MADRID, 28 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Real Club Náutico de Palma (RCNP) will inaugurate this Saturday (12:00 noon) the 19th edition of PalmaVela, the first major event on the Mediterranean regatta calendar, with the dispute of La Larga, a journey in which 35 boats will participate and that It will serve as a prologue to the multiclass competition that will start on May 4.
“The IRC and ORC 1 classes will complete a route starting in front of Portitxol, leaving the islands of Mallorca, Menorca and Cabrera to starboard and finishing in front of the Palacio de Congresos de Palma”, the organization of PalmaVela has indicated in a note from press. “In total, there will be 240 miles in which the participants will have to deal with the prevailing conditions,” the note added.
“In the case of the ORC 2-4, A2 4-5 and A2 0-3 classes, the route will be 200 miles with departure at the same point as the previous ones. They will have to leave Mallorca and the Isla del Aire to starboard (to the southeast of Menorca, next to Mahón) to then set course for the finish line”, the text specified.
Regarding the conditions, according to the press release, “in general a maximum wind intensity of 18 knots is expected with gusts that could reach 22 and a minimum wind of four knots.” The average wind during the race is expected to be 10 knots.
“The instability of the weather forecast is the main stumbling block right now because there is a low pressure that is moving to the East and the predictions are still predictions,” said Gaspar Morey, RCNP regatta officer.
“It may not be fulfilled and at some point we have calmed down or some hole without wind where the fleet is stopped, but if it is fulfilled it seems that it will be a relatively fast race: eight average speed knots for the big boats and six medium knots for the small ones, which is a good speed,” added Morey.
On IRC the Volvo Open 70 ‘I Love Poland’ will be the fastest boat in the entire fleet and the leading candidate, out of all classes, to cross the finish line first. The color note will be provided by the legendary Maxi from 1961 ‘Stormvogel’, a movie boat for Nicole Kidman, Sam Neill and Billy Zane in ‘Dead Calm’ and which to its credit has triumphs in mythical offshore regattas such as the Fastnet Race and Sydney-Hobart.
In ORC 1 the Dutch team ‘Silver Swan’ (Swan 53) will be one of the main favorites after their second place in the 2022 edition. This class will have a fleet of nine more teams with lengths between 56 and 44 feet with the exception from the Austrian ‘Stargazer’, from the Schuler family, a 40-footer that will play the role of small boat.
In ORC 2-4 both Jaime Morell’s ‘Mestral’ (Sun Fast 36) and Toni Marqués’ ‘S’Avenc’ (Salona 37) will be the rivals to beat for the rest of the fleet in its class.
ORC A2 (two crew) has been divided into two classes, the 0-3 with the longest boats such as ‘Smerit’ by Tito Moure and ‘Brujo’ by Alberto de Castro, both Swan 45, which will be the main favorites against a fleet of ten teams in its class. For his part in the other A2 class, the 4-5, Gabriele Pohlmann’s ‘Meerblick Fun’ (J99) will defend the 2022 title against six other teams.