The first three races have been completed in the Spanish classic, the Copa del Rey Mapfre. Following two short-course races and Wednesday’s coastal race in hot temperatures and light winds, the crew led by Spain’s King Felipe de Borbon on the ORC 52 “Hispaniola” in ORC Class 0 initially had to relinquish the lead they had secured at the start. Following Wednesday’s light-wind medium-distance race, the lead was taken by Mauro Gestris’s Italian TP52 “Vudu”. Third place in ORC 0 is currently held by Jeremy Weir’s Wallyrocket 51 “Kilara II”.
Copa del Rey: The “Red Bandit” squad are looking to get back on the winning track
The crews on the two German boats are competing in the ORC 0 class: Carl-Peter Forster’s TP52 “Red Bandit” and Michael Berghorn’s Mills 45 “Halbtrocken 4.5” from the Halbtrocken Sailing Club were in seventh and eighth place respectively following Tuesday’s two short races and the 32-nautical-mile coastal race. Yet “Red Bandit”, from the Bavarian Yacht Club, had already shown with a third-place finish in the opening race that more is possible in this top-class fleet. The crew aims to the unfortunate mast break at the 2025 Admiral’s Cup and the oar break during the Sardinia Cup back on the road to success this year.
“Red Bandit” project manager Moriz Forster said: “With the new mast, we’re continuing to work on getting the boat back up to full speed. However, this is a somewhat more time-consuming process, as it’s a completely new rig. The old rig was still the original version. Now we have a rig that almost meets the modern standards of the 52 Super Series, but it simply doesn’t suit our sail profiles. That’s why we’re currently working on refining all of this, adapting the sails and changing the way we use the rig. But we only have a limited number of sailing days. You learn a lot every day.”
The thrill of competing against the King
For the crew on “Red Bandit”, the Copa de Rey Mapfre also marks their first regatta with the new rudder. Moriz Forster commented: “It’s definitely different from the old one. The previous one was a rather outdated design – the original rudder, too. And the new one, on the other hand, is a modern design that will hopefully give us a performance boost.” The young Forster also had this to say about competing in ORC 0: “We love competing against the King. Especially now that he has a highly competitive boat.”
In ORC A, as has often been the case in the past, Christian Plump’s Swan 42S “Elena Nova” is battling for a place on the podium. However, after the first three races, two 40-foot Carkeeks – the Estonian “Nola” and Niklas Zennström’s Swedish “Ran” – were initially ahead of the German stalwart. Johannes Wackerhagen’s Knierim 49 “Desna” held on to ninth place in the top ten. In eleventh and thirteenth places came Sascha Schröder’s Neo 430 Roma “Neomind” and Jan Opländer’s Swan 45 “Katima”.
In ORC B, with no German boats taking part, two Spanish yachts – the X-41 “Maximo” and the XR 41 “Teatro Soho San Miguel” – are battling it out for the lead. The XR 41 is owned by Javier Banderas. The brother of actor and director Antonio Banderas has already won the Copa del Rey eight times and is competing this time with a new boat.
“Earlybird” leads in ORC C, with “Niramo” just one point behind
No fewer than five German boats are competing in ORC C. And in the case of Hendrik Brandis’s “Earlybirds” on the Cape 31, they’re doing so very successfully right from the start. After finishing 5th, 3rd and 2nd, “Earlybird” (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein/Bayerischer Yacht-Club) leads the standings, level on points with its Italian class rival “Django” (both on 10 points) skippered by Vittorio Lombardi. Four-time Copa winner Hendrik Brandis said with a smile: “We’re pleased. The main thing was that, after five hours of sailing today, we beat ‘Django’ by two seconds on calculated time. We have to give them a bit of credit – we were 19 seconds faster on the water.”
The Spanish Vrolijk 37 “Project Work” (11 points) is hot on the heels of the Cape duo, trailing by just one point, as is Sönke Meier-Sawatzki’s Kieler Woche winner “Niramo” – also a Cape 31, which was still in the lead after the first day. There’s certainly some excitement in the air in ORC C. The most successful Copa boat so far is Pedro Vaquer’s ClubSwan 42 “Nadir”, which has won all four races held in the one-design class, featuring seven entrants. Here, the other boats’ coastal race was replaced by two further short races.
Kick-off! The hosts of the 44th Copa del Rey showed this clip after day one. Some of the frontrunners from the previous evening were no longer in the running after Wednesday’s Coastal round:
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter