Stella Leads International 6M Class at 52 Trofeo Princesa Iberostar

As the giant Olympic classes fleet preparing for Monday's start to 52 Trofeo Princesa Iberostar put in their penultimate day of the training on the shimmering waters of the Bay of Palma in near perfect conditions and warm spring sunshine, the keelboats and ORC racer-cruisers enjoyed excellent conditions for their races. 

In the International 6 Metre class which sees nine boats racing it is Violetta Alvarez's 2017 Juan Kouyoumdjian designed Stella leading the fleet after two days of racing. The crew owner Alvarez sailing with Pablo Iglesias, Marcos Iglesias, David Madrazo, Rodrigo Sanz, posted a first and a third to lead from Dieter Schoen's Momo which won the second race of the day. 

Main Trimmer and Tactician on Stella, Pablo Iglesias reported, "We waited for the wind to arrive and it was true to the forecast, increasing to 17 knots. Palma is a great place for 6 Metre racing, and sharing the bay with such a great fleet of Olympic classes is just fantastic. We are strong in these conditions, and we had a good day and now lie first overall. But we are all just starting  out for this season, testing things for the World Championship in Cowes in August and so it too early to draw any conclusions." 

In the J/80 fleet the local boat Sal has won five of the six races and so had built a solid overall lead with one day of racing left. Racing for their first time at the 52 Trofeo Princesa Iberostar, the J/70s find Luis Albert Solara's Patakin leading but only on coutback ahead of the Grand Canarias crew of Hang Ten lead by Jorge Martinez Doreste whilst in third is Pablo Garriga's Tenaz which has Rayco Tabarez as tactician. 

The Dragon class also sees a tie at the top between the Palma boat Mr Nova and the British team of Donald Milne, Martin Payne and Pete Cooke on True Story, both locked on nine points. And in the ORC fleet the young German team from Kiel on Immac Fram, winners of PalmaVela last year who were fifth at Copa del Rey, lead the combined ORC class counting two wins.

The 52 Trofeo S.A.R. Princesa Sofía Mallorca by Iberostar is the first qualifying event for the Sailing World Cup 2023 and will be held from 29 March to 8 April under the joint organisation of the Club Nàutic S'Arenal, the Club Marítimo San Antonio de la Playa, the Real Club Náutico de Palma, the Real Federación Española de Vela and the Federación Balear de Vela, with the backing of World Sailing and the main Balearic public institutions. It is funded by the European Union Next Generation EU, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan and the Balearic Islands Tourism Strategy Agency.