The “Modul” and “Enero” are awarded at the VIII Volta a Mallorca A3

The “Modul”, sponsored by Félix Comas, and the “Enero”, with Luis Bustillo at the tiller, are claimed winners of the VIII Vuelta a Mallorca A3 organized by the Real Club Náutico de Palma (RCNP), competition that has gathered 17 boats grouped in classes of ORC 0-3 and ORC 4-5.

The crossing consisted of a coastal course between Palma and Portocolom (outward and return), given that last Friday the start had to be postponed due to the strong storm that hit the Balearic Islands, with gusts of more than 40 knots and 5-meter waves. The two winners won, as well as in corrected time, in real time, sailing most of the course at the front of the fleet.

In ORC 0-3, "Modul" (a JV42) stopped the clock in 14:21:03, which, after correcting the times, allowed it to obtain a meager three-minute advantage over Juan José Torres "Histolab" (First 40.9) and seven minutes over the third placed "Sayonara Light" (Archambaud 34), skippered by Sascha Jaeger. The boats in this category had to take the Conejera islet to starboard on their way back to Palma, after rounding a mark off Portocolom. They completed a total of 88.63 nautical miles.

The smaller yachts competed in the ORC 4-5 class and covered 6 miles less than the others, as they did not have to head to Conejera. The "Enero" (Dufour 34) was the first to cross the finish line, with a time of 15:21:44. Once the time compensation was applied, its advantage of just over an hour over the second placed "Blau Marina", of Miquel Ensenyat (First 31.7) was reduced to 26 minutes. Third place went to Thierry Lallemand's "Guaguanaco IV" (Sun Fast 330) from Altea.

The weather conditions, as explained by Gaspar Morey, race officer of the RCNP, forced the participants to work hard: "The wind was quite unstable in direction and intensity and the storm of the previous day left a lot of waves. We had the first start at 10am on Saturday morning with a north-easterly wind, which gradually shifted to south as the race progressed.  At night, the pressure dropped quite a lot, especially in the Bay of Palma, where the ORC 4-5 boats had very little wind".

Pedro Marí, crew member of "Enero", confirmed that the crossing was indeed marked by wind shifts and "a very heavy wave". The anemometer of the winner in the 4-5 class registered gusts of 26 knots on the downwind leg prior to the arrival at Portocolom, but shortly after rounding the mark, the headwind and less intense wind made the climb up to Cabo Blanco by taking very hard.

The Volta a Mallorca A3 pays tribute to Jaume Binimelis, historic commodore of the Real Club Náutico de Palma and owner of the Petrouchka III, with which he won three editions of this regatta and two of the Middle Sea Race, the round Sicily race from Malta. Binimelis passed away on the 14th of October 2018 while taking part in the Palma-Andratx regatta.