A class win at the famous Copa del Rey Mapfre, the Mediterranean’s annual summer showcase regatta, has eluded even some of sailing’s top teams for many years, while others seem able to impose themselves year on year in their chosen classes.
The 132-boat 11-division edition closed today with the Copa del Rey top two trophies going to Italy’s Leonardo Ferragamo, winner of the ClubSwan 50 class with Cuordileone, and BMW ORC Class 1 winner, Estrella Damm, the DK 46 of Ignacio Montes and Oscar Chaves.
Estrella Damm, led by Luis Martínez Doreste, reprised her success of last year, when they also celebrated the 20th anniversary of their crew’s first Copa del Rey win.
However, there was considerable cause for celebration and a measure of relief for Ferragamo, as the Nautor Swan President took victory in the very competitive 14-strong ClubSwan 50. The win comes at the 10th time of trying, Ferragamo having campaigned in the Club Swan 42, Swan 45, Swan 601 and three years in the flourishing ClubSwan 50.
Having closed out their title by two points ahead Hendrik Brandis’ Earlybird, last year’s class winner a delighted Ferragamo said, “I feel extremely rewarded and very excited. There is a lot of relief; the tension of racing seven very intense days goes away.
“To win it with the ClubSwan 50, one of the main classes, feels like a great achievement. I think we have taken this program very seriously since the beginning. Now we are in the third year with the boat and we have trained properly and have not missed a race this season.”
At their seventh attempt, Jean Jacques Chaubard’s French team on the TP52, Team Vision, Future lifted the BMW ORC Class 0 title. After winning every other major award in the Mediterranean, and now having six podiums gained with their GP42 and two TP52s, it was only after the result after the final race was published that they realised they had finally won.
Today’s showdown was so close between Howard Dyer’s second placed Rowdy Too – which won last year as Beau Geste – it was down to 15 seconds on corrected time which secured Chaubard’s win.
Project manager and helmsman Mikael Mergui could hardly contain himself: “I am so happy and excited. For me this is as big as it comes. We had to wait for the result to be published. It was very tight, so when we saw the result we were so excited.
“The last two days I have been so stressed and I made bad starts. But the guys have been great with good tactics and very good speed and that has helped us out.
“It is awesome for us as a team to have come here so often – seven times now – and never won after having won everything else in the Med. We are so happy.
In the Mallorca Sotheby’s IRC class, it was also a first-time win at the Copa del Rey for Dario Ferrari’s Italian flagged Maxi72, Cannonball. To win the regatta they had to keep Hap Fauth’s new Bella Mente from winning today’s showdown.
Although she suffered hydraulic failure to the jib tack tensioning system, Cannonball was able to hold her American rivals off the start line. America’s Cup winner, Ed Baird, called tactics, supported by Michele Ivaldi, with the team proving they are in good shape after replacing the mast this season. They also underwent a substantial optimising program.
Baird said, “This is terrific. You come here worried when you haven’t seen another Maxi72 for eight months and so to win is great. Proteus did a great job winning today; the best they could do to finish second.
“Bella Mente is a brand new boat and the other two boats are three years old, so we are all here hoping we are competitive. All of us are most excited for Dario (Ferrari, owner), because last year he wasn’t sure if it was the right thing was to do all this work to the boat, and I think this has proved it was all worth it.”
The 38 Copa del Rey Mapfre was the first ever wins for teams flying the Omani and the Romanian flags. In the GC32 class, the third event of the GC32 Racing Tour, Adam Minoprio guided Oman Air to win ahead of Ernesto Bertarelli’s recently crowned world champions on Alinghi. Oman Air finished with two wins to keep Alinghi to second, five points behind.
The ClubSwan 42 class has experienced a welcome renaissance with 11 boats competing this week. Romanian owner-driver, Natalia Brailoiu, ended her 10 year wait to win at the Copa del Rey. Remarkably she only started sailing 10 years ago when her husband bought her eponymous Natalia.
“It is a dream come true,” she enthused. “This has been a good, strong class in which you have to fight for every place, every point. Thus time we were very concentrated and focused.”
King Felipe presents the trophies tonight in Palma’s Ses Voltes.
The 2020 Copa del Rey will take place from July 31st to August 8th.
Final top three results:
GC32
1. Oman Air, Adam Minoprio, 1+3+1+3+2+1+1+1+3+2+3+1+3+1+1+2+2+2+1+1=35
2. Alinghi, Ernesto Bertarelli, 3+2+3+1+1+3+3+2+1+3+1+2+1+2+2+3+1+1+2+3=40
3. Red Bull Sailing Team, Roman Hagara, 2+1+2+4+3+2+2+4+2+5+4+4+2+5+3+5+3+3+3+4=63
… 6 boats
BMW ORC 0
1. Team Vision Future, Mergui Mikael, 3*+2+1+3=9
2. Rowdy Too, Tim Goodbody, 4*+1+3+2=10
3. Paprec Reciclaje, Tim Goodboy, 4*+1+3+2=12
… 7 boats
BMW ORC 1
1. Estrella Damm, Luis Martínez, 1*+1+1+1=4
2. Rats in Fire, Rayco Tabares, 2*+5+5+2=14
3. From now on, Hernán Mones, 3*+4+4+3=14
… 15 boats
BMW ORC 2
1. El Carmen – Elite Sails, Jose Coello, 2*+1+5+3=11
2. Teatro Soho Caixabank, Daniel Cuevas, 1*+8+3+2=14
3. Riva Reno Gelato, Christian Plump, 3*+9+2+1=15
… 20 boats
BMW ORC 3
1. L’Immens – Laplaza Assessors, Carles Rodríguez, 6*+2+1+3=12
2. Airlan Aermec, Juan Cabrer, 2*+5+4+1=12
3. Vertigo Dos Texia, Jorge Martínez Doreste, 1*+1+9+8=19
… 27 boats
Mallorca Sotheby’s IRC
1. Cannonball, Darío Ferrari, 1*+1+3+2=7
2. Proteus, George Sakellaris, 3*+2+2+1=8
3. Bella Mente, Hap Fauth, 2*+3+1+3=9
Herbalife Nutrition J80
1. Grupo Garatu, Juan Vázquez, 2*+1+1+2+2+1=9
2. Bribon Movistar, Marc de Antonio, 3*+2+2+3+3+2=15
3. Solintal, Ignacio Camino, 1*+5+4+4+5+3=22
… 11 boats
ClubSwan 50
1. Cuordileone, Ettore Mattiello, 1*+1+3+4=9
2. Earlybird, Hendrik Brandis, 5*+3+2+1=11
3. Cetilar-Vitamina, Andrea Lacorte, 3*+9+1+2=15
… 14 boats
Swan 45
1. Porron IX, Luis Senís, 1*+2+1+3=7
2. Fever, Klaus Diederichs, 4*+1+5+2=12
3. Blue Nights, Tea Ekengren-Sauren, 3*+4+2+5=14
… 6 boats
Mallorca Sotheby’s ClubSwan 42
1. Natalia, Natalia Brailoiu, 1*+1+2+3=7
2. Far Star, Lorenzo Mondo, 5*+3+1+1=10
3. Dralion, Pit Finis, 2*+2+8+5=17
… 11 boats
Purobeach Women’s Cup
1. Federación Balear, Helena Alegre, 3*+1+5+3+1+4=19
2. Vela Catalana, Aura Miguel, 4*+4+2+9+3+1=23
3. Dorsia Sailing Team, Natalia Via Dufresne, 1*+6+10+6+2+3=28
… 12 boats
Full results: www.regatacopadelrey.com/resultados2019/resultados2019.php?ln=sp
