BRIBON MOVISTAR Glitters @ Palmavela

(Palma Mallorca, Spain)- After three days of light to moderate airs on the gorgeous bay that encircles Palma Mallorca, the extremely competitive J/80 class that sailed the GAASTRA Palmavela Regatta hosted by Real Club Nautico de Palma had a repeat champion- Marc de Antonio’s BRIBON—MOVISTAR from Real Club Nautico de Barcelona.

On the first day of sailing, the fleet raced in a south-westerly breeze between 5 and 10 knots.  BRIBON-MOVISTAR began the day by defending the title with three victories out of three possible. That allowed them to return to shore four points ahead of their nearest rival, José Maria Van der Ploeg’s J/80 World Champion team on NAUTICA WATCHES (2-2-4) and eight over Pedro Mari’s OPERA SEASON (5-4-2).

For their second day of sailing, the wind took a while to show up, but it managed to propel the fleet with speeds between 5 to 20 knots by late afternoon.  The one-design classes were able to complete the three races scheduled for the day.

In J/80s, it was almost a perfect day for BRIBON-MOVISTAR again, collecting a 1-1-3 for a total of six victories out of seven possible. The defending champions discards their third in today’s last race, and leads over nearest rival, Van der Ploeg’s NAUTICA WATCHES by eight points. Two points behind them continued to be Marí’s OPERA SEASON with a 4-4-1.

The final day again saw relatively light, uncharacteristic breezes for Palma, but sufficient for the J/80 class to have another three races.  After a total of nine races, the BRIBON-MOVISTAR team closed with a 1-1-2 to win with an imposing seven of nine possible victories!  Second place went to Van der Ploeg’s crew on NAUTICA WATCHES with 22 pts.  Just three points back after a close battle was Javier Chacartegui’s crew on HM-HOTELS with 25 pts.  Mari’s crew on OPERA SEASON fell off the pace and dropped to fourth overall after closing with a 3-5-5.  Taking fifth overall was Jose Carlos Frau’s BUFETE FRAU from CN Arenal.  The top foreign team was the German team on JOY TOY sailed by Gerd Henssen and Inken Braunschmidt in 10th place.   For more Gaastra Palmavela sailing information