Copa del Rey - Kings crowned on the Bay of Palma

by 52 Super Series on 4 Aug 2013 At the 32nd Copa del Rey, winning six races from a full programme of 11 contests on the Bay of Palma, Quantum Racing win the event for the 52 Super Series for the first time. The American team, which is skippered by Ed Baird, enjoyed the sparkling sea breeze which topped 20kts at times during the last race to deliver the final race victory, running out their third successive 52 Super Series regatta win after triumphs in Barcelona and Ibiza.

Niklas Zennström’s Rán Racing started the week with three back-to-back wins before Quantum Racing really hit their straps, composing five race victories in succession and building a momentum that Rán Racing could not halt. Rán came close on Friday but Doug DeVos’ team was the dominant team over Saturday the last day, finishing with a 2,1 flourish to ensure their overall margin is 9.5pts ahead of Zennström’s world championship winners.

Zennström, whose team won the Royal Cup last year on the same waters, admitted the Quantum Racing crew were pretty much unstoppable:

'At the end of this regatta we are pretty happy with second. We wanted to win regatta, we gave it a shot and we are sailing the boat well but Quantum Racing are just sailing better.'

For the Quantum Racing team, formed in 2008, it is the first time they have won Spain’s biggest and most prestigious regatta. Last year they were on course but a mechanical breakdown ruined their chances. Ironically their team is strengthened this season by Palma based Olympic gold medallist Jordi Calafat who also guided the Copa del Rey winning 52 last season, Audi ALL4ONE. Until last year’s success Calafat had more than 25 years of trying to win the top trophy at his home club, stacking up dozens of seconds and thirds, but now wins two in consecutive years:

'After a long time waiting for now I have got two King's cups in a row. I am very happy. Hopefully I don’t want to stop this streak. We are the best professional crew in the world. I'm very happy in this project. Today we sailed very well. We have made a great second race today.'

Quantum Racing partnered excellent boatspeed to great starting to achieve their success around a course area which in the end lived up to its reputation as a strongly left side favoured arena. Tactician Terry Hutchinson paid tribute to the entire crew, noting Calafat’s contribution on his home waters and Ed Baird’s starts:

'Jordi is on his home waters and so you sail confidently when you have someone of his talents on board. That was great and we got on a bit of roll in the middle of the week when Ed was getting some cracker starts and the boat is fast.' Said Hutchinson

2012’s 52 Super Series champions Azzurra finished disappointed with their third place overall, suffering too many small mistakes and mishaps to really challenge the top two boats. They had to make penalty turns again off the first start line today and so finished with a sixth. Tactician Vasco Vascotto promises a better display in September in Porto Cervo, home of the Azzurra project:

'It is hard to speak about things at the moment because it hurts and there is a lot of emotion, but Quantum Racing did so well and did not give any opportunity to us. But the reality is we did not sail well. We made it easy for them. We did not give them the chance to fight. We had some problems which we need to analyse. We had some problems and we need to fix them before Porto Cervo. That is our yacht club and we need to be able to show something different. It is tough to analyse now, very, very tough. But that is sailing.'

Not far away from their first ever podium was Manouch Moshayedi’s Rio which had to settle for fourth overall, their best position yet. After enjoying a final race scrap with Ergin Imre’s Provezza in the final race in boisterous conditions, Rio retained their much improve level of consistency.

Results: 52 Super Series at the 32nd Copa del Rey
1 Quantum Racing, USA, (Doug DeVos) (3,2,2,1,1,1,1,1,5,2,1) 20pts
2 Rán Racing, SWE, (Niklas Zennström) (1,1,1,6,3,2,3,2.5,3,5,2) 29.5pts
3 Azzurra, ITA, (Alberto Roemmers) (2,4,3,7,2,7,2,5,1,6,3) 42pts
4 Rio, USA, (Manouch Moshayedi) (6,3,5,3,6,3,7,4,2,7,5) 51pts
5 Provezza, TUR, (Ergin Imre) (4,7.5,4,4,5,4,4,7,6,3,6) 54.5pts
6 Gladiator, GBR, (Tony Langley) (7,5,8,2,9,5,8,6,4,1,4) 59pts
7 Interlodge, USA, (Austin Fragomen) (5,7.5,6.5,5,4,6,5,2.5,7,8,DNF) 66.5pts
8 Paprec, FRA, (Jean Luc Petithugenin) (9,6,6.5,8,8,8,6,8,8,4,DNF) 81.5pts
9 Aquila, AUT, (Aquila Sailing Team) (8,9,9,9,7,9,9,9,9,9,DNF) 97pts

32nd Copa del Rey Mapfre – Gaastra IRC 52 Class

After 11 races with 1 discard
1 Quantum Racing (3,2,2,1,1,1,1,1,5,2,1) 15pts
2 Rán Racing, (1,1,1,5.5,3,2,3,2,2,5,2) 22pts
3 Azzurra, (2,4,3,7,2,7,2,5,1,6,3) 35pts
4 Rio, (6,3,5,3,7,3,7,4,3,7,5) 46pts
5 Provezza, (5,9,4.4,5,4,4,8,7,3,6) 50pts
6 Gladiator, (8,5,8,2,9,5,8,6,4,1,4) 52pts
7 Interlodge, (4,8,6.5,5.5,4,6,5,3,6,8,RDG) 54pts
8 Paprec, (9,6,6.5,9,8,8,6,9,8,4,DNF) 73.5pts
9 Aquila, (Aquila Sailing Team) (7,7,9,8,6,9,9,7,9,9,DNF) 80pts

Terry Hutchinson (USA) tactician Quantum Racing (USA): 'We have been pushed hard all week by Rán Racing and by the fleet. This week we always seemed to have a little something extra speed-wise. We had solid local knowledge with Jordi Calafat on board keeping us going in the right direction. That relationship is evolving but he is on his home waters and so you sail confidently when you have someone of his talents on board. That was great and we got on a bit of roll in the middle of the week when Ed was getting some cracker starts and the boat was fast. Today we had one cracker and one not so cracker and ended up with a 2,1. The last race was great, we wanted the left side strongly got there and then just let the girl do the work. The boat is set up really well through the gears.'

Niklas Zennström (SWE) owner-driver Rán Racing (SWE): 'At the end of the regatta we are pretty happy with second. We wanted to win the regatta, we gave it a shot but Quantum Racing are sailing really well. We will take a second though. The last race of the day was just great. The boats were absolutely flying and that is the way we love it. It is great to finish the day with a great race because everyone finishes with a big smile on their face.'

Vasco Vascotto (ITA ) tactician Azzurra (ITA): 'It is hard to speak about things at the moment because it hurts and there is a lot of emotion, but Quantum Racing did so well and did not give any opportunity to us. But the reality is we did not sail well. We made it easy for them. We did not give them the chance to fight. We had some problems which we need to analyse. We had some problems and we need to fix them before Porto Cervo. That is our yacht club and we need to be able to show something different. It is tough to analyse now, very, very tough. But that is sailing.'

Manouch Moshayedi (USA) owner-driver Rio (USA): 'It was great final race, fighting with Provezza over fourth place, tack for tack, gybe for gybe and inch for inch. We were fighting over fourth and got it. We have come a long way over the season since Key West, we are very happy.' 52 Super Series