Palma de Mallorca, July, 30th 2008. A sunny day today in the Bay of Palma, and a happy day for the Swiss team of Near Miss for the second date with the QUEBRAMAR GP42 Cup, at the Copa del Rey AUDI MAPFRE.
After nearly three hours’ delay and being forced to move the race course from area Alpha to Bravo, due to the light and shifty wind conditions, the Race Committee was finally able to fire the start signal with a breeze blowing at some 9 knots on a 1,9 miles’ long leg distance. The first race was certainly not an easy task for tacticians, who had to look for each and every shift and puff of wind.
Once again it was the Swiss team of Near Miss, led by Bertrand Pacè with Tanguy Cariou as tactician to set the pace, while Roma GP42.2, helmed by Paolo Cian with Sébastien Col calling tactics and Madrid, with Olympic champion José Maria Van der Ploeg as skipper and Philippe Presti as tactician alternated in second and third place. Yet Roma GP42.2 didn’t seem particularly at ease downwind and progressively lost ground, while its rivals Canarias Puerto Calero and Caser Quum, with José Maria Ponce and Sergio Llorca helming respectively, overtook them,
Near Miss crossed the finishing line with a healthy 20 seconds margin showing an excellent consistency no matter the breeze, both upwind and downwind, and increasing its lead in the event’s standing. Madrid finished second, followed by fellow countrymen Canarias Puerto Calero and Caser Quum. Fifth was Roma GP42.2, sixth Desafio and seventh were Italians onboard Airis.
As the breeze increased to 14 knots, the Committee decided to go for a second race a few minutes later than 17 hours. Despite the fresher wind, Near Miss’ sailing was almost a photocopy of what they did earlier. Leading from the very start, the Swiss/French team dictated their rule, leaving all the competitors behind and closing with an impressive one minute advantage on the rest of the fleet. Roberto Monti’s Airis was able to defend its second place from an inspired José Maria Van der Ploeg on Madrid, showing again a good speed downwind. Unfortunately not the same can be said of Roma GP42.2 that could only finish sixth behind the two Spanish teams of Caser Quum and Desafio. Last were the young crew from the Canary Island of Canarias Puerto Calero.
After todays’ racing Near Miss is then on top of both the provisional scoreboard of Copa del Rey AUDI MAPFRE and the QUEBRAMAR GP42 Cup with a four-points lead on Desafio.
Quote of the day:
José Maria Van der Ploeg – skipper and owner – Madrid
“We are gradually getting to know the boat. We have a lot of problems upwind, especially in order to get the boat to the speeds of the other boats, mainly the non-Spanish teams. To tell the truth this is tough and we are suffering a lot. Nevertheless we have been able to analyze where the problems are and we are getting the feedback that will make us more competitive. Today, our tactician Philippe Presti, was right to the point, very conservative and the whole crew made an excellent job, especially downwind. We have slightly compensated the troubles we had upwind and we have been able to sail good races in the Copa del Rey so far.
At moments we sail very well but when there is a transitional situation we can’t maintain the rhythm. I think today was the first day we really fought hard, sailed well and made the correct tactical decisions. Even if a 2nd and 3rd place are good, we still have a long way to the optimum and we hope we’ll get better in the following days”
Provisional results after 5 races:
Boat Country Points (partial scores)
1. Near Miss – Switzerland – 10 points (6,1,1,1,1)
2. Airis – Italy – 19 points (1,7,2,7,2)
3. Desafio – Spain – 20 points (2,2,5,6,5)
4. Madrid – Spain – 20 points (7,4,4,2,3)
5. Roma GP42.2 – Italy – 23 points (4,5,3,5,6)
6. Canarias Puerto Calero – Spain – 24 points (5,3,6,3,7)
7. Caser Quum – Spain – 24 points (3,6,7,4,4)
