Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Gaastra Palmavela, day 2:

The second racing day of Gaastra PalmaVela 2014 gave the best of itself. Today IRC, ORC, Classic and Vintage fleets, besides the one design classes Soto 40, J80, Flying Fifteen and Dragon joined the competition. "Magic Blue" is now leading the Wally class, while "Rán 5" maintains the leadership in the Mini Maxi fleet.
"Phoenix" is on top of the IRC class, while in the one design divisions "Bigamist", "Bribon Movistar", “Gecko" and "Aphrodite" had an excellent performance and they are leaders of their respective classes after winning of each and every one of the races sailed.

The day began gray and with very unstable wind, so at 10h00 CET the Race Committee hoisted the postponement flag. It was not until 12h30 hours that the boats started docking out, although the Race Committee didn’t give the first starting signal until after 15h00. Then all classes started racing divided into three race courses.

"Magic Blue" takes the lead in the Gaastra PalmaVela

The Wally fleet had their first start at 15h15 CET. Ahead of them, there was a distance of over 10 miles which "Magic Blue" completed in just over an hour. Behind it, "Magic Carpet Cubed" and "J One" crossed the finish line completing the podium of this leg.
With these results, the overall positions changed and "Magic Blue" is standing leader.

Antonio Cacace – Magic Blue’ s Owner - and Sergio Lottini were unwilling to give up not one mile on the second race of the day. Thomas Bscher’s "Open Season" with Mike Atkinson at the helm won this race almost a minute ahead of Jean-Charles Decaux’s "J One" and with Piers Richardson as skipper. "Magic Blue" added his second podium of the day and fourth in the regatta, which established him in the first place of the overall podium with a three-point lead on "Magic Carpet Cubed", who was second today.

From there on, there was a close fight for third place between "J One", which is now third, followed closely by "Open Season", "Ryokan 2", "Galma" and "Tango G". Six points separate them in their particular fight to at least win third place of the Gaastra PalmaVela.

"Rán V" unrivalled

Niklas Zennstrom’s "Rán V" is giving people something to talk about on the Bay of Palma. With two more victories today the Swedes are still leading ahead of "Robertissima" who is second, and "Alegre", third overall in Gaastra PalmaVela.
But it wasn’t easy in the race course for "Rán V". During the first race it held a hard head-to-head with "Jethou" and “Alegre”, and the three boats crossed the finish line within just 43 seconds. And if the first race of the day was hard, Niklas Zennstrom did not know what awaited him during the second race, when Roberto Tomasini Grinover’s "Robertissima" pushed and hit the gas, crossing the finish line just five seconds after the Swedes. Behind them, "Alegre" showed its claws and added another podium, placing him just one point behind silver and tied with Sir Peter Ogden’s "Jethou".

Vasco Vascotto, tactician onboard "Robertissima III", second in Mini Maxi division:
«We didn’t have a very good first race today. We broke a spinnaker, but we improved in the second race. Anyway, we are happy to be second overall because we are sailing on a new boat for our team and for the owner and skipper [Roberto Tomasini]. We have to keep in mind that our new boat is much bigger than the last one, more than double.….Rán’s" main rival is "Rán" itself. It has an excellent crew, which has been sailing together for a long time, and a great boat too. We are delighted to sail against them and trying to make it harder for them».

Media Gaastra Palmavela 2014
www.palmavela.com

Alejandro Varela
National Media
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alejandro@infosailing.net

Helena Paz
International Media
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José Luis Miró
National & Local Media
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