Fundació Navegació Oceànica Barcelona

This was yet another Sailing Tour of Spain leg with a gripping and unpredictable finish, where first place was decided at just five miles from the finish for PRB, whilst there was just ten minutes between the second and fifth entries, following 36 hours of competition.

From the Palamós scoring gate (1-Movistar, 2-Estrella Damm, 3-Safran, 4-PRB and 5-W Hotels-Nova Bocana) options were aplenty, and as the wind moved from southwest to west the benefits for the coastal and open sea also shifted. With night falling as the yachts passed Mataró the wind dropped somewhat and small gusts gave some and then others different options.

The final tack along the coast for PRB allowed the yacht to get away a few valuable metres ahead and to win her second leg victory, leaving a ferocious fight in her trail where the third step on the final podium would be decided. Safran already had the regatta in the bag at the Palamós scoring gate and PRB had second place under their belts. However PRB wasn't going to finish this regatta by conceding a partial victory to fellow French entry, and ended this first important regatta around the Iberian peninsula for the IMOCA Open 60s on a high note.

Of the three Spanish entries, Movistar was dismounted and in desperate need of a victory, whilst depending on results from Estrella Damm and W Hotels. Estrella Damm had a two boat margin over W Hotels, which would remain so providing her rival didn't finish in second or first place at Barcelona. Estrella Damm managed to maintain the gap finishing in fifth place with W Hotels in third, unable to overcome Safran. In the end Estrella Damm's best leg results played in her favour for a finish joint on points with W Hotels.

GAES Centros Auditivos, Central Lechera Asturiana and Pakea-Bizkaia held their overall positions, having repeated positions over the six legs in the regatta: GAES in sixth place, Central Lechera Asturiana in seventh and Pakea-Bizkaia in eighth.

Quotes:

Pepe Ribes (ESP), Estrella Damm: “I'm very happy with the third place finish. Before we set off on this Tour we thought that W Hotels and Movistar would be ahead, as I think that their yachts are faster. The beat us outright a year ago in the European Tour. The two French teams are untouchable, they just don't falter and I think that they came here the most prepared and with the strongest crews. I think that the Sailing Tour of Spain is a great regatta and all of the crews here agree on that, it's got a future. It's very diverse in terms of the conditions on offer, and it's exciting in terms of the close contact between the entries and fun because of the close competition we've seen in some of these legs. I hope I'm here for the second edition”.

Toño Piris (ESP), W Hotels-Nova Bocana: “This is a good leg finishing position for us because we dropped off somewhat after a good start and a good first phase. We were trailing but then we got back in the group to fight, so we're happy to have made the comeback. Breakages of some of our important sails held us back somewhat. A fourth place finish is good”.

Iker MartÌnez (ESP), Movistar: “It looked like we had this last leg, but with the conditions we were dealt after Palamós it was almost impossible, and PRB and Safran are a step ahead. Getting ahead of those two was impossible, but we did think we might be able to make second place. We held second until a few miles before the finish, but we made a mistake. The best leg was the Sanxenxo – Calpe leg, as it really captured what the Sailing Tour of Spain is, and winning that leg means being the most well-rounded entry in different sailing conditions”.

Vincent Riou (FRA), PRB: “This has been a tricky leg. As we left Mallorca there were very different options open to us and it looked like some considerable differences were to be drawn out. In the end we reached Palamós fairly bunched together and then we finished with a magnificent 30 miles, with lots of contact and tactics. I'm happy to have won another leg and to have swiped this from Safran, because they have been sailing really well and it hasn't been easy to overtake them”.

Marc Guillemot (FRA), Safran: “We can't be disappointed that we didn't win this leg, as we fought to the end. It was a very competitive leg, right up until the finishing line. There were moments where we thought we were going to win and others where we thought we were going to finish fifth. From Palma to Palamós we sailed well and we're happy with our performance. Compared to PRB we suffered with the lack of breeze, because with their rigging with outrigged spreaders they can carry larger headsails than us. Seeing how the leg was evolving, we thought that Movistar would take it”.

Anna Corbella (ESP), GAES Centros Auditivos: “I think the Sailing Tour of Spain has gone well for us, as we've been able to try out the changes we made to the boat during April and May and we've progressed considerably. The boat is very fast, but we still need to get to know it better, because we haven't always pushed her to her full potential. We have to improve on our sail combinations and really get to know the optimum speeds for each type of condition. I also think that I need to get more to grips with navigational and the meteorological side of things. We're going to England now and we'll be sailing in a regatta there ahead of a few weeks of training in the Canary Islands, so we'll be putting a lot more hours into the boat”.

Juan Merediz (ESP), Central Lechera Asturiana: “We've been a lot closer to the group than we thought we would be before we began this Sailing Tour of Spain and we're happy with our performance and the boat's performance. We had the idea of coming to this regatta with the same sort of configuration we'd be using for the Barcelona World Race, but at the same time we didn't want to strengthen the team with navigational or meteorological experts. Nor did it cross our minds to lighten the boat or to find sails that might be better for this course, as we were trying as far as possible to create the situation ahead for the round the world race”.

Overall Final Rankings for the Sailing Tour of Spain
1st Safran, Marc Guillemot, FRA, 11,5 (1+2+0,5+1+0,5+2+1+1,5+2)
2nd PRB, Vincent Riou, FRA, 18,5 (2+1+1+2+1,5+6+2+2+1)
3rd Estrella Damm, P.Ribes/ A.Pella, ESP, 32 (5+5+2+4+1+4+5+1+5)
4th W Hotels-Nova Bocana, P.Rivero/ A.Piris, ESP, 32 (4+4+1,5+3+3+8+3+2,5+3)
5th Movistar, I.MartÌnez/ X.Fern•ndez, ESP, 35,5 (3+3+2,5+6+2,5+10+4+0,5+4)
6th GAES Centros Auditivos, D.Caffari/ A.Corbella, GBR/ESP, 49 (6+6+3+5+2+12+6+3+6)
7th Central Lechera Asturiana, J.Merediz/ F.Palacio, ESP, 59,5 (7+7+3,5+7+3,5+14+7+3,5+7)
8th Pakea Bizkaia, J.Mumbr˙/ C.Sanmarti, ESP, 68* (8+8+4+8+4+16+8+4+8)