Spain's new monarch races at Copa del Rey MAPFRE

As Bella Mente claims the Mini Maxi coastal race

HRM King Felipe skippered the TP52 Aifos in the second of the two races held today in Gaastra IRC 1 at Copa del Rey MAPFRE.

Three classes - Gaastra IRC 0, Gazprom Swan 60 World Championship and the Barclays 52 Super Series - sailed a 29 miles coastal race around the Bay of Palma. All other classes added two more windward-leewards. The end result was two classes having new leaders (Nespresso X-35 and Herbalife J/80), while four have ties between the second and third place, and only three seem to have a clear leader.

The wind was again kind to the fleet, blowing from the SSW at 10-13 knots with gusts of 15.

The Gaastra IRC 0 fleet completed its coastal race in just over three hours. The fastest was American Hap Fauth’s J-V72 Bella Mente, after fighting an intense duel with Andres Soriano’s Mills 72 Alegre. There was only a 36 seconds separating the two boats at the finish line. Third was George Sakellaris’ Shockwave, which maintains its overall lead in the class on 10 points. In the fight for second place, there is now a tie between Roberto Tomasini’s Robertissima III, which finished fourth today, and Bella Mente, both on 14 points. Tomorrow the Mini Maxis will returning to racing windward-leewards.

From Robertissima Paul Cayard reported: 'We did not have a great start and were last at the first mark of the course. Bella Mente had the lead since the start and never relinquished it. The boat was going well so we were patient and found some opportunities. We managed to get into second place about half way through the race.

'The marks for the coastal race are variable and not in place at the start or even when you start a given leg. Sailing up the 3rd windward leg, our team misunderstood the range and bearing to variable mark 2 which is communicated by radio. We had understood 225 while the actual position was 205. We sailed for the 225 position and therefore "over stood" the mark by a quarter of a mile. The loss of distance put us back into 4th place. This sprung Bella Mente even further into the lead and let Alegre out into second.

'Fortunately Shockwave was not having a great race, (we might have had something to do with that), and they finished 3rd while we finished 4th.'

In Gaastra IRC 1 Giuseppe Parodi’s Hurakan continues to lead with an iron fist winning both races today and is now seven points ahead of Team Vision Future (3-3 today) and ten ahead of René Mangold’s Aquila (2-2). In the second race of the day, HRM King Felipe VI joined Aifos as skipper, which after three days lies in fifth place overall. The King is expected to return tomorrow to skipper the Spanish Army’s TP52 in both races.

In the battle for the Gazprom Swan 60 World Championship, Bronenosec seems to be catching up and won today’s coastal race, the Russian team's second consecutive win. Second was Boris Gusev’s Spirit of Europe, followed by Lorenzo Bortolotti’s Windward. Vladimir Liubomirov’s team leads overall seven points ahead of Petite Flamme (fourth today), and 11 ahead of Tsaar Peter (sixth today).

In BMW 1 ORC there was a double victory for Manuel Doreste’s Rats on Fire which has won five races out of six. Last year’s winner now leads on 14 points ahead of the tie between Christian Plump’s Elena Nova (2-2 today) and Hendrik Brandis’ Earlybird (3-3). The class is dominated by Swan 45s, which after six races have taken over the top four positions.

The BMW ORC 2 class seems a replica of BMW ORC 1 with five out of six victories for the leader and a tie on points for second place. Movistar skippered by Pedro Campos is not slowing down, and won both races today. In the fight for second, Teo Matheu’s Airlan Aermec suffered today (4-5) and has been overtaken by Lluis Blanchar’s Varador 2000 (2-2).

In the Nespresso X-35, today’s victories went to Dani Cuevas’ Puerto Deportivo Benalmádena and Alessandro Solerio’s Lelagain. Today’s good performance has allowed the Italian boat to take the lead overall, one point ahead of her rival, Javier Sanz’s Red Eléctrica de España, which lost her lead thanks to an eight place in the first race today, but recovered well with a second on the next race to lie third overall.

In the Herbalife J/80 class, a flawless day for José María Torcida’s Noticia saw the Spanish team won both races today to snatch the lead from Javier Padrón’s Herbalife, which had a rough day (8-5). Third on the podium is the defending champion, Hugo Rocha’s New Territories, who finished fourth in both today's races.

Tomorrow’s racing schedule is a coastal race for the classes Gaastra IRC1, BMW ORC 1 and BMW ORC 2. All other classes will sail windward-leeward races. The one-design classes Nespresso X-35 and Herbalife J80 may discard their worst result if they sail their eighth race tomorrow. The first race of the day will start at 13h00.

Results

Gaastra IRC 0
1.- Shockwave, USA, George Sakellaris, 1+2+2+2+3=10
2.- Robertissima III, GBR, Roberto Tomassini, 3+5+1+1+4=14
3.- Bella Mente, USA, Hap Fauth, 2+4+3+4+1=14
…up to 5 entries

Gaastra IRC 1
1.- Hurakan, ITA, Giuseppe Parodi, 3+1+1+2+1+1=9
2.- Team Vision Future, FRA, Mergui Mikael, 1+5+3+1+3+3=16
3.- Aquila, AUT, Rene Mangold, 5+2+5+3+2+2=19
…up to 10 entries

Barclays 52 Super Series
1.- Quantum Racing, USA, Ed Baird, 2+1+2+2+6=13
2.- Rán, SWE, Niklas Zennström, 1+7+6+3+1=18
3.- Azzurra, ITA, Alberto Roemmers, 3+5+4+1+5=18
…up to 7 entries

BMW ORC 1
1.- Rats on Fire, ESP, Manuel Doreste, 1+1+1+7+1+1=12
2.- Elena Nova, GER, Christian Plump, 5+2+8+7+2+2=26
3.- Earlybird, GER, Hendrik Brandis, 2+5+4+9+3+3=26
…up to 38 entries

BMW ORC 2
1.- Movistar, ESP, Pedro Campos, 1+1+1+4+1+1=9
2.- Varador 2000, ESP, Lluis Blanchar, 4+4+5+1,5+2+2=18,5
3.- Airlan Aermec, ESP, Teo Matheu Riera, 2+2+4+1,5+4+5=18,5
…up to 22 entries

Gazprom Swan 60
1.- Bronenosec, RUS, Vladimir Liubomirov, 1+4+3+1+1=10
2.- Petite Flamme, RUS, Dimitry Samokin, 3+7+1+2+4=17
3.- Tsaar Peter, RUS, Sergei Borodinov, 2+1+5+7+6=21
…up to 7 entries

Nespresso X-35
1.- Lelagain, ITA, Alessandro Solerio, 1+5+2+7+2+1=18
2.- Puerto Deportivo Benalmádena, ESP, Dani Cuevas, 3+2+6+4+1+3=19
3.- Red Eléctrica de España, ESP, Javier Sanz, 5+6+1+2+8+2=24
…up to 12 entries

Herbalife J80
1.- Noticia, ESP, José María Torcida, 5+4+1+5+1+1=17
2.- Herbalife, ESP, Javier Padrón, 2+1+3+2+8+5=21
3.- New Territories, ESP, Hugo Rocha, 4+6+5+3+4+4=26
…up to 16 entries