Hublot Palmavela

Written by Carlos Serra / Translation: Marco Benevento. Issue Nº 46

Events

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Twenty maxis, almost 200 yachts

The first sports event of the season in the Mediterranean circuit consolidates as the meeting of large yachts and is a good training for a new class of Mini Maxis, which allows to the world’s best crew to excel.
The outer quay of the Real Club Nautico de Palma, sometimes known as Siberia, was during the weekend of the 16th to the 19th of April 2009, anything but icy. The club had erected there a wonderful marquee that housed several help desks, and gathered before the races, but especially after them so many familiar and cheerful faces, such a gathering of athletes and owners, that it could have competed with Saint Tropez or with Antigua at their height.

Although that is not the pretension of the Hublot PalmaVela, the event causing that gathering of sailors and sailboats, and despite the fact that the organisation is very conscious that it is the first event of the season and not being able to enjoy the space that other events have for the yachts, the success of it could not be more evident. PalmaVela is confined to the docks of the Palma de Mallorca club that even though it has a large water surface it also has many members and commitments, and the 20 maxis plus the two dozen of race boats between the Transpac and some IR are all the boats that can be welcomed in that area.
The club also makes an extraordinary job by making available all the moorings next to the swimming pool and the club house, where other IR classes units and the period boats are assembled. And to create a second village there arranged for all participants, including those who moor their boats in other locations, and where the night parties and the awards ceremony are held. The infrastructure created by the Majorcan club during this regatta is impressive, and finds it corresponding counterpart in the high level of the entry list.

Wally, Swan and Mini maxi classes

The obvious interest of the owners to race against yachts of similar style the division between regatta boats and those more oriented to cruising has to be added. As a result, races such as the Hublot PalmaVela become an appointment in the competition calendar that those classes promote. This applies to the Wally class, that this year was standing out with the presence of Esense the large sloop with the dark hull and enormous bulwarks, against which Y3K of Claus Peter Offen and Open Season, also a 100 footer, winner on this occasion, were also competing. And the fourth one being the 77 footer J One. Racing outside of that category were the Spanish Wallyño, always first on the Mini Maxi Cruise class, and Kenora, one of the first Wally’s designed at the time by Luca Brenta.
The Swan Maxi Class also included PalmaVela in their annual circuit and had, in addition to a stand at the village on the mentioned quay, a good entry list: The flush deck version Swan 82 Gray Goose, the winner Favonius of Roel Pieper, a Swan 80 of the 2000 Series had been quite lightened and was manned by a luxury team, its sister ship Astro de l’Est, on board of which this reporter had the pleasure to compete in the first race, and the Swan 601 and 68 @Robas and Risktaker.
Even more interesting in the world of high competition was the fight existing in the Mini Maxi Regatta class, where several boats competed for the first time, that in the words of many, predicted the birth a new fleet. The fight between Luna Rossa and Container, both of them with many America’s Cup crew from Italy and Germany, was fierce and ended with the victory for the Italian, being the first time and using a mast repaired in a hurry after a break in Valencia. These were the only two pure representatives of the STP 65 class, a new universe of bigger and much faster racing sailboats than the well known TP 52, which had arrived to Palma. En route were Monypenny, Rosebud, and other models designed by Vrolijk or by Reichel Pugh that did not arrive in time or had been put on hold because of the economic turbulence.
The only STP, but not the only representatives of that last trend of pure racer boats, both with windward and leeward as well as for open seas racing have begun to appear. The Judel Vrolijk Ran finally managed to sail for two days, designed to compete with an IRC rating and one more meters in length. Bella Mente, a 22 meters Reichel Pugh very similar to Numbers, was also there and Alegre a 21 meters design by Mark Mills, skipered by Olly Cameron. The victory of Luna Rossa over all of them, great vessels with more than twenty experts with familiar faces on board, is really commendable, and says a lot about the dedication that the Italian owner Fabrizio Bertelli, the promoter of Team Luna Rossa and who now loves long races, has put into the project of the new sailboat.

The authentic classes

Luna Rossa was, as we say, the highlight of the Majorcan race for the efforts they made to get to it, for the strong competition they had with their opponent, and for its latest generation design with its full battened mainsail that does not allow it to have a fixed backstay and for its easiness to sails at over 15 knots in a breeze of just 5 are innovative and extreme. Behind it, the most distinguished sailboat certainly was the Swan Favonius that besides wining in its own division was the winner in the Maxi Cruiser Regatta class, the largest one with seven entries that as Favonius also included the Swan or the Wally classes. The TP 52 had, as it was expected in a year of economic hardship and as it was early in the season, a small representation: the Russian Synergy, that needs to train as much as they can, the perennial Cristabella and the brand new Matador, of the Argentinean Alberto Roemmers and skippered by Guillermo Parada, that this year comes back with a Rolf Vrolijk design that was very fierce and won with no hesitation.
The Maxi Cruise division itself, that did not use the spinnaker, gathered most of the Spanish participants, comprising the aluminium hundred footer Alarife 100, the 93 footer Lizard of Cornwall and the 72 footer Kiboko, all of them belonging to members of the Entrecanales family that seemed to have on the Majorcan maxis dock a family gathering. At least the yachts were, because besides those three moored there, were the period schooner So Fong and the 35 meters sloop Arrayan, all belonging to the family team.

Days of good wind

As it is usual during PalmaVela, the maxis started to race on Thursday and on that day they completed two 15 miles races with winds that ranged between 16 and 22 knots, with a shining sun. On the next day, the whole fleet filled the bay of Palma with sails and the Club organised several race areas and a complete jury service that allowed all the classes to race in their own space without being disturbed by sailboats of different speed. Once again the different large length categories, that were racing in their own course, were able to make two races in slightly lighter winds than the previous day but that were still excellent for the competition. They were joined on that day by Ran from Nicklas Zennström, that awarded to its owner and crew with an excellent third and a first place respectively, whereas Lizard of Cornwall skippered by Toño Gorostegui and Javier Sansó once again took the lead in the Maxi Cruiser diivision. On Saturday the weather was slightly worst as it got cloudy over the bay and the storm affect the race, that had more variable winds but still allowed to held one race. The first place obtained by Ran did not affect in the most competitive class the options for Luna Rossa, that having raced two extra legs on the first day had more points and in the coastal race on the last day confirmed once again its superiority with an excellent second place, enough to overcome Container that was the winner of that race.
All together there were four days of excellent competition and an even better welcome for the international fleet that, all together, gathered 190 boats and nearly 1.500 sailors with good weather conditions where it was possible to race all the programmed legs.

Maxi Swan Class - The competition from within

An experienced helmsman, who has been skippering throughout his life from several Stars to a TP 52, the owner of the Swan 80, on which we sailed to appreciate the intensity of the Maxi Swan Class, attracts an international crew team: Austrians, Swedes, Germans and Dutch were all together on the flush deck of Astro de l’Est, where English was compulsory. Even if the boats was equipped with the latest 3DL sails, carbon mast and PBO rigging, however it had on board the complete equipment and accommodation. All berths plus all the sofas in the saloon were occupied at night: they slept, ate and drank on board. As a result, the bulwark was five or six centimtetres lower than the neighbouring Favonius winner in Palma, that had clearly been lightened. The competition in the Swan classes is like this: some race with the boat fully loaded with wine and beer, other turn the luxury cruiser into a Spartan racing machine, there are those who take on board friends and family, while there are also boats that sign in stars form from the competition world to steer and to gybe the asymmetric.
None of that threatens the camaraderie, fun and good mood prevails among owners and crew, aware of being enjoying a unique technology and an even more unique experience: the one of the Swan produced by Nautor in Finland.
The Swan Maxi Class race calendar, for sailing boats of that range and a length over 60 feet, has exclusive regattas in Portofino, Capri, the Giraglia and the Rolex Swan Cup in Porto Cervo. It also offers to the owners of the Swan maxis their own rankings in events such as PalmaVela, the Rolex Middle Sea Race, Antigua Sailing Week and Les Voiles de Saint Tropez, which are integrated in the so-called Swan Challenge Series. Nautor’s initiative is part of the company desire to honour their boats and to give the best service to their owners. It also has the clear aim to maintain the value of the boats of the make by giving greater exposure and exclusivity to the units of the make, and to encourage the owners to renew, maintain and adapt their units more frequently. <<