The King has gone out to sea ready to fight for the Copa del Rey Mapfre de Vela. He will try it on board the Aifos, the Navy ship, of which he is the skipper, during the celebration of the nautical event that takes place this week in the bay of Palma with the participation of a hundred boats.
In this edition, Aifos starts among the favorites in its category, which fuels the chances that the monarch will win his first title in the competition that takes place in the Bay of Palma.
The King has participated in almost all the editions of the Cup, the first in 1984 at the age of 16, but he has never managed to win it, while his father, King Juan Carlos I, did so five times aboard the successive Rascal has done so on five occasions.
Aifos (Sofía's name backwards) is enrolled in the Majorica ORC1 category, where fifteen boats of seven nationalities compete for six days, until next Saturday, August 5. In the rest of the categories, another eighty sailboats compete, all opting to be the winner of their respective classes and, among all, the best one is proclaimed the absolute winner.
El Rey trained last Friday and Saturday to familiarize himself with the helm and the crew, since he only participates in the regattas that take place every summer during his stay in Palma.
This Monday, with shorts, polo shirt, trainers and the team backpack in hand, Felipe de Borbón arrived at the Real Club Náutico de Palma at 10:30 am driving his car (a Cupra Formentor) and at the entrance he was received by its president, Emeric Fuster. Accompanied by the Aifos skipper, Admiral Jaime Rodríguez Toubes, he went to the jetty to go up to the deck of the ship, where he greeted all the members of the team, with whom he took the traditional photo before starting the competition
Felipe VI has spoken with some of the crew members of the sailboat docked next to the Navy one, including Javier Banderas, the brother of actor Antonio Banderas, who competes in another category with the Soho CaixaBank Theater.
In the most prestigious sailing event in the Mediterranean, which began in 1982, nearly a hundred boats of 16 nationalities and some 1,300 sailors participate.
