Puerto Portals Breitling TP52 MedCup Regatta - Overall
by Victoria Low 24 Jul 2006 07:06 BST
19-23 July 2006
MUTUA MADRILENA SECURES OVERALL VICTORY
Second place was more than enough to clinch the Breitling Trophy for a delighted Peter de Ridder and the crew of Mean Machine-Mutua Madrilena today in Puerto Portals Mallorca.
The Dutch skipper, resident in Monaco, and his mainly Emirates Team New Zealand crew not only won the top award for this demanding eight race regatta which has run at an almost unrelenting pace, but now also head the overall standings on the season long Breitling MedCup standings.
As top Corinthian helm for the third successive regatta, but this time de Ridder kept the top America’s Cup skippers and Olympic medal winning helms like Russell Coutts, Dean Barker and Ian Walker behind him.
And for the third Breitling MedCup regatta in a row, the final day was the trickiest. With a persistent easterly gradient breeze conflicting with the more southerly sea breeze, the net effect was unsettled, challenging wind which puffed up to 11 knots and fell as often to just 6 knots, changing direction by up to 30 degrees.
Three different boats have now won each different Breitling MedCup regatta.
Steve and Fred Howe’s Warpath, steered by Dean Barker, scored their a second back to back win since damage in race six forced their retirement. Even carrying the weighty ballast of a 22nd for their retirement, Warpath still finished second overall, while the Russell Coutts steered Lexus of Jaime Yllera and George Andreadis finished third, marking their first podium finish of the season so far.
“It is very nice to be the amateur driver winning here, up against the big guys. I think that is important for the other owner-drivers to see that if your boat is in order and you have good team around then, you as the driver, are just one of the fifteen guys and if you do your job normally you can hang in there and be competitive. For me it definitely helps doing a lot of Farr 40 sailing because that is a very competitive fleet doing many competitive mark roundings and mixed starts,” commented de Ridder.
With just a week of recuperation – or returning to the ‘day jobs’ in the case of the America’s Cup sailors who form the backbone of many crews – before the next event, Palma’s Copa del Rey regatta on the same waters, De Ridder comments:
“That will be another big challenge. And I am sure there will be another difficult day like today where the gradient breeze is fighting the sea breeze and there are a lot of holes in the wind but we will start that regatta fresh minded. But we are confident we have speed, our sail trimmers are good and work hard. I think our team is very good and is a good example of 1 plus 1 making much more than two.”
“We started well with two seconds and a first, but the team has sailed extremely well all week under a lot of pressure. We had a couple of good helmsmen right behind us in Dean Barker and Russell Coutts, so Peter sailed extremely well and the whole crew did. It was an extremely difficult day and it would have been to get stressed out, but we managed to keep calm through the whole race.” Explained Ray Davies, Mutua Madrilena’s tactician. “The difference this time is that we have been more consistent. We always knew we had potential. We just tried to sail a little more conservatively this regatta.”
Day 4 Results:
Results Race 8
1 Warpath (Dean Barker/Jaime Yllera & George Andreadis)
2 Mutua Madrilena (Peter de Ridder/Peter de Ridder)
3 Siemens (Ian Walker/Eamon Conneely & Pedro Perello)
4 Pinta (John Kostecki/Michael Illbruck)
5 Caixa Galicia (Roberto Bermudez/Vicente Tirado)
Overall Results:
1 Mutua Madrilena - 27 points
2 Warpath - 46 points
3 Lexus – 52 Points
4 Siemens – 55 points
5 Pinta – 57 points
2006 Breitling MedCup Circuit – Overall Standings:
1 Mutua Madrilena - 72 points
2 Warpath - 77 points
3 Caixa Galicia - 117 points
4 Siemens - 145 points
5 Bribon - 158 points
6 Lexus - 160 points
7 Santa Ana -165 points
8 Orlanda – 170 points
9 Anonimo – 184 points
10 Cristabella – 190 points
11 Platoon – 191 points
12 ONO – 193 points
13 Pinta – 213 points
14 Balearia – 226 points
15 Rush – 237 points
16 Fram – 239 points
17 Tau Ceramica Andalucia – 276 points
18 Bambakou – 300 points
19 Aifos – 336 points
20 Bigamist – 350 points
21 C Quadrat Astro – 389 points