(Palma Mallorca, Spain)- Gaastra PalmaVela reaches it’s tenth edition
this year and is part of the Semana Náutica Internacional de Palma. More
than 140 yachts from 17 countries, take part to inaugurate the
cruising/racing calendar season in Spain. Gaastra PalmaVela is one of
the three most important regattas the Real Club Náutico de Palma
organizes during the year.Other than the ORC Class of 52 boats (in fact three classes), the single largest class are the International J/80 One-design Class. Attending this year's events are many hopefuls from Spain that wish to attend the J/80 Worlds in Marseilles, France later on in July.
After
the first day of racing for the J/80’s, the "locals" dominated,
including Javier Sanz's PRO RIGGING and José Carlos Frau's BUFETE FRAU.
Representing Real Club Náutico de Palma, Javier Sanz won two races and
with a third place lead the evens. David Madrazo of Pro-Rigging, is
very satisfied with the teamwork: “We sailed well and won the first two
races of the day. Although in the third race we took an OCS and after
starting last, we were able to rebound up to the third position.” He
also has pointed out that it was a very difficult day for the Race
Committee. “This wind direction from the north is very tricky and
difficult to dealt with.”For the second day of racing, the wind took its time to develop again. But, after an hour and half postponement, the Race Committee was able to start races in a Southeasterly wind that increased during the day. It was a long day at sea, but it turned out to be a good racing day. The J/80s managed to get in three W/L race and the teams could then discard their worst race result.
The J/80 had an interesting tactical and strategic competition between PRO RIGGING and BUFETE FRAU. Javier Sanz’s boat added two victories to their scores, which gave them a small lead over José Carlos Frau who finished second in the first two races of the day. Third is current J/80 World Champion, GREAT SAILING sailed by José María van der Ploeg. GREAT SAILING won the third race and they were followed by Javier Scherk's GUNTER.
The third day of racing provided simply spectacular sailing for the last day of competition in the Gaastra PalmaVela. With 12 knots of wind from the Southeast, the one-design classes in the Bay had a memorable day of racing-- rolling seas and long surfs and planes off the wind made for epic rides across the Bay in front of the spectacular waterfront of Palma!
In the end, the J/80 class was dominated by the "locals". Sanz's PRO RIGGING was declared PalmaVela champion with an amazing five 1sts and three 3rds in his final scores for a total of 13 pts. They were followed by van der Ploeg's GREAT SAILING in second with three bullets and three 3rds in their scoreline for 19 pts total. Third was Frau's BUFETE FRAU with five 2nds in their tally with a total of 25 pts. Rounding out the top five were Dionisio Martinez in PUERTO SHERRY- INTUIL TEAM in fourth and Javier Scherk on GUNTER in fifth. The top German team sailing was Dirk Euler on LIMMAT EXPRESS.
Sailing photo credits- Ingrid Abery For more Gaastra PalmaVela J/80 sailing information
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