British IMS victory at Trofeo Zegna

Cristabella wins first major Spanish IMS event in Barcelona

This weekend saw the much anticipated first, really competitive, outing for the IMS 500 fleet in Spain with eight boats making up the big boat class.

The Trofeo Zegna, hosted by the Real Club Nautico de Barcelona is the first of three consecutive weekends of racing for the Spanish IMS fleet in Barcelona.

Two brand new boats were on display. The new Azur de Puig, on which the Spanish Princess often sails, is a Botin and Carkeek 49 - who designed the successful Grand Soleil IMS racing boats of last season. Also on show for the first time was Judel Vrolijk designed Tau Cermaica – UBS, which at fifty seven feet is one of the biggest boats in the fleet.

Cam, the old US based Esmeralda, was racing too, while the team await the arrival of their new boat in a few weeks time.

One boat to undergo significant surgery over the winter was John Cook’s Cristabella. Modifications have included a new bow, taller rig and some stability changes. These have obviously hit the spot as Cristabella took the class win after the six races.

The series was raced on windward leeward course, which varied between 8 and 14 miles, just off Barcelona. Conditions were perfect with 6-18 knot winds. Brendan Darrer, sailing on Cristabella commented; “It was a mixture of conditions, we had some big boat races and some small boat races, which was quite nice. Our worse result was a third. We were happy with that, there are some things you can do better, as always, but generally we were happy with our performance.”

Cristabella races with an all British crew which includes America’s Cup sailor Andy Hemmings trimming and Volvo Ocean Race sailors Gerry Mitchell and Tim Powell on mainsheet and tactics respectively. In contrast to the other IMS 500 boats with professional helmsmen, Cristabella’s owner, John Cook steers.

Both Cristabella and Cam started their season some weeks ago in Malaga, and this time in the boat has benefited the British team says Darrer; “The changes we have made have been good so far, just maybe we have done a bit more sailing than the other boats this year. The new Tau started going very well and the won the last couple of races quite easily, so when they get their act together they will be pretty quick.”

In addition to the racing, the organisation side of the event got the thumbs up from competitors. The club did an excellent job, and with a number of sponsors, crews were welcomed in with complimentary food and drink, and helped out again in the morning with breakfast.

	Sail No	Yacht	Owner		R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Tot
1	GBR4803	CRISTABELLA	JOHN COOK	JV 48	2	3	1	2	3	2	13
2	ESP6655	BALEARIA	JAVIER MORENO PONS	GRAND SOLEIL 42 R	1	1	2	6	4	7	21
3	ESP7070	TAU CERAMICA - UBS	JAVIER BANDERAS	JV 57	4	5	6	4	1	1	21
4	ESP7373	AZUR DE PUIG	MARTA MAS BORRELL	B&C 49	6	2	4	3	6	3	24
5	ESP6789	CAIXA GALICIA	VICENTE TIRADO	GRAND SOLEIL 56 R	7	4	3	1	7	4	26
6	ESP6666	BRIBON	JOSE CUSI FERRET	JV 56	3	6	5	5	9	6	34
7	ITA121	X-PROZAC	SPANGARO ESTEFANO	GRAND SOLEIL 56 R	5	8	7	7	2	8	37
8	ESP6014	CAM	F LEON - F SANCHEZ	none	8	7	8	8	5	5	41