Gaastra PalmaVela: 140 boats tomorrow on the start line

Edition n. XII of Gaastra PalmaVela opens tomorrow the Mediterranean racing season with an outstanding participation. 140 boats from 16 Countries will race for 4 days  in the waters off Palma de Mallorca, Spain. 

Smaller boats and bigger ones  completed today their registration at RCNP. The organizing committee has decided to divide the fleet into 17 classes, designing an intense competition program consisting of up to 9 races for the J80, Flying Fifteen and Dragon one design, 7 for IRC and TP52, up to 6 races for Wally and Maxi 72, and up to 5 for the ORC, Classic and Vintage, and up to 4 for disabled sailing 2.4 and Hansa 303. "If everything goes well, on Sunday we should have sailed 42 races, some boats would have sailed more than 250 miles and we will have been sailing for more than 20 hours on our beautiful bay", says Manuel Fraga.

Among the participants this year there are several defending champions in their respective categories, such as Magic Carpet 3 (Wally), Elena Nova (ORC 0), Pinyol Vermell (ORC 2), Bribón Movistar (J80), Violeta del Reino (Hansa 303), Gecko (Flying Fifteen), Robin Hennessy (Dragon) or Samurai (Classic).

The first starting signal is scheduled for 12h00 tomorrow Thursday, April 30th. At that time the nine components of the spectacular Wally fleet, the class Maxi 72, IRC and TP52, which include the expected debut of the new Quantum Racing, Azzurra and Alegre, will jump into the racing field. Representatives of these four classes attended this afternoon the Skipper’s Briefing in the RCNP.

Organizational effort
"The Gaastra PalmaVela is one of its best moments, as evidenced by this year’s registration, which is very close to our logistics limit", Fraga said. "From the technical point of view, it is a complex regatta, since the size of the fleet -and above all its diversity- forces us to set four race courses, the equivalent of 28 football fields, and to deploy more than one hundred people at sea in order to properly prepare the races".

Intense social program
The Gaastra PalmaVela is much more than the first big event of the Mediterranean racing season. Its attractive competition program is completed with an intense social agenda on shore, which confirms the organizational ability of the organizer, the Real Club Nautico de Palma.

The gastronomic and activities offer will start every morning with the breakfast supplied by Café Jurado and Family Fruit, before the fleet heads towards the battlefield. Upon their return, the activity is guaranteed thanks to Pachá, which proposes music each evening to liven up the food tasting of Majorcan products, Bodegas Muga, Heineken and Bacardi. The BBQ party for the sailors is scheduled for Saturday and the official prize giving ceremony on Sunday will complete a weekend which for the twelfth year pays tribute to the world of sailing in the Real Club Nautico de Palma.

The Gaastra PalmaVela 2015 regatta is the first scoring race for the official circuit in the Wally class; it is part of the IMA (International Maxi Association) 2015 calendar and is also the Spanish Cup for disabled sailing in the classes 2.4, Hansa 303 individual and Hansa 303 double.

Media contacts Gaastra PalmaVela 2015
www.palmavela.com

Alejandro Varela
+34 609 800 218
alejandro@infosailing.net

Clara Giraldo
+34 603 618 206
clara@infosailing.net

Javier Sobrino
+34 629 893 637
javier@infosailing.net

José Luis Miró
+34 606 444 861
jlmiro@rcnp.es