1st Winter Series in Puerto Portals….

           20 Dragons enjoyed the 1st Winter Series in Puerto Portals 4th-6th Nov.

With 27 Dragons now registered for the Puerto Portals Winter Series it was pleasing to see 20 teams make it to the start line last weekend for the opening event, 4th – 6th November.

Unfortunately, the wind was too strong on Friday 4th and Race Officer Ariane Mainemare made an early call to abandon racing for the day. This allowed competitors to have a relaxing lunch and enjoy the 23 degrees of sunshine and blue skies. In the evening everyone was invited to a Petticrows reception hosted by Jordi Cabau new owner of ESP 79 “Aurum” (the latest Petticrows V6.1 built in Portugal). This took place at Jordi’s Hotel Gloria de Sant Jaume in Palma and a nice time was had by all.

ESP 79 “Aurum” New Petticrows V6.1 Jordi Cabau, Tanit Cabau Wolf & Mark O’Connor.

On Saturday the PRO decided to try an earlier start of 10am with the hope to make up for time lost on Friday, but despite starting 3 races only one was completed due to the dying breeze. This race was won by Werner Deuring helming AUT 207 “Basic Logic”, crewed by Pedro Andrade & Joao Vidinha. It was an unfortunate day for GER 1180 “Rosie” helmed by Benji Morgan as he was leading both races that were abandoned but as he told me after, it was great practice and we enjoyed everything until the November Flag was displayed 🙂

Winners of Race 1 AUT 207 Werner Deuring, Pedro Andrade & Joao Vidinha.

On Sunday another 10am start got the fleet out early so that near perfect conditions could be enjoyed by all. 3 races were completed in a 10 to 14kt breeze from around 235 degrees. Making the most of this great sailing day was GER 1186 “Goldkante” helmed by Tanja Jacobsohn, crewed by her Husband Bernard & Jan Scharffetter. Recording 3rd, 2nd & 3rd Tanja showed excellent consistency to finish top of the leaderboard on just 16pts after the four races.

GER 1186 Tanja Jacobsohn’s spinnaker is about to set, as she dominated the fleet on Sunday.

In 2nd place overall after a fantastic weekend of sailing was GER 1180 “Rosie” helmed by Benji Morgan, crewed by his Dad Karl & Nico Raedecke. Despite the unlucky abandoned races the day before, this Corinthian Team recorded 2nd, 5th & 1st on the final day and were very happy to justify their great start to the 4 winter series program, well done.

GER 1180 “Rosie” 2nd overall in Puerto Portals after 4 races in first series.

3rd overall after this opening series was AUT 207 “Basic Logic”. Not only did Werner Deuring win race 1 but he also won race 3, showing good speed and tactical awareness. Unfortunately, an incident a the top mark in race 4 halted their chances of another top result as they seemed to be glued to the mark for sometime….  🙂 Pedro has yet to give me the full “True” Story!

Great conditions in Puerto Portals for the first Winter Series 2022/2023.

So now we look forward to more boats arriving in Mallorca as we prepare for the 4th IDA Grade 1 regatta and Finals, 15th to 20th November. I will be assisting Ariane, Marta and the Puerto Portals Organising Committee next week and we look forward to a great end to the 2022 Grand prix’s. Up for grabs are the Phyllis & Lowell Chang “Corinthian” Trophy, the “Standfast” Trophy (from Klaus Diederichs & Grant Gordon) to the Overall Grand Prix Winning team and lastly the beautiful “Flow” bronze sculpture (From Sami Salomaa) which is presented to the winning team of the Finals. Watch this space for all the latest action and results or follow us on Facebook.

Higher, Faster, Longer……   Stavros.