La Larga, the PalmaVela offshore altitude test, has come to an end this Monday, April 29, on a day in which the conditions have not been easy at all for the ORC 0-1 fleet, which at dawn still had practically everyone the teams traveling the last miles of the race. With almost non-existent wind on the last approach to Cala Figuera, the end of La Larga has been agonizing for many of the crews, and the truth is that at 4:00 p.m. this Monday there were still two boats left to cross the line. arrival. However, luck has already smiled on the winners.
Torben Muhlbach's Stoertebeker was the fastest from the start in the Bay of Palma, managing to quickly escape from the rest of the fleet from the first mandatory passing point in Cabrera. Finally, after 38 hours and 15 minutes of navigation, the German Carkeek 47 crossed the finish line this morning, at 02:20 hours, with a wide lead over its pursuers – more than five hours in corrected time – and scored a deserved victory in La Larga.
Behind, second place this year remains in the hands of Joaquín Verona's Intrigue, which crossed the finish line around noon this Monday, and third was Lion's Story, headed by Valentín Oreu.
“It has been a complete regatta. We have had two genoas break and variable winds. The passage through Cabrera, where the entire fleet met, was complicated and the rest of the race was with little wind until we passed Es Vedrá in Ibiza, which was a nice upwind race with northerly winds,” stated Intrigue's tactician, Iñaki. Castañer. Verona added: “We have done very persevering work; Everyone has performed perfectly, we have been very coordinated and we have been able to get the most out of the boat with very complicated conditions.”
Although the Race Committee is still giving the final finishes in Cala Figuera, the general classification will no longer change for the top three finishers.
In the ORC 2-5 category, Diego Colón's Gudrun VIII was the first to finish La Larga around 10:45 p.m. yesterday. With a time invested of 34 hours and 28 minutes, the local team managed to place itself in second position overall after time compensation.
The big winner in this category was José Antonio Martín's Huayra, which crossed the finish line after midnight after 35 hours and 58 minutes of sailing, achieving an advantage of two minutes and 44 seconds in corrected time over Colón's team. . In third position, Joy by Dave Butters closes the podium.
The teams competing in the A2 0-3 category were the fastest of the edition. The first in real time was Tito Moure's Smerit with a time of 29 hours and 35 minutes, although the title this time goes to Daniel Martín's Barakah. Martín's Figaro 2, which has ocean sailor Didac Costa as a teammate, crossed the finish line about two hours later, achieving a distance of almost an hour in compensated time over the Smerit.
“It has been an exciting race in which we have had everything, with conditions both upwind and across, with little wind and a lot of wind. We really like these regattas that combine adventure and competition, and the environment is also ideal for this type of regattas,” said Daniel Martín. Costa, for his part, added that “La Larga is a very cool regatta, at this time of year it is expected that there will be very varied conditions and the course has been very interesting and very beautiful. We have been able to be very close to all the boats throughout the entire regatta and that also makes it very fun.” The third position in A2 0-3 goes, for its part, to the Histolab of José Juan Torres of the RCNP.
And in A2 4-5, the victory in the prologue high altitude regatta of the 20th PalmaVela went to Glenn de Brouwe's Diabolic. Although the Belgian team was the last to cross the finish line of the five that make up its category, the compensation of times and the distance of less than an hour with its competitors allowed the Diabolic to secure a victory with more than seven minutes of advantage in corrected time on Toni Pons' Chica Txeca and 25 on Christian Teichmann's Velaroja, second and third respectively.
The presentation of awards to the winners of La Larga will be held this Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.
