Tres Amigos, Tres Campiones
(Palma de Mallorca, Spain)- If there is any place on Earth that comes close to a sailing paradise, Palma surely has to be on the list with its spectacular geography, great sailing on the bay and beautiful, historic town anchored by the skyscraping Santa Maria cathedral. The mountainous ridge along the NW portion of Mallorca creates a reasonably reliable sea breeze from the WSW. No wonder Palma's town and harbors are favorites of super yachts and sailors alike for centuries, or why photographers like Jesus Renedo (featured here), that call Palma "home", consider it one of the most spectacular places to shoot sailboats in the world.The first big event of the sailing season for Palma is the Hublot Palmavela and it's considered one of the best of the year, often because of the spectacular spring sailing conditions with bright, crystal blue skies. This year's seventh edition lived up to those expectations, with skies made even clearer with no European air traffic due to Iceland's volcanic ash cloud over northern Europe.
The J/80 fleet had twenty-two entries, attracting a star-studded cast of sailors that included two former J/80 World Champions, Jose Maria Torcida and Ignacio Camino, from 2007 and 2008, respectively. According to Jesus, "it was an incredibly tight fleet to watch and, to our joy, one of the WALLY super yacht owners, Thomas Bascher, left his Wally 100 footer OPEN SEASON to have loads of fun racing one-design in J/80s."
After two beautiful days of sailing, it was hard to hold the ex-World Champions and the Spanish National champions off the podium. At the end, it was Martinez on PERALEJA GOLF that set the standard with just twelves points! Camino on NEXTEL finished second with thirty one points, just beating his fellow World Champion Torcida sailing ECC VIVIENDAS who finished third with thirty five points. Photo Credits- Jesus Renedo. For more J/80 Sailing results. For more Palmavela sailing and regatta information