43 Copa del Rey MAPFRE Day 1
by Copa del Rey MAPFRE 29 Jul 10:12 PDT
26 July - 2 August 2025
Italian teams and yachts made a strong start to the 2025 ORC European Championships at the 43rd Copa del Rey MAPFRE. A promising offshore breeze which topped 14kts at times diminished as the afternoon rolled meaning only the one windward leeward race could be contested, but it was enough for top Italian teams to establish an early lead in the ABANCA ORC 0 where it is Bonfiglio Mariotti's TP52 Blue which tops a tightly packed division.
In Sail Racing ORC A the ClubSwan 42 of Nicolo De Gemmis, Morgan V, recent winner of the Italian ORC Championship won the first race whilst in Ubico ORC B the Italia Yachts 11.98 Guardamago steered by Massimo Romeo Piparo which is the early leader, triumphing today. And while it is Germany's recently crowned ClubSwan 50 world champion Hendrik Brandis and his crew which lead Uber ORC Class C, the boat this week bearing his Early Bird name is otherwise known as Stig, the Italian boat which is dominating the Cape 31 class in Europe at the moment.
At the end of the windward leeward races of around 56 minutes to 1hr 10mins the margins of victory were tiny. On corrected time 0 and A divisions went down to seven seconds and five seconds confirming there could be no margin for error.
The Blue team are racing together at Copa del Rey for the first time but has the combined talents of Portugal's Olympic bronze medallist Nuno Barretto and three times Olympian Afonso Domingos in the afterguard of the boat which started life as Audi Q8, helm Michele Mazzotti says: "We are so close with the other TP52s on handicap so we knew it would be close and also we have just come from Valencia and so we know the differences are so small, but we had a good race. We had a very good start in the middle of the line, on time and fast and Afonso did a great job picking all the right shifts. We have not been here before as a team but I raced the Princess Sofia on the 49er and the 470 many times so I know the bay. The team is from Rimini and the core is seven or eight of us friends from Rimini. Unfortunately our owner could not be with us this week. We won the Barcolana race last year."
ABANCA ORC 0 is very much the domain of the TP52 - seven of the top 10 finishers being TP52s including the 52 SUPER SERIES optimised Spirit of Malouen XI of Jean-Luc Petithuguenin which led the fleet home today with French 49er duo Jean Baptiste Bernaz, past ILCA 7 world champ and five times Olympian and Jérémie Mion 470 double Olympian guesting on board this week along with a cameo appearance from veteran navigator Yann Chateau. They dropped to fourth on corrected time, 16 seconds behind the winners. Aifos with the King of Spain, Felipe, steering was ninth.
And if Class 0 is the home of the TP52, Sail Racing ORC A has a posse of very strong and successful ClubSwan42s to the fore. Today it was the freshly crowned Italian Champions Morgan V which escaped to a slender win by five seconds ahead of the top local boats Pez de Abril of Jose Maria Meseguer with Christian Plump's German flagged RCNP based Elena Nova a further four seconds behind. ClubSwan 42s took all three top positions. Mario Zaetti helmsman recalls, "We made a good race it was very tricky as the wind was coming off the shore and so there were many shifts and big changes in intensity. We did a good job after making a good start in the middle, we were clear and fast. This is the first time for us here at the Europeans but having just won the Italian championship then this is the next obvious step up for us. We are all from Bari in the very south of Italy."
And the Italian tricolour is also on top of Division B where it is last year's Copa del Rey MAPFRE runner up Guardamago which has started best. Their margin of victory today was some 22 seconds on corrected time. The team which has been together for around five years is led by owner-driver Massimo Romeo Piparo who explained after racing, "We did not expect to win the first race because the fleet is such a high level so anyone can be first or tenth. But this the best beginning we could have hoped for. The key for us today was maximum concentration, don't give up any metres. We are from Circolo Aniene near Rome and we were just second in the Italian championship so are well trained to be here and we were second in Class B here last year."
UBER ORC Class C sees Germany's Hendrik Brandis and crew on top after one race. Brandis is a regular in the ClubSwan fleets here winning the ClubSwan 45s and ClubSwan 50 multiple times. With no class of 50s this year he has opted to race a Cape 31. The Mills design is not new to him or his team as he raced a couple of events in South Africa in the winter. Fresh from finally winning the ClubSwan 50 title in Porto Cervo again Brandis is out to really enjoy the Copa del Rey. He is sailing with his world champion winning tactician, local ace Manu Weiller.
"Today was classic, we won I think by 40 seconds. The boat is chartered but is a good boat with good sails and well sorted, we are pleased with the boatspeed. We got a good start and were on the right side of the first upwind but it was very, very shifty. We were first at the top mark by about 100 metres and then it is always easy to sail from the front." Brandis enthused after racing, "I am still so much just enjoying being world champion, it was so long coming, 11 years since the last time."
Tomorrow Wednesday sees the 43rd Copa del Rey MAPFRE reach its full size with the opening of the Balearia Womens Cup which opens with the first Round Robin races in flights of six. Meanwhile the ORC European Championships fleets take on a Coastal Race which is due to be of between 10 and 12 hours duration.
Find out more at www.regatacopadelrey.com