Opening the Med sailing season

Gaastra Palma Vela 2016 opened today with lovely sunshine and moderate sea breeze on the Bay off Palma with the welcome return of HM Juan Carlos- guest onboard Lionheart - for the first time since 2009.

Back in 2009, HM Juan Carlos finished third as skipper of Bribon at the Copa del Rey, but today he enjoyed a spirited sail as guest on the magnificent Dutch flagged J Class Lionheart, alongside Bouwe Bekking who steered Bribon to success with the King over many years.

Lionheart came off the better in both races for the Maxi class, a slightly unlikely three way tussle between the J Class and George David’s Juan K designed Rambler 88 and the Marten 72 Aragon.

TP52 class: The Empire Strikes Back
Quantum Racing may have made a clear statement of intent by leaving Azzurra, last year’s Gaastra Palma Vela winners, the current World and 52 SUPER SERIES champions, to second place after the first two races for the nine strong TP52 class, but tactician Terry Hutchinson is much more concerned that he feels the Quantum Racing crew have a lot of work to do before they are ready to start the 52 SUPER SERIES later this month in Tuscany.

In the perfect sunshine and 9-12kts of sea breeze Quantum Racing won the first race, shaking off Azzurra early by using the impressive J Class Lionheart as a wedge, and going on to lead all the way around the course.

Ergin Imre’s Provezza atoned for a very disappointing ninth in the first race with a clear win in the second heat, holding off the Ed Baird skippered Quantum Racing across the line, Provezza’s tactician joking: “At least we did it in the right order and we feel a bit better than if it was 1,9!”

This event is very much an ideal chance for teams to gel and refine their crew work. While Azzurra have an unchanged team line up, Quantum Racing have Ian Moore returned as navigator to replace Juan Vila, Rodney Ardern sails in the Pit this season and trimmer James Dagg joins.

“ We have a lot of work to do.” Hutchinson reported on the dock at the Real Club Nautico de Palma We really missed the Valencia session. The boat sailed at Key West and the group sailed collectively for a day after Key West, but missing that Valencia session was tough. So now we have to be smart and methodical and use every moment that we have to get better. We had a great lead into this regatta but there is so much work to do.”

Wally: Open Season Open Best
At the top of the 11 boat Wally class the enduring rivalry between IMA President' Thomas Bscher’s Wally 107 Open Season, winners here last year, and the Wally Cento Magic Carpet 3 resumed today. The giant duo have trained together leading into Gaastra Palma Vela but when they crossed swords today it was Open Season, with Jochen Schumann calling tactics, which prevailed.

According to the Germany’s three times Olympic champion and America’s Cup winner, were it not for a small error at the first leeward gate then Open Season’s ‘season opener’ Day 1 would have been just perfect. As it was they corrected out on exactly the same time as Magic Blue, the Wally 94, on Race 1 and won the Race 2 by 27 seconds on computed time ahead of Magic Carpet 3.

On the first round of the windward-leeward Open Season executed their game plan, sticking to the standard Bay of Palma: start to leeward of the pack to gain the left, Cabo Blanco side of the course in order to win the benefical progressive wind shift on that side of the track. That allowed them the early gain but they were caught out on their final approach to the leeward gate. There was no fuss or drama but the compromised drop cost them seconds.

“It was not such a bad one.” Schumann recalled, “ We could lay and then just before, in the last two minutes which is very difficult for these big boats, we got lifted, lifted, lifted…. and 45 seconds later we could not lay. That was it. We were in what is No Man’s Land for a 100 footer. We had to find a solution, which was OK. It was safe but we for sure lost 15 seconds and that would have been enough to win it.”

As the cloud cover increased and with it the spring sunshine, the wind direction had shifted progressively to the right. The question for the brains trusts, the tacticians and strategists, was working out what it would do next, predicting the first beat on the second contest. Open Season called it slightly better – working left and bouncing Magic Carpet to the right to make the decisive gain on the leg. But margins were fine again with only 32 seconds separating the top three Wallys after just over one hour of racing. Sir Lindsay Owen Jones Magic Carpet 3 took second by just five seconds and to lie third overall, only half a point behind Toni Cacace’s all Italian Magic Blue.

Schumann concluded: ““We tied in the first race and won the second race. We are happy with that. It is a very good season opener. The first race was quite a standard Palma race where you want to start to leeward of your opponent and go left, tack over, get the left shift and it all went according to plan.”

Of the rivalry with Magic Carpet 3 he adds:
“Our rivalry is an ongoing thing. It is down to seconds, there as such little things which make the difference. But we practice together and so it is a friendship and a rivalry together. We live in both sides. Them having Ian Walker on board as tactician is important, but on these boats it is such a team game with big teams, the boats are very even. We are all very good and so you need some luck, to punch at the right time to get ahead. We are very happy today.”

IRC: Share and share alike
Honours were shared in the IRC Class where Ruedi Huber’s Swiss Baltic 50 and Music and Andres Varela Entrecanales local X-65 Dos Much are tied on three points, both scoring 2,1 today from their two races.
Friday, the second day of racing should see another seven classes racing on the Bay of Palma, with the first contests for Swan 45, J80, Flying Fifteen, Dragón, The Singular Kitchen ORC, Época and Clásicos completing the racing armada of 111 boats. The first scheduled start is 1200hrs CET

FOR ALL THE RESULTS, please visit www.palmavela.comAlejandro Varela

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