Pressure builds as high stakes Finals Series beckons at 44 Copa del Rey Mapfre
Fourth overall last year, the Vudu team believe they are sailing better and their boat is quicker.
Tactician Michele Regolo commented, “We saw a lot of potential in the boat today we had good starts and clean lanes today. I guess we were quite in tune with the wind phases today. There was the gradient first and then the thermal on the left then some shifts in the right. We had good speed and defended the left on the second race. We are in much better shape this year. The work on the rake has made a big difference and we sail the good numbers more constantly. It is the little details.”
In Sail Racing ORC A the Bay of Palma rivalry between good friends and past and future Admiral’s Cup team-mates Estonia’s Nola and Sweden’s Rán gets hotter each day. Taavet Hinrikus’s Carkeek 40 Nola had the better pair of windward-leeward races today, both contested in a modest 8-10kts seabreeze. Their second and first sees them edge ahead of Niklas Zennström’s back-to-back double ORC World Champions who won the first race ahead of Nola before finishing third to go into Friday and Saturday’s Finals phase two points behind the slightly older Carkeek design Nola which has just been further optimised.
Margus Uudam, skipper of Nola, enthused, “It was quite an intense day, quite intense indeed. The first start we kind of struggled to get speed up and that kind of defined our race, even if we pushed hard. The second race we had a better start but had many tacks with Rán along the way. It was a real fight. On the second upwind our tactician really read the windshifts well and we got a good lead. It worked out well, the team worked really well. Our tactician Hugo Rocha was incredible at reading the breeze yesterday on the coastal and today he is very good at reading the breeze and being bold to do different things to the fleet like today.”
He explains, “We were one team at the Admiral’s Cup and next year we plan to be one team again but here we are rivals, working to make each other and ourselves better but friends and rivals. We co-operate and try to learn from each other. Rán has so much experience with their boat and we are still learning our boat and the upgrades.”
Uber ORC Class B saw Javier Banderas’ Teatro Soho San Miguel team on their brand new XR-41 match the double race win of Vudu. Banderas crack crew have won Copa del Rey many times led by Olympic gold medallists Luis Doreste and Domingo Manrique, an Olympic medal winning pairing which continues to endure 34 years after their success in the Flying Dutchman in Barcelona.
Doreste, tactician for Teatro del Soho San Miguel reported, "It's been a very positive day, and we've sailed pretty well. We've also gotten a better feel for the boat in these conditions, and little by little we're becoming much more competitive. We’re in the preliminary phase, which is worth 5 points, and in the two-day final phase starting tomorrow, we’ll be competing for a total of 6 points, so we’re not even halfway through the Copa del Rey. My feeling is that everything is on the right track; it’s better to be here than in any other position with these points. There are many boats that can win, but there are also many boats that are no longer in contention to win the Cup, and we’re among those who still can.”
Azulmarino ORC Class C goes into the Finals phase with only one point separating the top three boats, Armando Gutiérrez’s Spanish Vrolijk 37 Project Work which is tied with Sönke Meir’s German Cape 31 Niramo which has Bouwe Bekking, Torvar Mirksy and Jens Dolmer on board. Hendrik Brandis’ Cape 31 EarlyBird, with Manu Wieler calling tactics is third one point behind.
Armando Gutiérrez, owner of Project Work said, “Yesterday we were over the line but recovered very well to win the coastal race. Today it happened to us again in the first race and we managed to finish third, which was a spectacular comeback. In the next race we sailed well, but EarlyBird overtook us at the end. The truth is, we’re sailing very fast. It’s a wind that suits us, because with more pressure the Cape 31s plane, and that’s when they really gain time on us. The most important stage is still to come. And of course we’d rather go into it in the lead.”
Pedro Vaquero’s perfect run of wins in the ClubSwan 42 on Nadir came to a halt with a second in Race 5 today but they bounced back to record their fifth win in Race 6. Discarding that second they lead into the Finals by five clear points.
Nadir’s tactician Rayco Tabares: “It was a particularly close contest today; we sailed in a pure one-design fleet, neck and neck right from the first race. It took a long time for the wind to pick up, but when it did, it was a pretty good breeze for sailing: we started off with a light breeze, but then it picked up on the first downwind leg, and we had a decent breeze for us, between 9 and 11 knots, making for a pretty entertaining day. It was important to make the cut with the best possible score. We were lucky to win the last heat and go through with that score, but anyway, there’s still a long way to go in the Final Series and it’s going to be very tough.”
In the Balearia Women’s Cup the defending champions, Maria Bover’s RCNP team have won eight of their ten races to build a very comfortable overall lead. Hatty Morsley’s Welsh team are now sixth winning two of their flights so far.
Through to the Final Series
With the third day of competition now complete, the ORC and ClubSwan 42 classes have finished their Preliminary Series and move through to the Final Series, to be held on Friday and Saturday. In this new phase of the competition, each team’s result will be multiplied by 1.5 and every race counts; there are no discards. The team with the fewest points at the end of the final race of the championship will be crowned champion of the 44th Copa del Rey Mapfre in their class. The Baleària Women’s Cup will continue with its round-robin matches, in which every team will face every other team to determine the top six teams who will compete for the title in Saturday’s Medal Race.
