43 Copa del Rey MAPFRE Day 2
by Copa del Rey MAPFRE 30 Jul 22:28 BST
29 July - 2 August 2025
The four divisions which are competing for the ORC European Championships titles at the 43rd Copa del Rey raced their statuary coastal race around the Bay of Palma and out to its western fringes today, sailing in changeable breezes which started very light and built through into the late afternoon.
For the bigger boats of ABANCA ORC Zero such as the TP52s it was a marathon 58 miles courses which took around six and a half hours. Sail Racing ORC A and Ubica ORC B had a slightly shorter 52 nautical miles track whilst the smaller boats of Uber ORC C raced over 38 miles in about five and a half hours.
German owner driver Hendrik Brandis, world champion in the ClubSwan 50, is racing a Cape 31 this week in Uber ORC C. He and his Early Bird team are the only ORC crew to have now won both of their opening races after also triumphing around the long coastal today. Palma ace Manu Weiller is calling tactics and his local knowledge of his home bay made a difference he believes.
Weiller reported "It was a difficult race for us as we have no reaching sails and there were a lot of reaching, there were two long reaches with 110 and 150 TWA with A1.5 which was quite hard but the crew did a good job keeping the boat fast in a high mode. I love the Cape 31 I did the Europeans last year on this boat as Stig and came second and the class is awesome. It was super light at first and we were not first at all until we started reaching and passing boats and then later when we got close to the shore the local knowledge comes into play, where to get into the shore and where not to and that helped in the end too."
The only other team to retain their lead after Day 1 is the crack Italian team on the Italia Yachts 11.98 Guardamago which finished third today. Massimo Romeo Piparo's crew won the opening windward-leeward on Tuesday and finished just over two minutes behind the coastal race winner, Sugar 2, Otto Kikkas' Estonian sistership which won the ORC Class C European title in Finland last year.
Brazilian TP52s took the top two places in ABANCA ORC Zero on the coastal race. For Crioula IV, the Plass brothers former Provezza, victory today is some compensation for not finishing yesterday's windward-leeward race after their main halyard broke. Racing in 52 SUPER SERIES mode is no advantage on the coastal course which contained two long reaching legs.
Ricardo Costa the navigator on Crioula recalled, "We made a very good start and that helped and then went to the right up the first beat and that gave us a lead, it was a good choice. After that we could largely control Vesper which was the fastest boat. But we sailed well. It was tricky, especially for me as a navigator as you were calling a lay line from six or seven miles out, and as first boat on the water that is not easy. But we sailed the boat fast and had could speed. This is the second time we have been to the Copa del Rey MAPFRE in the last ten years or so but it really appealed, as it's the ORC European Championships. And so winning today is a good reward for the team because we broke our main halyard yesterday and so were DNF which is our discard straight off and winning this one is good because you can't discard it. And it is not easy today with so much reaching we don't have specific reaching sails as we are in 52 SUPER SERIES mode.
Crioula's compatriots on ALIZEE took second but it is the Italian TP52 Vudu which leads the class with a fifth and second.
Winning the coastal race today in Sail Racing ORC A gives Christian Plump's Club Swan 42 Elena Nova the division lead pairing their win to a third place yesterday.
The start of the battle for the Balearia Women's Cup title opened today with the qualifying rounds for the 15 teams in the women's class of the 43rd Copa del Rey MAPFRE. The Round Robin competition system saw ten races in groups of six boats, producing four results for each team. Esther Gómez's CN Regatas is the first leader of the week, tied at five points with Bárbara Cornudella's CN El Balís. María Bover's Balearia/RCN Palma is provisionally third with nine points.