Vascotto maintains his lead

On the penultimate day of the TP52 racing at the Breitling Regatta in Majorca

Vasco Vascotto and his Mascalzone Latino team on Leche Pascual positioned themselves ahead of the rest of the fleet today in the Breitling Regatta in Puerto Portals, Majorca, the third event in the Breitling MEDCUP thanks to their consistency.

Overall Orlanda-Olympus are only three points behind, with Caixa Galicia four points away from them, after their best day’s racing yet. Lexus, won the first race today are paying a hefty price for their inconsistency and have moved down into fourth place.

Today's conditions were of a light breeze ranging between 7 and 10 knots, and varying up to 20 degrees from the east. The extremely light winds - less than 5 knots at the end of race 2 - marked an almost perfect day for Caixa Galicia, who posted a second and first in today’s races. After winning the first race Lexus, skippered by Dean Barker, finished eighth place in the second. Their battle against a strong Caixa Galicia went on throughout the whole of the first race.

After a general recall, the subsequent start saw individual calls for four of the TP52s - Aifos, Bambakou, Leche Pascual and Atalanti XV. This meant a considerable loss of time to the remaining group of six boats who started behind the line.

Siemens, skippered by Jim Allsopp, decided to stay to the left side of the course and thanks to the 10 degree wind shift to that side managed to reach the windward buoy in first place. However Allsopp’s team couldn't hold on to that position and ended up giving away the lead to finish eighth. Lexus and Caixa Galicia raced fiercely against one another to win the race for the lead position that Caixa Galicia had taken from Siemens in the first downwind leg. Lexus played the second upwind leg better and by the second weather mark they had pulled ahead, but only by a few metres away from a very threatening Caixa Galicia who were by no means willing to let Lexus get away from them.

In the end, Caixa Galicia were unable to fend off the unstoppable Lexus, who scored their second win in the Breitling Regatta. Caixa Galicia came in a respectable second, followed by the Italian Orlanda-Olympus, skippered by Lorenzo Bressani. Bribon, with HM King Juan Carlos at the helm, were trailing behind during the first upwind course, but made a spectacular recovery from their eighth position to finish fourth. In fifth place was the British TP52 of John Cook, Cristabella, followed by Leche Pascual, Bambakou, Siemens, Atalanti XV and Aifos who finished last in this first race.

In the second race the stars were the Caixa Galicia team, who led the fleet right from the first windward mark, until the end of the race. Their advantage was such, that they managed to get over a minute ahead of Cristabella, who finished second. The sharp changes in wind direction, with shifts to the east meant a constant change in positions for most of the fleet. Then the sudden fall in breeze forced the Race Committee to shorten the race by one leg, meaning the boats finished in an agonising downwind leg.

Lexus had performed a fantastic start sweeping past the rest of the fleet in the first upwind leg. However, an unstoppable Caixa Galicia got ahead of the fleet as they approached the windward mark. Lexus were only half a bowline behind and it looked like they were ready to re-enact the close battle for the led fought during the first leg.

However, Dean Barker suffered after a difficult downwind leg, leaving them trailing in sixth place. Bribon were not quite on track either as they moved into seventh place at the third buoy, to later recover to finish sixth.

Behind Cristabella, was Leche Pascual, who had climbed up from sixth place. The Leche Pascual team’s consistency in performance has put them at the top of the rankings, where they have been for quite a time now, since their fantastic regatta in Valencia.

Aifos, skippered for this event by Luis Galnares, was one of the few vessels to have sailed a fairly consistent regatta coming home fourth in this second race. Bambakou, with owner-driver John Coumantaros, finished fifth, followed by Bribon, Atalanti XV and Lexus eighth and Orlanda-Olympus ninth.

Siemens just don’t seem to be able to optimise their boat’s performance and came in last in today's second race.

“I’m thrilled to see what just took up," said Tom Pollack, Executive Director of the Transpac 52 Class. "I’m very, very happy to see the success of the Transpac 52 fleet here, in Europe, and here in Spain. With the King of Spain being involved with the class this just went to a whole new level. It’s probably the best Grand Prix the world has ever seen in the 50 foot range.”

Paul Cayard, skipper of Atalanti about the damage suffered yesterday: “We had missed the races yesterday and we have stayed all night repairing them. We have laminated carbon fibre on the bow today we haven’t sailed too well and I don’t think is there any problem in the bow, only we haven’t sailed well.”

General overall 11ª Regata Breitling
Pos Barco Patrón PTOS Prueba1 PTOS P2 PTOS P3 PTOS p4 PTOS p5 Total ptos
1 LECHE PASCUAL VASCO VASCOTTO 10.00 9.00 7.00 5.00 8.00 39.00
2 ORLANDA-OLYMPUS LORENZO BRESSANI 7.00 10.00
9.00 8.00 2.00 36.00
3 CAIXA GALICIA ROBERTO BERMUDEZ 6.00 7.00 3.00 9.00 10.00 35.0
4 LEXUS DEAN BARKER 2.00 8.00 10.00 10.00 3.00 33.00
5 CRISTABELLA JOHN COOK 8.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 9.00 32.0
6 BAMBAKOU JOHN COUMANTAROS 5.00 6.00 6.00 4.00 6.00 27.00
7 AIFOS RICARDO ALVAREZ 9.00 5.00 4.00 1.00 7.00 26.0
8 BRIBON S.M. JUAN CARLOS DE BORBÓN 3.00 Pts 3.00 8.00 7.00 5.00 26.0
9 SIEMENS PEDRO PERELLÓ 1.00 Pts. 2.00 2.00 3.00 1.00 9.0
10 ATALANTI XV PAUL CAYARD 4.00 Pts. 0.00 0.00 2.00 4.00 10.0

(The first one gets 10.00 points –equal number as participants-, the second, 9.00 and so on…)