Let battle commence

Seven GP42s will be competing at this week's Copa del Rey Audi Mapfre

The fourth event for the Quebramar GP42 Cup is soon to get underway at the famous Copa del Rey. The seven strong GP42 fleet will be battling it out on the waters of the Bay of Palma from 28 July to 2 August for a championship that is as open as ever. For the first time this season an official practice day will be held on Monday, 28 July with a guest aboard each yacht.

The international Quebramar GP42 Cup is now past its midpoint and the title is still far from clear, in fact it's getting tighter and tighter after each event. The seven GP42s will now join the Mediterranean’s most important regatta after an exciting event in Valencia where they once again demonstrated that anything could happen in this class. The Spanish will represent the majority of the fleet with four yachts: Desafío, Canarias Puerto Calero, Caser-Quum and Madrid, followed the two Italian boats Airis and Roma GP42.2 and the Swiss Near Miss.

So far the Quebramar GP42 Cup has seen 20 races sailed with eight yachts in each event in three locations: Santa Margherita Ligure (Italy), Saint-Tropez (France) and Valencia (Spain). There is no better proof that it is a high-level, extremely close and professional circuit than the fact that there was a different winner in each event. In addition, the majority of boats have won at least one of the 20 races held to date and the podium of each event is always decided on the last day if not in the last race.

The overall standings of the Quebramar GP42 Cup are so tight that the waters of the Palma bay promise to be the stage of an intense battle for the lead. Desafío, a 2007 boat optimised over the winter and helmed by Laureano Wizner, is still holding on to its first place overall with 62 points, but her led is shrinking over Near Miss, a 2008 Farr design helmed by Bertrand Pacé, on 68 points and the Italian Airis, a 2008 Felci design helmed by Sandro Montefusco, on 70.

A total of 12 races are scheduled to be held over the 27th Copa del Rey Audi MAPFRE, starting at 1pm every day. Given the fact a maximum of nine races count towards the overall standings of the Quebramar Cup, the teams will now have the possibility to discard, potentially, up to three races, something that hadn’t taken place so far in the season.

This year’s edition of the Copa del Rey is the second one the GP42 fleet is taking part in since its official launch in 2006. Gonzalo Esteves’ Quebramar-Chrysler easily dominated last year’s event, finishing 20 points ahead second-placed Canarias Puerto Calero.

Racing officially starts on Tuesday, 29 July but without any doubt the most interesting novelty in the Quebramar Cup will be the official practice day, on Monday 28 July. Although not counting towards the championship’s score table, this race will bring the GP42 excitement closer to seven lucky guests (including thedailysail...).

Although the GP42 fleet will be racing on its own separate race area, it will not be a permanent one. The event’s organizers have set up three different areas, Alfa, Bravo and Charlie, and the more than 100 yachts will be rotating through each one every day. This feature will undoubtedly make tacticians think more in order to stay ahead of the fleet. 

The 27th Copa del Rey Audi MAPFRE is organised by Real Club Náutico de Palma (RCNP) and the Spanish Sailing Federation (RFEV) and is sponsored by Audi and MAPFRE.

After the Copa del Rey, the following events of the Quebramar GP42 Cup are the Trofeo Quebramar-Chrysler in Cascais (28 to 30 August) and the grand finale the Trofeo César Manrique in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote (16-18 October).