The 41st Copa del Rey MAPFRE finished today with two exciting final races in moderate westerly breezes and sunshine. Two boats completed the Finals series with perfect scores Javier Banderas’ Teatro Soho CaixaBank actually won all 11 of their races in Majorica ORC 2 over the six days of racing whilst the Italian crew on Enzo de Blazio’s Ca’n Eduardo Scugnizza were unbeaten during their finals series. Overall winners of the Copa del Rey MAPFRE principal trophies are Scugnizza and Patakín.
Marcus Brennecke’s Hatari crew led by tactician Markus Wieser kept their composure and kept fighting to return two good second places today which allowed the German flagged team to retain the ClubSwan 50 title they won last year. Brennecke’s lucky mascot onboard today was his daughter who was celebrating her tenth birthday. Hatari had to work hardest in the second race today to be sure of winning which they do with a clear six points margin over compatriot Sonke Meir Sawatzki and his crew on NiRaMo – led by Cameron Appleton – who finished second.
Owner Brennecke was delighted, “This is so special to win here because I have been in Palma so many times and today it was special to have my son and my daughter on that. She was the lucky mascot!”
Tactician Wieser acknowledged, “It was a tough day because Vitamina won the first race but we were still two points ahead and then they had a good start in the second race and they were ahead bur we sailed very clean, we sailed the shifts very well and were fast, so we gained and gained and always came from behind. But I am pleased how we sailed, we sailed very well in the upper wind range, we are fast.”
The ClubSwan 42 battle was close, too, but Pedro Vaquer’s Nadir – with Rayco Tabares calling tactics, – secure the title with a first and third while rivals Pez de Abril (which is Spanish for April Fish) could only make a fifth in the second race of the day.
Owner-helm Vaquer said, “Every event seems to get harder and more even. Here it was very competitive, it was decided on the last race. I have seen a very different bay of Palma, I don’t remember anything like this in terms of temperatures, winds. It was very different, but very beautiful, I liked it a lot. I’m very proud of my crew, we’ve had an unprecedented year and a half, I couldn’t ask for more”.
Majorica ORC 1 was never in doubt, dominated by Christian Plump and Javier Sanz’s CS42 Palibex-Elena Nova which won four Finals races including both of today’s two final windward-leewards, leaving King Felipe and the crew of the Spanish Navy’s TP52 Aifos to second, the king’s first podium at the Copa del Rey as skipper-helm.
Sanz, President of the Spanish Sailing Federation, said, “We are very happy to have won. For us it is very important that the King takes part in this regatta, and he has participated every day. And secondly we are delighted because he has done very well, we knew that our rival was the Aifos from the beginning, and in the end he has consolidated his good performance and finished second. It is a very old TP52 but they have done very well, they have sailed very well all week. I knew Aifos would be the enemy to beat. This time we were better”.
In Majorica ORC 2, Javier Banderas. Teatro del Soho CaixaBank were unstoppable winning all their Finals races to leave CS42 sistership Seabery Dralion 13 points behind in second,
Banderas said: “We couldn’t have done more. We have sailed 11 races and we have achieved 11 firsts. We sailed quite well, the last race we had to come from behind and we won by eight seconds. It has been a very beautiful and hard-fought Copa del Rey, even if it seems like it wasn’t. We are very happy because we have sailed very well. I have never won the Cup with all firsts”.
The winners of Majorica ORC 3 were also able to maintain a perfect score, Enzo de Blazio’s Ca’n Eduardo Scugnazza triumphed five times on the trot to win their class, as they did last year, this time by 22 points. Portugal’s three times Olympian and Ocean Race sailor Diogo Cayolla – three times a winner here in one design classes called tactics this year, “The boat is quite competitive but the team is really super. It is very different to one design as you are always having to wait on the smaller boats to see how you have done, but this is a very good boat with a super good team.”
And while many of the winners were repeating past Copa del Rey successes, for Scotsman Scott Beattie – a past winner at PalmaVela – this was a first time overall win at Copa del Rey for his crew on their J/97 E Just the Job which is based along the coast at Puerto Andratx. Beattie smiled, “This is the first time we have won the event as normally there is no Class 4 so we are, as they say in football, ‘over the moon’….To win here you need a good boat, good sails and a great crew and we have all of these things….and you have to have a little bit of luck which we did winning on tie-break.”
RCNP teams won both the Herbalife J/70 class and the Sotheby’s Women’s Cup. Maria Bover’s crew retained the women’s title on Team RCNP Balearia whilst Luis Albert Solana and Patakín took victory in the J/70s.
The 41st Copa del Rey MAPFRE is organised by the Real Club Náutico de Palma and the Real Federación Española de Vela, with the sponsorship of MAPFRE and the institutional collaboration of the Govern de les Illes Balears, the Ayuntamiento de Palma, the Autoritat Portuaria de Balears and the Federación Balear de Vela.
