The Superyacht Cup - Overall
by The Superyacht Cup 22 Jun 2014 10:14 BST
18-21 June 2014
Unfurled, a family affair, win in Palma
Unfurled with a 2,1,1 scoreline in Class 2 win the Superyacht Cup Palma after a fabulous finale on the Bay of Palma for the 26 boat fleet. With the breeze topping out over 20kts on the first fast broad reach the conditions produced fantastic racing.
With four families on board – including renowned father and son partnership Ross and Cambell Field – the 112ft/34.2m Frers design took the top award with a consistently strong set of results across the three different races. Field Jr, described the winning family affair:
"There are four families on board, Ross and myself Campbell Field. Ross is the safety officer on board because he has had every accident under the sun and so he knows what to expect. He can see things happening. But he offers some input, and some criticism and keeps reminding all the Poms that we won the rugby this morning. Gary Wiseman and his wife Sue and their son Sam are on board. John Barrett the project manager had his son Connor on board for the week and the owner's daughter and so that is four families on board. That seems like a pretty good formula. We have Steve Branagh and Fraser Brown trimming and Adam Bateman trimming and Nik Pearson on the bow. It is a good solid bunch of guys."
"It was a really nice race today. It was an interesting course, a little favoured on starboard out of the Bay. We had to get over to the east once and then all the way back across to the west we had a couple of transitions a bit of a hole at Islettas again. We popped offshore to get a bit more air and we almost had a bit of a get out of jail free card with that one. It was a bit of procession after that but a nice long run home. Gary Wiseman did us a nice job of getting the angles right, so when we saw the breeze was a little lighter in the Bay then overstanding a bit and then we came charging in and it was great.
"It is a brilliant regatta. To have that breeze dial up at 1300hrs, they have set some lovely courses with a good mix of windward leewards and some reaching as well."
"It is fantastic for the owner and fantastic for the team. This has been a successful team over 15 years. It is really satisfying but we sail the boat really, really well. I am thrilled of the owner."
In Class 1 Saudade won the final race but could not beat Ganesha's overall score, the new Dubois 149ft/46m sloop winning their class at their fourth ever regatta. Navigator Nacho Postigo commented:
"It was another interesting course today, not least on the second leg when the breeze came in with a bit more than we all expected, we were on a broad reach with big gear up when the wind peaked for us at 24kts and we kind of thought 'Oh My God!' but we hung on, it was a bit of a wild ride. But we were fine."
"I think the last downwind leg kind of defined the results. The wind dropped approaching the finish and that was good for the boats that had finished or were finishing. And so there were some big gains and that was a bit unexpected to get that cloud cover and that just killed off the sea breeze.
"For us today second to Saudade was OK they are a good team and for the overall Unfurled are well deserved winners, they sailed better, they sailed clean and sailed well, they were better all round."
But for us winning the class is good, it is only our fourth regatta with the boat and we are still learning, in fact it is a bit of a surprise to get second, but we sailed well."
And in Class 3 Heartbeat needed to win today in order to win their class overall and retain the Class title they won here last year, at the only regatta the crew do each year together:
The owner said:
"It was great to win again but it was more difficult this time with more competition. We have a secret weapon, my holiday spinnaker, we had it up today and that makes a difference. We had our best race today. We had to win today."
Lionheart are the Pride of Palma
With a win in the fourth and final race, a fast 30 miles coastal course with over 20kts of brisk sea breeze back and forth across the Bay of Palma, Lionheart lift the trophy that they consider the season's most prestigious and hardest to win, triumphing in the five strong J Class at the Palma Superyacht Cup.
Having missed out on overall victory on the last race here last year when they could not recover from a poor start, this time Lionheart fought back from a modest opening to the first upwind and took the lead when they went to the far left of the upwind, making a big gain to lead Ranger around the first buoy.
From there they were challenged only when the breeze went soft at a leeward mark and the leaders compressed closer, but with excellent speed upwind and downwind Lionheart proved comfortable winners.
With their second win from four races, also sharing Wednesday's King's Hundred Guinea Cup with Hanuman, the team which has Volvo Ocean Race skipper Bouwe Bekking as tactician win their second J Class regatta in a row, after winning in Mahon, Menorca last month. Consistency proved key for the Erle Williams skippered Ranger which took an excellent second overall, pipping last years champions Hanuman by half a point.
Today's coastal race brought the series to a fitting showdown. With just one point separating regatta leaders Lionheart from Hanuman, the latter made poor start and only on the final run to the finish did they rescue fourth place when they passed Rainbow.
The well drilled, diligent Lionheart team learned from their own mistakes from Friday's race, and their extensive post race de-briefs this time offered a pointer towards today's improved start.
Even if the five boats did not all hit the line at the same time, within seconds they were all bow to bow for a remarkable few minutes of intense action. A long fast reach down across the bay saw no place changing, but on the return leg all the way back to a mark under Cabo Blanco, Velsheda held low and were able to pop through into second which they held to the finish, their best score of the regatta.
Bekking, who returns tomorrow to skipper's duties on the Volvo 65 in Kiel, was delighted with the Lionheart win:
"This was the one we wanted to win because this is where we have the five boats. Last year we were leading until the last day and then we lost it. We had a bad start then and could not get back. Today we got a good start and got bounced back a bit but we got back into it and clawed our way back to first and from there on it was quite easy.
We have such a nice group of people and are always having a good time. We work very hard at it. We always do three full days of practice and every race we do a big, full debrief for at least 45 minutes to an hour with video integrated and even like yesterday we had a bad start and we executed on that today.
In Minorca we had speed upwind and downwind so the other guys have caught up or perhaps it is the venue a bit, some boats go really well at a venue, Ranger has gone fantastic at this event, some boats just fit certain events.
I have won a few events here so I was pretty confident when we went to the big left. I was a bit amazed the others let us go. After that it was game over.
I think we have been sailing well and I think our crew work is among the best here. And the owner driver has made huge steps in the last two years and now with two events in a row it is finally paying off.
It is so great to win here. This is for the owners because they look after us and so it is good to give something back."
Ranger skipper Erle Williams was almost bemused to have taken second, but with four times America's Cup winner Murray Jones sailing his second regatta as tactician, and solid, dependable crew work to build from their excellent starts ñ they started four times off the left, pin end of the line, their success was well earned:
"We are thrilled because the newer boats are fast and are being sailed well and they are hard to beat. Last year we struggled and it was hard. There are some great sailors out there sailing these boats. The whole J Class story here is a great success story, having five boats here, different winners on each day has been fantastic. But here consistency has been good for us in a tough field, we didn't win this time, but maybe next time.
Lionheart is extremely fast, they had pace today. They were tucked in behind at the start and they just sailed around us but they are sailing well. But the rest of the boats are very even. Today we saw Velsheda sail better for second. Ranger has form as a team. The boat is set up nicely and the guys are trimming very nicely. Our sails are nice. The boat is kind of heavy and hard work at times, but I think we are sailing it well.
We don't have as much stability as the others, about six to ten per cent less, and so the stronger breeze was not so good for us, we struggle a little. Apart from Lionheart I think all the boats are pretty even and I think it is down to who sails the boat best and gets off the line and can keep clean air. That has been the big thing for us, to have a regatta where we have been able to sail in clear air. We have started off the pin and that has worked well for us."
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