High-speed flyers, carbon missiles and offshore racers: this year’s fleet simply defines va-va-voom. The past two days’ racing, with its close battles and gutsy tactical maneuvers, is a true testament to this year’s solid line-up. And so it figures that today saw concentrated faces at the Captains Breakfast Briefing as even the smallest lapse in judgment could make the difference between coming last and claiming this year’s overall trophy.
Racing was expected to face light winds yet the fleet enjoyed a good 15-17 knots at the start line. The race committee decided on a shorter, yet tactical, 12.7 nm course, one that took the fleet from Ilot de Sec to Islas Malgrats, and saw the crème de la crème of the multihull world try and get every inch of speed out of their boats.
The first beat is always exciting and saw both R-Six and Allegra get off to a good start on the committee end of the line. Interestingly enough, R-Six’ army is made up from both professional sailors and rally drivers, including Volvo Ocean Race sailor Robert Janecki (race skipper) and Polish Olympic sailor Tomasz Januszewski (tactics/trim). Dragon did not get off the line as well: she had to make way for her aforementioned adversaries, R-Six and Allegra.
Allegra held the upper hand today, leading the well-versed racer Coco de Mer and close rivals R-Six and Dragon around the racecourse. The run towards Islas Malgrat saw some tight racing between yesterday’s champion Dragon and R-Six, a yacht with a proven track record. Dragon reeled in R-six rounding the downwind Islas Malgrat mark, even though Dragon’s designer Renaud Bañuls had previously mentioned R-Six to have “very good downwind sails, we have more trouble going downwind but we are faster when beating.”
Allegra sailed hard to finish first, Coco de Mer crossed 4 minutes and 39 seconds later. Dragon came in 13 minutes, 6 seconds after Allegra and R-Six just 40 seconds after Dragon, in real time.
After corrections were applied and the final calculations made, it was the 84ft Allegra’s team who were not only on the top of their game today but are also the overall winner of this second edition of the Multihull Cup! R-Six came second today, and overall, while Dragon and Coco de Mer, with 9 points each, share a third overall position.
Team Allegra’s overall victory generated ear-to-ear smiles amongst the team during the regatta’s lively prize-giving ceremony. Owner/driver Adrian Keller said to be “very happy” and as he held the trophy high with victor’s pride it seemed as if the audience’s applause was the highest accolade the team could receive.
Looking at the final results Allegra’s race skipper Paul Larsen observed that: “Although R-Six crossed the finish line in real time fourth, on handicap, she was 38 seconds behind overall winner Allegra. Those 38 seconds not only decided the event’s overall result but that every second and every maneuver counts. And effectively that each entrant, regardless of their position in the fleet while racing, have a chance of claiming victory.”
As the sun set on this second edition of the Multihull Cup we’d like to thank all that came and participated and hope to see competitors return for our third event, whether to fiercely defend their hard-fought titles or indeed try and whip this year’s winners.
