Copa del Rey Audi Mapfre winners

by Eva Dallo on 7 Aug 2011 Copa del Rey Audi Mapfre has reached its sixth day and José Cusí's Bribón has taken victory in what is to be her farewell to the majorcan regatta, eleven editions after her last victory in 2000. Jason Carroll's Argo has taken the first regatta American victory ever, whereas Jose María van der Ploeg's Factorenergia clinches the trophy in the J-80 division, and Earlybird does so in IRC B.

Bribón, Earlybird, Factorenergía, Argo, Hotelplan, Rats on Fire and Power Plate are the new Copa del Rey Audi Mapfre winners after the two last races held today for all classes, which completed the racing schedule of the 30th edition of the most important regatta of the Mediterranean.

José Cusí's Bribón's farewell to the Copa del Rey Audi Mapfre couldn't have been sweeter: with a 4,5 points advantage over second classified Container, the TP52 steered by Galicia born sailor Gonzalo Araújo won the 30th Copa del Rey Audi Mapfre eleven years after her last race dated 2000. After composing a nice scoring of three wins and five second places in ten races during the week, Bribón needed only four points to win the regatta.

Gonzalo Araújo didn't take any risks and chose to control her main rival Udo Schütz's Container from beginning to end. The Spanish boat managed to cross the finish line in third position, what gave her the victory in Cusí's 30th and last participation in the Copa del Rey Audi Mapfre.

This was also Gonzalo Araújo's first win in the regatta, an event he had already attended with different IMS 600 projects. Markus Wieser's Container remained second, a result which set the German Dragon ace happy, for their boat ' is better with strong winds, whereas these were Bribón's conditions', he said. Container came in the dock with a flag pending from her fore stay which read ' Bribón forever', as a homage to what Wieser described as the ' most important Spanish sailing boat ever'.

The closing day delivered exciting and tight racing in the IRC B fleet, after German flagged Emma challenged first placed Earlybird, which came into the last day just point ahead, throughout the whole track, but Hendrik Brandis managed to finish third whereas Emma finished sixth. The same fight went on in race two, but Earlybird won the game again crossing ahead of Johann Killinger's Swan 60.

With just two races to go, things looked as tight in the J-80 fleet, for the three first boats where just three points apart. Nextel Engineering was leader after ten races, tied in points with Factorenergía – Great Sailing Quum of Olympic sailor Jose María van der Ploeg, and followed by Javier Aguado's Crocs. In the first race the two first classified challenged each other in the center of the race area, but after the first tacks Camino went to the right hand side and her title was gone.

In a low pressure, she saw herself sink in the pack, with Factorenergia – Great Sailing Quum sitting on the top and maintaining that position till the finish. Van der Ploeg came into the last race with a six point cushion, and didn't take any risks in the second, finishing fourth, thus clinching his second Copa del Rey after his 2007 victory.

In the Melges 32 class, Jason Carroll's Argo's advantage over Kilroy's Samba pa ti went down three points after race one of the closing day, but her win in race two gave her the first American win in the Copa del Rey Audi Mapfre ever, whereas Vascotto was second, an
d Italian Torpyone third.

The last two races of the 30th Copa del Rey Audi Mapfre brought no changes to yesterday's X-35 podium, and Andrea Ferrari's Hotelplan hold to the lead, followed by German Ingo Dietrich's X on the Beach. Javier Banderas and Luís Doreste's Iberostar sign the only Spanish podium of the class with a third position.

Rafael Carbonell's Rats on Fire reigned today in RI 1, and took a deserved victory home after her today's two bullets, and nine wins in a total of twelve races. Manu Weiller's Cuadernos Rubio finish runners up and Swan 45 Swanderfull of Giacomo and Miscioscia was third.

Pedro Campos Movistar will have to wait till next year for his sixth Copa del Rey Audi Mapfre after the boat's today's unexpected blunder. A sixth and a ninth places handed the victory over to Gustavo Martínez Doreste's Power plate, which was third and second, thus winning her first Copa del Rey. Prizes were delivered by TRH The Kings of Spain in Ses Voltes gardens, in the surroundings of the cathedral of Palma.

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