Come-from-behind winners

Dramatic final day of racing at Gaastra PalmaVela

The final day of racing at this 10th Gaastra PalmaVelatook place in 12 knots of wind from the southeast. The Maxis and the Vintage yachts sailed a coastal race of 21 nm taking them to Illetas and to the small island of Sa Porrasa in Calvià. The rest of the classes sailed windward-leewards on the Bay of Palma.

In the hotly contested Mini Maxi class, it was eventually Hap Fauth's JV72 Bella Mente that came out on top. The American Mini Maxi finished second the coastal race relegating Sir Peter Ogden's elongated JV60 Jethou to second overall. Niklas Zennström's Rán put in a strong finish to win the final race, leaving the British crewed JV72 third overall ahead of George Sakellaris' Shockwave.

Among the Wallys the final race was won by German Thomas Bscher's Open Season, but it was Jean Charles Decaux's J One that claim the top spot in the Wally class, having led for the whole competition. Magic Carpet 3, the new WallyCento of Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones, finished third overall.

Clear leader from day one in the Maxi class was Boris Gusev Swan 90 Altair. Filip Balcaen's Baltic 112 Nilaya won today’s race elevating her to second overall, displacing Jean Michelle Robert's Virtuelle to third.

The four boat Soto 40 one design class has provided some of the most competitive racing with the first three boats tied on 12 points. Ultimately on countback it was German Hendrik Brandis' Earlybird that triumphed with two first places, followed by the Portugual's Pedro Mendoça on Bigamist and Stefan Jentzch's Black Pearl.

Javier Sanz' Pro Rigging won the J/80 class. The Real Club Náutico de Palma boat finished second and first today, while Great Sailing of Finn Olympic gold medallist José María van der Ploeg won two races today to climb to second overall, finishing ahead of José Carlos Frau's Bufete Frau.

There was a Turkish comeback in the IRC with Ergin Imre's Provezza 7 climbing to first place. The TP52 had a slow start to the Gaastra PalmaVela, but but finished well with four bullets, to overhaul Barry Sampsom's Swan 42 Long Echo.

Elena Nova of Christian Plump came out on top in ORC 1 with two bullets today, leaving Willem Wester's new Antílope second and GC Dr. Luis Senís third.

X-Spain of Spaniard Iñaki Castañer also took the top spot in ORC 2 today after her two wins.

After sailing nine races, Patrick Harris and his Flying High were the overall winners in the Flying Fifteen over Fine Fettle of David James Barber who climbed up to the second place today leaving Michael Clough's Gecko in third place .

Marcus Desauois' Adair won today's two races to claim the overall prize in the Dragon class, followed by Rom Loopik's Rogue of and Robert Holthuizen's Young Tigre.