The three-day finale of the Spanish classic Copa del Rey Mapfre has begun off Palma de Mallorca. More than 100 crews on yachts in nine classes are competing for the King's Cup for the 40th time in the Spanish waters. Several German teams have good podium prospects after the preliminary round. First and foremost Hendrik Brandis' team on the Club Swan 50 "Earlybird". The runners-up were leading the ranking of the big swans before the decisive last three days of the regatta and have it in their own hands to win Spain's most famous regatta in the remaining races up to Sunday. But the battle is far from over. Behind the second-placed Spanish Club Swan 50 "Tenaz", Stefan Heidenreich's "OneGroup" sailing under the Swiss flag with tactician Jochen Schümann and Marcus Brennecke's "Hatari" with tactician Marcus Wieser are lurking for their chances. In sixth place after qualifying in the new German favourite class was Sönke Meier-Sawatzki's "Niramo". Behind her came Mark Bezner's "Olymp" and August Schramm's Austrian "Stella Maris". A total of five German yachts and one with a German owner are now increasingly turning the Club Swan 50 regattas into a hotly contested "German Championship" ...
While there are no German yachts at the start in the Club Swan 42 division, Nikolai Burkart's "Goddess" is in third place in the Club Swan 36 group. The German performances in the ORC groups are also impressive at the halfway point. In ORC 1, Carl-Peter Forster's TP52 "Red Bandit" from the Bayerischer Yacht-Club is fighting for a podium place in fourth place overall. Jan Opländer's heavy but beautiful Swan 54 "Katima" from Flensburger Yacht-Club was in tenth place. In ORC 2, Christian Plump's crew on the Swan 42 CS "Rivareno Gelato - Elena Nova" came third overall, giving them a good starting point for the final. Christoph Mann's Brenta 42 "Plan B" was in seventh place at midweek. In ORC 3, the team led by skipper Kai Mares and helmsman Marcus Schiermann on the "Immac Fram" from the Kieler Yacht-Club has also earned good podium chances in third place. In the smallest ORC Group 4, which is made up of seven boats, the J 99 DK "Meerblick Fun" with Gabriele and Otto Pohlmann was initially in the lead. Like Christian Plumps and Christoph Mann's yachts, the boat is based at the host Real Club Nautico Palma, but sails under the German flag.
According to the announcement for the Copa del Rey, the participants do not go into the three-day final with the individual results of the qualifying races, but only with the overall ranking after the preliminary round. This means, for example, that the class winners of the qualifying days sail into the decisive phase with one point. This also explains the single-column intermediate results in the overview. By bundling the preliminary results, more teams have the chance to make up for losses and significantly improve their ranking. Click here for the intermediate results before the final days (please click!).
