40th Copa del Rey Mapfre: Brennecke's "Hatari" wins ahead of Heidenreich's "OneGroup"

It attracted the most attention at the 40th edition of the Copa del Rey Mapfre: the ClubSwan 50 class with five boats flying the German flag. In view of the high level of performance, it was hardly surprising that the podium was ultimately occupied by teams from three German owners. Off Mallorca, Marcus Brennecke's "Hatari" (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein/Bayerischer Yacht-Club) came out on top in the final standings after an opening qualifying series of six races, the average result of which the teams took into the main round as the result of one race, and the exciting final five races. The two-time world champions acted confidently with tactician Markus Wieser and their international crew.

Markus Wieser: "We had to fight very hard"

"The other teams have caught up. We had to fight hard, but we sailed well. It was extremely hot, the sailing conditions were great and the races were close," said a delighted "Hatari" tactician Markus Wieser. Stefan Heidenreich's "OneGroup" (Yachtclub Zug) sailed to second place with tactician Jochen Schümann. The team's justified hopes of victory were dashed with the early start in the last race. Sönke Meier-Sawatzki's "Niramo" from the Kieler Yacht-Club came third, tied on points with the "OneGroup".

Hendrik Brandis' crew on "Earlybird", which was still in front after the preliminary round, had to be satisfied with sixth place after two weak races in the main round. Mark Bezner's "Olymp" sailed to ninth place. The ClubSwan 50 division has become the new favourite playground for German boats on the European regatta stages. No other class currently has such a high concentration of German owners and top performers.

While no German starters were active in the middle ClubSwan 42 group, Nikolai Burkart's "Goddess" sailed to fifth place in the small ClubSwan 36 field. German boats were also successful off Palma in the ORC classifications. Carl-Peter Forster's TP52 "Red Bandit" from the Bayerischer Yacht-Club won ORC 1, relegating the Argentinian Swan 45 "From now on" and the Spanish crewed DK 46 "Estrella Damm" to second and third place. Jan Opländer's beautiful, heavy Swan 45 "Katima" (Flensburger Segel-Club) sailed to tenth place in the mostly light winds. The crew was delighted with third place when the wind picked up noticeably.

In ORC 2, Christian Plump's Swan 42 CS "Rivareno Gelato - Elena Nova" sailed under the flag of Real Club Nautico Palma to second place behind the victorious Italian sister ship "Teatro Soho Caixbank" with helmsman Javier Banderas. Christoph Mann's Brenta 42 "Plan B", also from the host Real Club Nautico Palma, finished in seventh place. Fifth in ORC 3 was the Kiel Italia 9.98 "Immac Fram" with skipper Kai Mares and helmsman Marcus Schiermann. Otto and Gabriele Pohlmann and their crew on the J 99 DK "Meerblick Fun" won the compact, small-scale test of strength in ORC 4. Click here for all results (please click!).