The 52 Super Series opens its 2026 season at Puerto Portals on the southwest coast of Mallorca, one of the most reliable sailing venues in the Mediterranean. The TP52 class represents the pinnacle of grand prix monohull racing below the America’s Cup: identical hull designs, crews of 14, and a level of tactical sophistication that draws Olympic medallists and America’s Cup veterans to every start line.
Puerto Portals sits in the Bay of Palma, protected from northerly weather by the Tramuntana mountains but open to the thermal sea breeze that builds through the afternoon. The Embat, as the local thermal is known, typically fills from the south-southwest around midday and builds to 12-18 knots by the early afternoon racing window. The consistency of this breeze pattern is precisely why the TP52 circuit keeps returning to Mallorca.
Racing begins at 12:00 CEST (UTC+2) each day. For fans in London, that converts to 11:00 BST, an ideal late-morning slot. New York viewers see a 06:00 EDT start, challenging for live viewing but the post-race highlights package offers an alternative. In Sydney, the 20:00 AEST evening slot is one of the more accessible European sailing timeslots for Australian audiences.
The TP52 Super Series was founded in 2012 and has since established itself as the world’s leading monohull grand prix circuit. Owner-driver teams field full professional crews, with tacticians and helmsmen drawn from the America’s Cup and Olympic programmes. The boats are one-design in hull form but allow optimization of sails, appendages, and deck layout within the class rules, creating a development race that rewards engineering as much as sailing.
Puerto Portals itself is a luxury marina surrounded by restaurants and boutiques, offering a distinctly Mediterranean atmosphere that contrasts with the intensity on the water. The harbor is small enough that spectators can watch boats being craned in and rigged from the quayside, giving casual visitors a surprisingly intimate view of professional sailing operations.