52 SUPER SERIES Saint-Tropez Cup Overall
by 52 Super Series 4 May 20:19 BST
29 April - 4 May 2025
Britain's Tony Langley and his world champion crew secured overall victory at the 52 Super Series Saint Tropez Sailing Week © Nico Martinez / 52 Super Series
Making what proved to be the decisive winning move on the final run of the second and final race today, Britain's Tony Langley and his world champion crew, secured overall victory at the first regatta of the five event 2025 52 SUPER SERIES season, the 52 SUPER SERIES Saint Tropez Sailing Week.
Light winds and calms meant only four races could be sailed of the 10 planned, Gladiator winning by one single point ahead of Takashi Okura's Sled, the 2021 world and circuit champions. Doug DeVos with his American Magic Quantum Racing crew took third overall, winning the final race.
The triumph is all the more special for Langley as the first 52 SUPER SERIES regatta he has won steering the Gladiator, now backed up by tactician Guille Parada - who steered the team to win the Rolex World Championship title in Newport, USA last year, one of two regattas the British team won in 2024. With America's Cup winning New Zealander Ray Davies joining the team as strategist Gladiator their potency was highlighted on that final run when they converted second overall to victory by passing Sled on the last run. Langley's team went into today's two final races with a three points margin after a first and second on Thursday.
"This is very special for me in a very special place. It is still sinking in. It is my first regatta win as driver in SUPER SERIES in 15 years and for Guille is the first regatta win as tactician. The swapping roles looks so far so good, this is really quite special. In the last run, Guille and I had a few words, Sled were three four or lengths ahead, and I said to him: 'you do realise we are tied on points with these guys for the regatta?, we have to do something. We're not going to win this if we follow them. And he said, 'yes, I got this'. And it worked. Saint-Tropez is special for us, I love this place."
Tactician Parada who joined the winning team in Saint Tropez two years ago, was pleased with the win after swapping roles, "It's a great feeling, because it's the first time I've sailed as tactician in the Super Series, and although it's a job I can do perfectly well, I've never had the chance to do it before. Debuting with a win is something unexpected, but at the same time it makes us very happy. The reality is that my job was made easier by Ray Davies, who is a giant of the sport, and (navigator) Bruno (Zirilli); we've known each other all our lives, we look at each other and we know what the other one is thinking. The crew, the trimmers who made the boat very fast, the grinders pushing those last gybes on the last downwind, made a big difference. And a separate special story for Tony (Langley), who has taken the challenge of helming again, he has taken it very seriously, he did a very good job and gave us the possibility to fight for the top positions. So I'm happy, and we hope to continue on this path."
Second was bittersweet for Okura's Sled who had their first regatta title since 2021 in their pocket until they fell behind under the attack from Gladiator, Italian ace Francesco Bruni, tactician, noted "We had our good moments and our bad moments and unfortunately we made a few mistakes and Gladiator had a good win which they really deserve, we have to clean up a few things. We did not make any bad races in the end, but we could have won the regatta. Gladiator was the best boat this week. On that run we could have matched their first gybe that would have been better but not only that we made some mechanical mistakes in the manoeuvres, not picking the right angles, we need to learn these lessons for the next event."
The final race win brought the American Magic team to third overall, a good result considering they have several key changes to their afterguard line up. Tactician Terry Hutchinson observed, "It was a really good day. The week was challenging, really hard for the Race Committee, hard for all the teams, but it was good for us finishing strong and winning that last race. I am very happy with that for sure. But there is heaps of room for improvement, that's the best part of it. We have a lot of communications things onboard to improve, there is a lot of work for us to get better out there."
Atlantic coast next...