The Lady Anne, Chinook, Comet, Argos and Calima take the lead after a day marked by light winds.

The XX Copa del Rey Repsol de Barcos de Época opened today with a very light easterly wind and a coastal course of just 6.5 nautical miles. The waters of Mahón were once again under the influence of an anticyclone that forced the crews to squeeze out every little gust. The Race Committee also had to pull out all the stops to complete the opening race, after yesterday's suspension due to lack of wind.

The start was two hours late. As the day progressed and the wind eased, with the strongest gust being seven knots, the need to shorten the crossing became apparent. Ariane Mainemare, chief race officer, decided to set the finish line at the Isle of Air, which under normal circumstances would have marked the halfway point of the course. The forecast was right on the direction, but not on the intensity.

The Comet in Bermudian Vintage and the Argos in Classics, both champions of last year's edition, were able to adapt to the difficult weather conditions of the day and are already in the running for victory at the head of their respective classes. The Chinook won comfortably over the Rowdy in the duel of twins in the Época Cangreja class, the Calima set its sights on what could be its fifteenth victory in Spirit of Tradition and the Lady Anne gave no option to its rivals in Big Boats.

BIG BOATS

The F15 class yachts, with their thoroughbred lines and colossal trapezoidal rigs, took the podium in the Big Boats class against opponents that need much stronger winds to offer their maximum performance. The Lady Anne (1912), skippered by Gonzalo Botín, was at the front of the fleet from the very beginning, taking advantage of every bit of wind to gain metres on her two main rivals, Mariska (1908), who was second, and Tuiga (1909), third. The leader spent one hour and twenty-three minutes and gained a comfortable lead of almost four minutes over his nearest rival. Viveka (1929), Hallowe'en (1926), Mariette (1915) and Orianda (1937), who today made her debut in the Copa del Rey Repsol, crossed the finish line in that order. This is the first time in 20 years that the regatta organised by the Club Marítimo de Mahón has brought together seven yachts.

GAFF

The long awaited ‘battle’ between the NY40 Rowdy and Chinook, both designed by Herreshoff and launched in 1916, ended with the victory of the latter, owned by Paolo Zanoni, whose crew knew how to adapt better to the light wind conditions and ended up gaining an advantage of almost 5 minutes over their rival, a long time considering that both boats are racing almost in real time. Although the two boats have competed in numerous editions of the Copa del Rey Repsol, today was the first time they have done so in the same category, after the owner of Rowdy, Donna Dyer, decided to restore the original configuration of her yacht, replacing her Bermudian sail with a crab sail. The Chinook has shown more experience in the complex handling of the trapezoidal rig.

BERMUDIAN

The Comet, a 1949 Olin Stephens skippered by Marc Marciano, winner of the 2023 Copa del Rey Repsol, has taken the lead in the overall classification of the Bermudian Era class ahead of the Sonata (1929), the John Alden-designed yacht that was recovered more than a decade ago by Jordi Cabau in Mallorca. Both boats have sailed at a good level, adapting to the complicated conditions of today's race, and are the boats to beat, with the permission of Jehs Kellinhuseen's Varuna (Sparkman & Stephens, 1939), which crossed the line a few seconds behind the leader but has been relegated to third place after the time compensation.

CLASSICS

Barbara Trilling's Argos, a Holman & Pie design built at the Carabela shipyard, has set course for what could be its seventh consecutive victory in the Copa del Rey Repsol de Barcos de Epoca in the Classics category, which includes boats launched between 1950 and 1975. The crew led by Spaniard Eduardo Méndez has taken four minutes on corrected time from the second classified, Alan Buchanan's Crivizza (1966), and seven minutes from the third, Ojalá II (1973), built by Susan Carol Holland, once again demonstrating their mastery of the Mahón regatta course even in the most complex situations. The Argos has just won the Illes Balears Clàssics of the Club de Mar.

SPIRIT OF TRADITION

In Spirit of Tradition, Calima (1970), skippered by Pachi Rivero, one of the great references of Spanish offshore sailing, is also looking to add to her legend in the Copa del Rey Repsol del Marítimo de Mahón, a regatta that she has won on no less than 14 occasions. Today he won the regatta with just over three and a half minutes over Happy Forever, owned and skippered by Christian Oldendorff, who was the fastest in real time. Provisional third place went to Jens Ricke's Legolas.