PalmaVela: Seven winners for La Larga - Pit Finis' "Alegria" wins her class

The host Real Club Náutico de Palma has concluded the fifth edition of the La Larga long-distance race and at the same time given the official starting signal for the 21st Sandberg PalmaVela. 35 yachts took part in the offshore race, which kept many of the crews busy into the night and sometimes into the early hours of the morning. Most of them will also start in the main PalmaVela programme from 1 May.

First La Larga, then PalmaVela action

The fleet had to contend with a wide variety of conditions on the more than 200 nautical mile course. These ranged from wind speeds of over 15 knots in the initial phase towards Ibiza to light breezes around Cabrera, where the teams had to fight to reach the final obligatory waypoint at Porto Colom and head for the finish. Click here for the results from La Larga.

The line honours of the fifth edition of the La Larga long-distance race had already been won on Sunday by the VOR 70 "Trifork" under the flag of the host Real Club Nautico de Palma. The team led by helmsman Joern Larsen and skipper Jens Dolmer completed the race in 24 hours, 34 minutes and 52 seconds. The speedy performance was also enough to secure victory in the overall IRC standings ahead of the Polish Mylius 60 FD "R6" skippered by Robert Szustkowski. Third place went to Jean-Pierre Barjon's "Spirit of Loriana".

In ORC 0, victory went to "Azahar" with skipper Herve Grunig. The Spanish Swan 56 crossed the finish line in the bay of Palma on Monday morning shortly after 5 o'clock. The "Azahar" crew thus secured a calculated lead of 25 minutes over the German-flagged Contest 63 "Blue Vision" sailed by Ersu Enis. Frans Van Dijk's Knierim 50 "Caveman IV" sailed to third place on the podium.

Class victory for Pit Finis' "Alegria"

The battle for the long-distance class win in ORC 1 was a close one. After just over 37 hours of sailing, Ruud Van Es' XP 44 "Xummer" prevailed over Robert in the Haaks Swan 53 "Vertigo" by just 16 calculated minutes. Third place went to Gabriel Medem's First 53 SD "Aviador".

There was a German victory in the ORC 2-3 division: Pit Finis' First 44 "Alegria" from the Düsseldorfer Yacht-Club was 24 minutes faster than Diego Colón's Nautatec 42 "Gudrun VIII". It was followed by the Infinity 36 GT "Kine" from Seac McCarter. In ORC 4-5, victory went to the X 302 "Indigo" of Pedro Siquier. The Spanish crew had finished more than an hour behind the Sun Fast 36 "Mestral Fast", but secured the group win after an ORC handicap correction.

In the double-handed division ORC A2 0-2, the crew on the Swiss IMS 42 "Modul" of Félix Comas took victory. The second double-handed class A2 3-5 was won by the Sun Fast 3300 "Guaguanco IV" of Thierry Lallemand, who had recently won the XII. Volta a Mallorca A3.

Wieser, Magg and Kleen on "Momo"

With the starting signal for the 21st Sandberg PalmaVela on 1 May, other German big boats and sailors will be joining many La Larga starters in the racing action in the Bay of Palma. Among them are Markus Wieser, Eberhard Magg and Fridtjof Kleen, who are usually among the front runners with Dieter Schön's crew on his Swiss six "Momo".