte, 58+56+26+77 = 217  
4. Paprec (FRA), Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, 72+61+24+71 = 228
5. Trinity Racing (SWE), Joakim Sundberg, 73+49+46+61 = 229  
6. No Way Back (NED), Pieter Heerema, 52+69+44+69 = 234 
7. Alpha + (HKG), Shawn & Tina Kang, 67+55+48+70 = 240  
8. Provezza (TUR), Ergin Imre, 56+71+62+60 = 249 
9. Crioula (BRA), Eduardo & Renato Plass, 59+76+66+59 = 260  
10. Vayu (THA), Whitcraft Family, 86+73+55+66 = 280 
11. Alegre (GBR), Andy Soriano, 90+72+50+76 = 288 
12. Gladiator (GBR), Tony Langley, 59+88+89+76 = 312 
13. Teasing Machine (FRA), Eric de Turckheim, 83+82+69+111+139 = 373
14. Caballo Loco (BRA), Mauro Dottori, 100+102+98+140 = 440
15. Vudu (ITA), Mauro Gestri, 135+126+98+140 = 499
16. Katana (USA), John Huhn, 135+144+98+140 = 517

52 SUPER SERIES Valencia Sailing Week – Entry List
Alegre (GBR), Andy Soriano
Alkedo Cetilar (ITA), Andrea Lacorte
Alpha + (HKG), Shawn & Tina Kang
Caballo Loco (BRA),Mauro Dottori
Crioula (BRA), Eduardo & Renato Plass
Gladiator (GBR), Tony Langley
Katana (USA), John Huhn
No Way Back (NED), Pieter Heerema
Paprec (FRA), Jean-Luc Petithuguenin
Platoon Aviation (GER), Harm Müller-Spreer   
Provezza (TUR), Ergin Imre
⁠Sled, Takashi Okura
Teasing Machine (FRA), Eric de Turckheim
Trinity Racing (SWE), Joakim Sundberg
Vayu (THA), Whitcraft Family
Vudu (ITA), Mauro Gestri