PalmaVela crowns the winners of its 20th edition

The forecasts did not fail and, as expected, the last day of the 20th PalmaVela was sailed in a breeze of between six and eight knots. The fleet had to wait for the wind to pick up in the bay of Palma and it wasn't until 13:00 hours that the first starting horns began to sound.

The winners of the 20th PalmaVela are "Galateia" in IMA Maxi, "Urbania" in ORC 0, "Windwhisper44" in ORC 1, "M8 Zas Composite & Rigging" in ORC 2, "Lady" in ORC 3, "Tres Mares" in ORC 4-5, "Azuree" in ORC A2, "Stella" in 6 Meters, "Ise "r in J80, "Balearia" in J70 and "Yeahnah" in Dragon.

The IMA Maxi, ORC 2, 3 and A2 classes completed a coastal course around the bay of Palma that took them to Enderrocat, a cape located in the eastern part of the bay.

The large yachts, in the IMA Maxi class, completed their second coastal race of this edition of PalmaVela. With a slightly shorter course than that of Saturday, the Wally Cento "V" was the fastest, completing the 16 miles (almost 30 km) of the race in just under two hours. This victory has allowed Ole Hansen's crew to draw level on eight points with the leader "Galateia", however, it has not been enough to snatch the victory from the defending champions, as they have accumulated one more partial victory. The J Class "Svea" was fourth in the coastal race and leaves PalmaVela in third place overall.

Almost four minutes ahead of the winner of the coastal race in ORC 2: "M8 Zas Composite & Rigging". Grand Soleil from the RCN of Valencia was also proclaimed winner of PalmaVela in its class, followed by "Kim" and "Viking IX".

After taking the lead, "Lady", from the RCN de Barcelona and the "Yacht Club Uruguayo", won the nearly 10 mile (18 km) coastal race for the ORC 3, taking the definitive victory in its category. Pep Pons' "Wanderlust" finished the 20th PalmaVela, ceding second place overall to "Shazam", third.

No changes in the ORC A2 classification. "Azuree", armed and skippered by Eduardo Horrach, has added his third partial victory by also winning Sunday's race and sentencing the overall of the cruisers crewed by two people. "Kyo V", skippered by Guillermo Durán, took silver, while the defending champion in this category, "Smerit", skippered by Tito Moure, was unable to revalidate the victory after finishing in third place.

Three TP52s make up the final podium in ORC 0, after two Windward-Leeward-Leeward races, after which the podium was confirmed. Tomás Gasset's "Urbania" (1-2), the Spanish Armada's "Aifos" (3-1) and Toni Guiu's "Blue Carbon" (2-3) were the protagonists of a three-way battle that was resolved in favour of the leader throughout the regatta, "Urbania", by just one point.

Third in 2023, the ClubSwan 42 "Nadir", of the Mallorcan Pedro Vaquer, took to the water to give it all in ORC 1 and try to take advantage of their last chance to climb from the second step to the top of the podium, but it was not to be. The Polish "Windwhisper44", leader from the start, won the first race on Sunday while the CV Puerto Andratx team was fifth, a result that mathematically made it impossible to snatch the victory from the Polish team, who did not finish the second and last race. "Nadir" bids farewell to this PalmaVela with a partial victory, improving on last year's result by one place. Another ClubSwan 42, "Pez de Abril", finishes in bronze place in ORC 1.

In ORC 4-5 the CN Arenal boat "Tres Mares" took the lead on the first day and never let go. In the first race on Sunday, Juan Escandell's crew had their worst result so far, a fourth place, which they quickly made up for by winning the fifth and final race of this PalmaVela. "Merengue V", from the RCNP, has managed to climb up to second place after a great day (1-2) while the winner of the last edition, Scott Beattie's "Just the Job", closes the podium in third place.

The four classes on the Alfa course, located in front of the cathedral of Palma, all compete in real time: the first to cross the line wins. The 6 Meters, Dragons, J70s and J80s have added two more races to their scoreboard.

Maximum equality in the overall 6 Meters, a class in which "Stella" (2-5) takes her first PalmaVela by the minimum, tied on 11 points with the second, "Momo", of Dieter Schoen (4-7). The tie-breaker is decided in favour of the boat with the most partial victories and therefore the current world runners-up, led by Violeta Álvarez, took the victory in Palma.

The performance of the 6 Metros "Astra", from the CN Arenal and with Marc Patiño at the helm, was worthy of note, being the best of the day with a first and a second in the two races of the day.

In J70, an uncontested victory for María Bover's "Balearia", who wins her second consecutive victory in PalmaVela after winning in 2023 in J80. Two more races, two victories for the crew of the RCN de Palma, who say goodbye to this 20th edition with a total of six wins out of eight races.

The podium was confirmed as definitive in the J80 class, where the RCN Valencia boat "Iser" won. The crew led by Manuel de Tomás has been the most regular in its category and has signed a consistent partial 2-3 against the 3-1 of Sal -second- and the DSQ (disqualified)-6 of "Dorsia Sailing Team" -that finishes third-.

Tied on six points, the first and second in the Dragon class took to the water, but "Aurum" was unable to hold on to the lead, proclaiming "Yeahnah", of the Swiss Ben Kolff, the winner of the 20th PalmaVela. The winner of the last PalmaVela, Carlos Carbajal's "Capa", finished in third place.