The HORUS Superyacht Cup Palma was held June 25-27 in Palma De Majorca Spain. Conditions were good for the entire regatta, with the sea breeze developing each day around 1pm and ranging between 6 and 18 knots. There was a good turnout for a recession year, with 18 yachts ranging from the flat out ocean racer MARI CHA III, to the classic schooner SUNSHINE.

The regatta is run in pursuit fashion with the faster boats starting last. The rating committee has the impossible job of calculating how the totally divergent type of yachts will perform, while guessing what the wind direction and strength will be. Needless to say he makes some errors, and then tries to fine tune it each following day. Generally he does a good job considering how impossible it is, with some nice tight finishes in the middle of the fleet, but inevitably he misses a few that win or loose by miles.

I was the tactician aboard the Tripp / Baltic 25m BLACK PEARL. Our team sailed a good series, with clean maneuvers, brilliant tactics (!), and generally good speed in all conditions. We sailed clean and smart for the whole series, stepping up our game each day, and avoiding any major blunders. In the end we finished with a score line of 8, 2, 11 over the three days, for a final place of 6^th. We won the award for the best combined starting deltas, which is a nice reward for our hard efforts. Overall it was a good result for BLACK PEARL’s first regatta and the team had a great time racing together. Hopefully our owner has caught the bug and will enjoy many more regattas to come.