Moat, Dark Horse and Aurelius leaders of the Ibiza JoySail

With the entire fleet already concentrated in Marina Ibiza, the superyachts sailed their first race in the waters of Ibiza, where Moat in Performance, Dark Horse in Performance Cruising and Aurelius in World Cruising are the first leaders. The J-Classes, who did one race on Wednesday, were finally unable to race on Thursday after several hours on the water.

There was a great desire to see the superyachts in action, the weather forecast of light southerly winds came true and the fleet had to travel to Es Vedrà, twelve miles from Marina Ibiza to be able to sail in the best wind.

So the fleet had a rolling start every two minutes with the boats starting from slowest to fastest according to their rating. In this way, the first to cross the start line was Dystra 111 Aurelius and the last to do so was Swan 115 Jasi. The course was 11.98 miles.

Gaspar Morey, president of the Superyachts Race Committee, said of today's race: "We did a coastal race between Es Vedrà and a variable mark 4 miles to the north. It was a fairly technical course with a stern and an upwind leg of 4 miles each".

The start, located next to the islet of Es Vedrà, took place downwind, with most of the boats with code zero, with an intensity that barely exceeded 6-7 knots, and after rounding half of the islet, heading for a buoy located between Cala Vedella and Cala Molí.

Moat (Swan 115), the big favorite in all the pools in Performance, and the only boat to have won the first two editions of the Ibiza JoySail soon took the lead, Juan Ball's boat, with Guillermo Parada at the helm, was the first to pass the buoy, clear of the rest of the fleet. All Smoke (SW-RP 90) followed in the wake in real time. Finally, Moat was the winner, followed by her 'twin' Jasi and third in the classification was All Smoke itself. In Corinthian, the Spanish boat Kiboko (SW 105) is first and fourth overall. Aragon dropped out due to a breakage.

The Dark Horse (Swan80), another of the pioneers of the Ibiza JoySail, has pleasantly surprised this year by its competitiveness in the Performance Cruising category. The British boat was sailing in the front group until almost the end of the upwind leg, where it was overtaken in real time by Kiboko, a boat 25 feet bigger. Second was Prevail (Tripp 90) and third was Shambo (Y7 70).

The Aurelius (Dystra 111) also showed good feelings from the very start, and was leading the fleet for much of the first leg, the Alarife Cien (Custom 99) is another of the Spanish boats in competition, is second and the Scorpion of London, third.

As for the J Class, which did compete on Wednesday, they had their race course to the north of Formentera, but the wind barely reached 5 knots, so they could not compete in any race.

For Friday the two fleets will be unified, and the intention of the organization is to make a coastal course where the J-Class on one side and the Superyachts on the other.