Straight bullets for Artemis

Full day of racing held at Hublot PalmaVela

With a breeze of eight to ten knots from the 190º to the 220º, more than a 100 boats have filled the Bay of Palma on day two of Hublot PalmaVela.

Today's racing brought some changes to the overall results in the TP52, Mini Maxi and Maxi Wally classes, with Artemis scoring three bullets in the TP52s, and Udo Schutz's STP65 Container and Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones' Magic Carpet 2 holding to the first positions in Mini Maxi and Maxi Wally classes respectively, while Peraleja Golf, Inmobiliaria Nova, Peninsula Petroleum and Symfony are on top after the first races run by the J/80, Platú 25, RI 1 and ORC classes respectively. Tomorrow the Lateen Rigged Sailing and Disabled Sailing classes will join competition.

In the TP52 class, Tornbjorn Tornqvist's Artemis dominated racing, lead off the start line in all of them. John Cook's Cristabella is showing improved form over her 2009 performance hanging on to the coat tails of the Swedish leader, followed by Matador - repeating yesterday's pattern, making disappointing starts and beats, excelling only on the downwinds, when the Argentinian flagged boat would pass the second British TP52, Tom Wilson's Weapon of Choice.

The standings remain much the same as after day one among the giants of the Maxi Wally and Mini Maxi classes with three exciting races held today in the Delta Racing Area, opposite the Arenal.

The day's first contest between the Maxi Wallies saw victory again go to Magic Carpet 2 which covered Claus-Peter Offen's Y3K and Tristan Kinloch's J One for the whole race. The drama came when Luca Bassani's massive Esense suffered a ripped spinnaker, after the sail caught on a spreader, costing her first place. Things changed in race two, which was tightly fought with a photo finish that saw Y3K cross the line just one second ahead of Stefano Massa's Indio. Massa also finished second in the third race, which was claimed by J One, which ends the day second overall behind Magic Carpet third place in today's last race.

In the Mini Maxis, Container clung on to first place up thanks to two victories in the two last races of the day, improving her fourth place in race one. Neville Crichton's Shockwave had a good day today, with one first and two third places, which helped her move up to second overall. According to Crichton Shockwave showed better speed today, after lacking some weight yesterday. Andrés Soriano's Alegre holds third overall after posting two seconds and one fourth place.

The smaller J/80 class delivered a nice spectacle on the water, the 8 knots of breeze enough for Ignacio Camino's Nextel and Gorostegui's Cantabria Infinita to take the lead from the start until the finish. Peraleja Golf won the second race, and Nextel the third.

The RI and ORC classes sailed 23 and 14 miles coastal races respectively. ORC was won by Russian Symfony, ahead of Mestral Fast and Xalest. In RI 1, John Bassadone's GP42 Peninsula Petroleum made a strong opening in its first regatta, winning the race followed by Aifos of the Spanish army, and Roberto Monti's GP42, Airis.

Overall results (top three places)

TP 52
Artemis (Tornqvist), 1+1+1+1: 4
Cristabella (Cook), 2+2+4+2: 10
Matador (Roemmers), 3+3+2+3: 11
Weapon of choice (Wilson), 4+4+3+4: 15

Maxi Wally
Magic Carpet 2 (Gallichan), 1+1+4+3: 9
J One (Kinloch), 2+3.5+3+1: 9.5
Y3K (Offen), 3+2+1+4: 10

Mini Maxi General
Container (Schutz), 1+4+1+1: 7
Shockwave (Crichton), 4+1+3+3: 11
Alegre (Soriano), 3+2+2+4: 11

J 80
1. Peraleja Golf (Martínez), 1+3+1: 5
2. Nextel (Camino), 4+1+3: 8
3. Portcall Composites (Frau), 3+2+9: 14

Platú 25
1. Inmobiliaria Nova (Forteza), 1+1+3: 5
2. Ibedrola (Weiller), 2+2+2: 6
3. Uep Design (Carbonell), 4+4+1: 9

ORC
1. “Symfony” (Viacheslav), 1
2. “Mestral Fast” (Morell), 2
“Xalest” (Rossiñol), 3

RI 1
1. Peninsula Petroleum (Bassadone), 1
2. Aifos (Rodriguez Toubes), 2
3. Airis (Monti), 3