Horus Superyacht Cup 2009

Written by Germán de Soler / Carlos Serra. Photos : Leonardo Cortés. Translation: Mallol Traductors Associats. Issue Nº 47.

Events

User Rating: / 0
PoorBest 

Gliss, the overall winner

Three days of intense racing provided the culmination of the 2009 edition of the Horus Superyacht Cup, one of the most spectacular superyacht regattas held in the Mediterranean. The Bay of Palma was witness to the fierce competition between the 18 fine examples, in an event that, both on land and at sea, provide fully satisfactory for both owners and crews. 

A number of novelties were presented at this year’s edition of Superyacht Cup, apart from the change of venue to Port Vell in Palma’s historic centre, a much friendlier setting and, unlike last year’s venue, within easy reach of the city and its facilities, making it much easier for family and friends to get about and share, with the crews of the 18 yachts moored alongside, agreeable moments of leisure, partying and general goodwill. This, along with the spectacular Superyacht Village, set up on the promenade at the end of the quay, featuring an enormous circular air conditioned marquee, equipped with its own bar and offering live music and free drinks every evening during the typically Anglo-Saxon happy hour. The marquee also provided shelter and refreshment for the crews before and after each day’s racing and making a decisive contribution towards ensuring that the event and its organisation were qualified as excellent by everybody involved.
Other novelties this year included the application of Bucket Ratings, a system of time compensations that, estimates each yacht’s performance characteristics, based on design information. With this system each boat sets off at a different time, first of all those that are theoretically the slowest, one by one, until the fastest finally leaves. The result is that, they should all pass the first buoy together and reach the finishing line with very little time difference between them, contributing to the spectacular nature of the event and stimulating competitiveness between a group of yachts with widely varying levels of performance.
The idea of applying this inverse rating, which also takes into consideration the wind forecast for each race and, consequently, with a different order of start times on each day is not, however, new and has frequently been used in those competitions where there is a big difference between the different boats competing, above all in classical competitions. It was first introduced in the Anglo-Saxon world, at the St. Barths and Newport Bucket Regattas, which is where it gets its name. The application of the system results in very close finishes, as clearly seen in the third race, where 15 boats all arrived within a span of 20 minutes, and 8 of those within 4 minutes of each other.
The overall trophy winner was the Philippe Briand designed Gliss; a 32-metre sloop built at Royal Huisman and owned by Marco Vogele. She was followed by the 46-metre Antara, by Perini Navi, the outstanding star of the first day’s racing at Abu Dhabi Race Day, which was also second on the third day of competition. Third in the overall classification was Open Season, 28.6-metre Wally, designed by German Frers, winner of the second race and second on the first day.
The presence of a genuine fleet of yachts built by the Dutch shipyard Royal Huisman, including the winner Gliss, Hyperion, Maria Cattiva —fourth in the final classification— and William Tay was outstanding and, as a result of such a large showing, both Alice Huisman herself, accompanied by Michael Koppstein, were in attendance to see how well their fleet would perform. However, these were not the only personalities known to all of the owners, also there were the America’s Cup winner Peter Holmberg, the lone sailor Nick Maloney and the Volvo Ocean Race skipper Mike Sanderson, who shared their skills with the assistance of well trained and willing crews, owners proud of their boats and skippers prepared to do battle for every second. Intense days of competition in the Bay of Palma that culminated in a spectacular awards ceremony at Es Baluard, an event further enlivened by a band of old rockers known as the Red Sox.
It is hardly surprising that, following the success of this edition and the generalised sense of satisfaction felt after three days of regattas, well organised, both on land an at sea, by the Informa Yacht Group, that the main sponsor, Horus, has signed up for three more years. The next edition will be on 23rd to 26th June 2010, at the same place.