Audi Azzurra in TP52, Alegre in Maxi, Magic Carpet 2 in Maxi Wally, and Pace in IRC were today’s winners. Nice conditions accompanied the races in spite of a heavy morning storm.
Palma de Mallorca.- The Mapfre PalmaVela Regatta 2011delivered a great show today on the water after all classes but disabled sailing joined competition. The wind allowed a fleet of more than a hundred boats to run all the races previewed for the day in the four racing areas.
Guillermo Parada’s Audi Azzurra Sailing Team holds to her leadership in TP52 inspite of a more inconsistent performance today, where they signed a second, a first and a third place, which they will get rid of thanks to today’s discard. Niklas Zennström’s RÀN won today’s first race, but could only manage a third and a fourth position. This places them second in the scoring board after six races, tied on thirteen points with 32nd America’s Cup Winner Ed Baird’s Quantum Sailing, which signed a fourth and two second positions. Gonzalo Araujo’s Bribón’s performance improved throughout the day. A third place in the day’s first race was followed by a fourth and a win in the second and third races. That helps Bribón climb up to the fourth overall position after six races.
The J80 class delivered a great show on the water today which was won by defending champion Carlos Martínez at the helm of Mapfre, which seems very much in control of the fleet after signing a first, a second and a first place, thus opening a gap of five points upon second classified Nextel Engineering of world champion Ignacio “Trucha” Camino, which was third in all three races. Third in the overall classification is Turismo do Algarve of olympic medallist Hugo Rocha.
Andrés Soriano’s Alegre signed two bullets and remains first and undefeated in this Mapfre PalmaVela 2011, inspite of her ripping the spinnaker in the second downwind leg. The British boat enjoys a comfortable advantage of seven points over Monaco flagged Higtland Flying of Irvine Laidlaw who was fourth and second. English flagged Sir Peter Cotter’s Jethou was second and fifth.
British Maxi Wally Magic Carpet 2 is still leader in her division after finishing second and fourth. Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones‘ boat was penalized with 1% of her total time for breaking the owner driver’s rule. In spite of this, Magic Carpet 2 remains at the lead with a point of advantage upon Italian Inti de Lauro Buoro, which signed two bullets in as many races today. Third is British Open Season of Tomas Bswcher after a fourth and a seventh, tied on points with also British Jean Charles Decaux’s Sy J One, which was fifth and second today.
In IRC Johny Vincent’s British Pace was the clear leader of the day with two first places in the two races the class run today. Fernando León’s CAM was second in both of them and US flagged S.Y. Ace of Fred Stelle signed two third places, what places them first, second and third in the scoring board respectively. Aifos of the Spanish Army, skippered by Jaime Rodríguez Toubes, was fourth and couldn’t finish the second race, and is now the sixth classified.
Nice conditions accompanied today’s races after an early heavy storm which let the sun come out again right before the fleet left the dock. Races were run in 15 to 20 knots wind which started blowing from the south-east and shifted to the west by the end of the day.
