Three major competitions in a single event, the PalmaVela

La Larga as an offshore event, the 52 Super Series as a professional circuit and the multi-class PalmaVela will make this edition the most extensive and complete in its history with up to 10 uninterrupted days of racing.

The 20th PalmaVela has already kicked off with the official presentation of the regatta at the Real Club Náutico de Palma. The event was presided over by the president of the RCNP, Rafael Gil, and was attended, among other authorities and personalities, by Pedro Vidal Monserrat, regional secretary of Culture and Sports; David Salom, director general of sports of the Palma City Council; Joaquín 'Ximo' González, vice president of the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation; and Ursula Bettega, communications manager of Wally.

Few events and few clubs have the capacity to be as flexible and versatile as PalmaVela and the RCNP, which in just four editions has gone from being a five-day event with a single competition to a ten-day event with three different competitions, bringing together more than 160 medium and large boats between the three races being held in this twentieth edition, and bringing together more than 1,500 sailors from twenty countries.

When in 2021 the organizing committee of PalmaVela decided to meet the demand of many Mediterranean yacht owners for the RCNP to have a high competition offshore race, the aim was to extend the event to an offshore race, calling it ‘La Larga’ and thus commemorating the colloquial name of the old offshore regattas of the Copa del Rey MAPFRE.

The evolution of ‘La Larga’ has been constant and from 17 entries in its first edition, this year, in its fourth edition, there are already around fifty teams from eight countries in the ORC A2 (two crew) and ORC (full crew) categories. The planned course has doubled its distance to 300 miles.

PalmaVela will include in its competition programme, as the second event, the first regatta of the 2024 season of the 52 Super Series, considered the best Grand Prix regatta circuit in the world and which for the first time in history will be added to the Balearic regatta. The RCN de Palma will host ten teams of seven nationalities aboard TP52 units sailed by international crews full of world, Olympic or America's Cup champions. As the most significant novelty, two boats that left the shipyard just a few weeks ago will make their eagerly awaited debut in the Bay of Palma: the German Platoon of owner and helmsman Harm Müller-Spreer (champion of the 2023 circuit) and the British Alegre of Andy Soriano.

The multi-class regatta is already a classic of the circuit, being the first big regatta of the year, which is joined not only by the fleets that live together in the Mediterranean but also by those returning from winter regattas in the Caribbean and those that come back for the classic spring and summer races.

The versatility of PalmaVela allows such different fleets to compete, ranging from the imposing Maxis, the fully crewed ORCs and the two-man ORC A2s, to the J/70 and J/80 monotypes, as well as the emerging 6 Meter class and the now classic Dragon and Espiritu Tradició fleets.

PalmaVela will have four final days of competition after the 52 Super Series, from Thursday the 2nd of May to Sunday the 5th. This 20th edition will bring the curtain down at 18:30, after the prize-giving ceremony of a historic PalmaVela, both for its duration and for the quality of its competitions. This year's trophy collection will be signed by Beatriz García Infante and Félix Comas.