Youth movement for Quantum Racing

The most successful TP52 team in the history of the 52 SUPER SERIES has a new look for the 2024 season as Victor Diaz De Leon has been appointed Quantum Racing skipper to lead a youth movement for the 5-event schedule.

Continuing the initiative launched last year by team owner Doug De Vos to provide younger sailors with experience and learning at the highest level of grand prix racing, four new athletes will also join Diaz de Leon.

Among the new talent will be the circuit’s first female navigator, Evelyn Hull. The other new team members getting ready for the season to start are Nevin Snow who will be strategist, Ian Liberty trimmer and Alex Sinclair mid bow.

The selected new athletes have already been put through their paces during a tuning and training week on the Bay of Palma last month when the team worked alongside Tony Langley’s new Gladiator, which was previously Alegre.

Diaz de Leon was at times strategist and as tactician last year when the team finished in third overall for the season despite afterguard line-up changes at every single regatta.

“For me this really is a dream come true,” reports Diaz de Leon. “At the same time it’s a huge challenge that I’m really excited to take on, it feels amazing to have this opportunity. I think with such a big team it’s key to have great communication and to trust the people around you. I think we’re very lucky that we have so many experienced, high-level sailors on board.

“In my mind, the key to success for us is going to be how do we integrate the new, less experienced, younger sailors? And how do we work together with the experienced group and the younger group? How do we bring the younger group up to speed and how do the experienced guys mentor these new people? I think the new people need to pay that forward with hard work and enthusiasm to strive to be the very best.

“The people that we have are so excellent and basically I think I’m just gonna let them do their thing. The guys that have been sailing on Quantum, they’re used to winning the 52 SUPER SERIES and the TP52 World Championships or used to winning World Championships and so the younger guys and girls are learning from the best, they have this core group as mentors and for me, it’s how quickly can we get the new group to work at a high level of the Quantum racing gold standard.

“Looking back at my own first season last year, I was very overwhelmed, especially at the beginning, I’d never sailed such a big boat before and it was such a large team. I think getting these days in in advance is really good for the new people because I’m sure they’re gonna go through the same thing that I went through.

“Now they have time to go home and reflect – to reflect on what they saw, what they learned, what works, what doesn’t, what is expected of them, what’s their daily routine going to be like. And that is from when they get to the container in the morning to on the boat to back to the hotel. All of that was really positive.

“But, yes, I was kinda shocked and a little bit out of my comfort zone and overwhelmed last year. Now I am making sure that I’m there for the new guys, to kind of be there for them at the beginning and make sure that they’re feeling comfortable and involved and included and they understand what our goals are.”

At 33 years old, the new Quantum Racing leader is their youngest ever skipper. He states what the team has set as three primary shared goals

“We aim to operate at a high level through preparation, accuracy, and effective communication,” he explains. “That’s number one. Then, two is to maximize our gains right through the season by focusing on worst first, that is turning deficiencies into strength. Especially with a new group, and young group, we’re going to have a lot of deficiencies early on, and we’re gonna have a lot of challenges and things are not going to be perfect.

“If we can work on what we are worst at first, then we should be able to have a big gain rate. And number three is to focus on the process. Because if we operate at a high level and maximize the gains through the year, we will likely be in contention to win the series at the end of the season. So in my mind, those are the keys for us this year. everyone on the team is on board with this and we came up with these goals collectively.”

From the training week, team coach James Lyne noted how there were four specific goals:

“Number 1 objective was process. We have a group of young talented American sailors with limited or no experience in the TP52 so our training week was focused on our afterguard learning their roles both on and off the water. Number 2 was communication with the afterguard learning what and when to give the right pertinent comms. Number 3 was leadership with Victor working on leading the team on the water. Then, number 4 was how Quantum Sails had been doing a lot of design and build process work through the winter so we needed to ground truth that development on the water and bring that forward in to our race sails this season.”

Doug De Vos’s Quantum Racing powered by American Magic will be seeking to extend their record to six 52 SUPER SERIES titles this season. The team had previously won in 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2022, along with world championship titles in 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2022.

The 2024 season will feature 10 TP52s from seven different nations racing, including a brand new Platoon for 2024 circuit champions Platoon (Harm Müller Spreer, Germany) and a new Alegre for Andy Soriano.

Quantum Racing powered by American Magic provisional crew list:

Harry Melges IV (USA (helm)
Victor Diaz de Leon (USA) skipper/tactician
Nevin Snow (USA) strategist
Evelyn Hull (USA) navigator
Warwick Fleury (NZL) mainsheet
Sean Clarkson (NZL) runners
James Dagg (NZL) trimmer
Ian Liberty (USA) downwind trimmer
Piet Van Niewenhuizen (NED) grinder
Alex Sinclair (USA/Antigua) grinder
Matt Cassidy (USA) pit
Sara Stone (USA) mid bow
Lara Poljsak (SLO) float
Greg Gendel (USA) bow

Series details – 2024 schedule – Facebook

2024 Schedule
April 28-May 2: Palma, Mallorca, Spain
June 11-16: Newport, RI, USA
July 16-20: TP52 World Championship – Newport RI, USA
August 28-September 1: Puerto Portals, Mallorca, Spain
September 24-28: Valencia, Spain