Dragonera, Menorca and Cabrera, protagonists in La Larga, which starts tomorrow in Palma

The Real Club Náutico de Palma opens, for another year, now 19, one of its iconic events and the first major event in the regatta calendar in the Mediterranean: Palma Vela. Tomorrow at 12 o’clock the La Larga dispute begins, a high-altitude race in which 35 sailboats will participate, which will serve as a prologue to the multi-class competition that begins on Thursday, May 4.

The IRC and ORC 1 classes will complete the route that starts in front of Portitxolo, leaving the islands of Mallorca, Menorca and Cabrera to the right and ending in front of the Palacio de Congresos de Palma. There will be a total of 240 miles where the participants will have to deal with the prevailing conditions.

In the case of classes ORC 2-4, A2 4-5 and A2 0-3, the route will be 200 miles long, starting at the same point as the previous ones. They will have to leave Mallorca and Isla del Aire (southeast of Menorca, next to Mahón) to starboard to then head towards the finish line.

Given the conditions, a maximum wind intensity of 18 knots is generally expected with gusts that could reach 22 and a minimum wind of four knots. The average wind during the race is expected to be 10 knots.

“The instability of the weather forecast is the main stumbling block at the moment as there is low pressure moving east and predictions are still predictions. It may not fill and at some point we’ll have a lull or a hole with no wind where the fleet is stopped, but if it fills it looks like it will be a relatively fast race: eight knots average speed for the big boats and six knots average for the small ones, which is good speed,” says Gaspar Morey, RCNP Race Officer.

35 participants in five classes

At the IRC Volvo Open 70 I Love Poland will be the fastest boat in the entire fleet and the leading candidate, in all classes, to cross the finish line first. The colorful note will be provided by the legendary Maxi from 1961 Stormvogel, the film boat for Nicole Kidman, Sam Neill and Billy Zane in Dead Peace, which has triumphs in legendary offshore regattas such as Fastnet Race and Sydney-Hobart. .

In ORC 1, the Dutch team Silver Swan (Swan 53) will be one of the main favorites after finishing second in the 2022 edition. This class will have a fleet of nine more teams with lengths between 56 and 44 feet, with the exception of the Austrian Stargazer, from the family Schuler, a 40-footer that will play the small boat trick.

In ORC 2-4, both Jaime Morello’s Mestral (Sun Fast 36) and Toni Marqués’ S’Avenc (Salona 37) will be rivals to beat the rest of the fleet in their class.

ORC A2 (two crew) is divided into two classes, 0-3 with the longest boats such as Tita Moure’s Smerit and Alberto de Castro’s Brujo, both Swan 45s, who will be the main favorites against the ten-team fleet in his class. For its part in the other A2 class, 4-5, Gabriele Pohlmann’s Meerblick Fun (J99) will defend the 2022 title against six other teams.

Once the Larga de Palmavela begins, the fleet will have until Tuesday the 3rd at 10:00am to complete the route.