40 boats have already confirmed their participation in La Larga

The offshore regatta of Sandberg PalmaVela, La Larga, will start next April 26 and will be a re-edition of the recent duel of the ORC A Dos class that took place in the 200 miles A Dos of Altea between Eduardo Horrach's "Azuree" (RCN Palma) and "Guaguanco IV" (CN Altea) of Juan and Thierry Lallemand, father and son.

Horrach, as the owner of "Azuree", comments: "La Larga is establishing itself as a future classic in the Mediterranean's offshore regattas. The multiple course options between our islands are its main attraction. The differentiating factor and greatest attraction compared to other regattas is the ability to adapt the course based on the weather forecast.”

A duel that, two weeks ago, ended in favor of the Altea team by a difference of 20 minutes after nearly 28 hours of racing, both for the general classification and in their ORC B class. This time "Azuree" will be playing at home, in the Balearic archipelago.

"The Altea regatta has been the perfect warm-up for our optimization and for the development of our sports project. The rivalry with "Guaguanco", in addition to many other competitive boats in the A2 class, is an added incentive that helps us improve, being a good reference for its characteristics, similar to our "Azuree"”, added Horrach.

Aside from this duel between the smaller length boats, the offshore regatta of Sandberg PalmaVela will see other rivalries among the larger ORC A2s, such as "Modul" (CN Santa Ponsa) of Félix Comas, who dominated the ORC A class in Altea finishing in first place by a considerable margin. “Personally, I am a lover and defender of reduced crew regattas, whether A2 or A3, two modalities that bring great complicity and knowledge of the boat,” says Comas.

The Balearic skipper predicts a good future for offshore regattas: “As for Sandberg PalmaVela, and more specifically La Larga, I think it was necessary to create such a regatta, and even more within the framework of the regatta. Without a doubt, it will continue to grow as already shown by the participation of good boats and significant crews.”

Such is the case of "Smerit" (CN Blanes) of Tito Moure, which in La Larga 2024 finished just behind the great winner, "Inteman" (RCM Barcelona) of Daniel Martín, who will once again have the round-the-world sailor Dídac Costa as skipper. The Catalan commented after confirming his participation that “the best thing about La Larga is that there is good participation, and that there is a good course.”

The ocean racer elaborated on the offshore test of the Sandberg PalmaVela that “there are more and more boats, which is very positive. Establishing an offshore circuit, in which La Larga de PalmaVela is included, is increasingly raising interest which I think is great.”

For Didac, the ranking is not his primary incentive: “With the rating system, especially in the Mediterranean and in long regattas, it is not easy to draw conclusions about competitiveness, as there are many geographical and weather conditions and it often produces random results. As far as I am concerned, I am interested in sailing well and the result is secondary, an aspect more of this type of regattas, but not the most important.”

Another who returns to La Larga is "Hydra" (CN El Balís) of Óscar Chávez, who comments on the difficulty of offshore regattas for an inshore test boat: “Doing regattas with reduced crew is quite a challenge, as it is a very radical boat, by its sail plan and by its maneuver.”

Chávez explains the difficulty of navigating a boat configured for crew in A2 format: “A boat of this size, with a tuff-luff system on the stay, with a mainsail of that size and with a spinnaker pole means that we have to plan the maneuvers and the regattas very well, being especially critical in conditions of strong winds. It is extremely physically demanding, therefore we depend a lot on a minimally acceptable forecast.”

The Catalan owner clarifies that “it is rare to find a boat that performs in inshore and offshore regattas and also in reduced crew, which shows the great versatility of this DK46 boat design and perhaps also the occasion of its owner to not miss any regatta.”

There are 15 days left until the registration deadline—next March 25—and already 40 teams have registered for the offshore regatta, pending the Regatta Committee of RCN Palma, under the direction of Gaspar Morey, to publish hours before the start, on April 26 at 12:00 hours, the course of this 5th edition of La Larga through the Balearic archipelago.