After a spectacular first day of racing at the J Class Barcelona Regatta, which saw the beautiful, majestic big yachts of the America’s Cup past in close and exciting action, honours are shared equally between the three-boat fleet’s newest and oldest yachts, Svea and Velsheda.

Both scored a race win apiece, whilst Rainbow finished the first race in third after suffering a spinnaker tear and then had to sit out the second race with damage to their jumper spreader which they hope to have repaired overnight. 

With bright sunshine and winds of just over 20kts at times and a nasty choppy sea, the J Class debut on the America’s Cup waters was everything it should have been, even down to a spirited match race dial up on the second start. Velsheda emerged with a small lead off the line which they increased to build a similar winning margin to that which the Swedish flagged Svea had earned in Race 1. 

Racing in a gusty, cross offshore breeze the teams were kept on their toes throughout both windward-leeward races, whilst the windshifts gave the afterguards plenty of options. Although off the start line they were in the middle of the sandwich between Rainbow to leeward and Velsheda to windward, Svea were able to force Velsheda away and then progressively outpace Rainbow to lead around the first mark. 

They extended down the run and at the leeward gate, where Velsheda and Rainbow then turned opposite marks. With six-times America’s Cup winner Murray Jones calling tactics Rainbow then made a nice gain on the second beat, staying right. But as they hoisted their spinnaker the drop line snagged and the sail ripped right across before part of it dropped in the water. In the drama, Velsheda sailed through to take second behind Svea. 

With just two boats on the start line for the second race Velsheda chose to engage Svea early. They dialled round twice each before Velsheda were able to take the start first with a small lead. At the end of the first round Velsheda, on the smaller number 3 headsail, were 55 seconds ahead which they increased on the next upwind reading a windshift to the right which allowed them to extend further on their Swedish flagged rival which had opted for their bigger, overlapping number 2 headsail.  

“It was a great day on the water.” Smiled Svea’s tactician Bouwe Bekking, “It was a shame Rainbow did not make it for the second race. We had a lot of fun and finishing up after the first day with even honours is just great. In the first race we were stuck in the middle where we did not want to be, but we peeled Velsheda off and then it was all about holding out Rainbow. So, we had a nice lead at the first rounding mark and extended but then Rainbow came back on the second beat. On the second start we were on a big, overlapping jib so we were maybe not as manoeuvrable as Velsheda, so good on them, when you go head to wind with the big headsail the dollars are just flying off the sail, so we took it a bit cautious. They got away from the start and from there sailed a flawless race and so good on them.” 

Equally pleased with their opening day Velsheda’s strategist Andy Beadsworth recalled, “At the start with just the two boats we were a bit nervous that Svea would engage us and so we decided we would engage them first. We got in a strong position but even then, it was fairly loose with both of us spinning in circles, we managed to get a good start to the left and bow forwards and then managed to squeeze them off. It was pretty exciting. These are big boats to be spinning circles on.” 

As expected, the Rainbow team, on their debut at a J Class regatta, showed great potential but were unfortunate in their mishap. Their project manager Mat Sweetman explained, “We had a mistake on the hoist, we got the dropline caught up, we ripped the spinnaker and trawled it out the back of the boat. We did a little damage to our jumper spreader, so we will hopefully get an overnight repair and be back on the water tomorrow.” 

Two races are scheduled tomorrow Wednesday 9 October with a first warning signal around 1130hrs CET. 

J Class Barcelona Regatta 
Race 1 
1 Svea 1h 13m 43s 
2 Velsheda + 1 min 51s 
3 Rainbow  + 3 min 14s 

Race 2 
1 Velsheda 1h12:18 
2 Svea +1m 33s 
DNS Rainbow 

J Class Barcelona Regatta results after two races
1 Velsheda 3pts
2 Svea 3pts 
3 Rainbow 7pts