Perfect conditions for Copa del Rey Mapfre final practice
3 August 2026 - Palma, Mallorca, Spain - Despite very warm sea temperatures and ongoing hot daytime values, the reliable sea breeze was blowing nicely today on the Bay of Palma to produce perfect conditions for teams putting the finishing touches to their preparation for 44 Copa del Rey Mapfre, which starts Tuesday with a hundred boats set to line up in six classes on three different race areas. The steady sea breeze has been in the past few days, which augers well for the Mediterranean’s annual summer showcase event.
Abanca ORC Class 0
With 14 entries, Abanca ORC 0 class is at its strongest and most competitive for some years with no fewer than ten TP52s or boats which started their competitive life as TP52s. All eyes, naturally, will be focused on Hispania, the TP52, which is the successor to Aifos as the Spanish Navy’s new high-tech raceboat sailed now by King Felipe of Spain.
Peviously known as Vesper, the TP52 was originally launched as Quantum Racing in 2008, winning the MedCup circuit that year and going on to become the most successful TP52 ever. The boat is the defending Copa del Rey champion in Abanca ORC 0, having won last year in the colours of David Team, with Morgan Larson as tactician.
Maybe this time will represent the best chance of victory for King Felipe, who has yet to win Copa del Rey. Hispania’s pro crew includes Pepe Ribes and Alberto Barovier, and they already won the recent Conde de Godó in Barcelona.
But it is a very strong class. Among the strongest contenders will be the Spanish Soto 52 Vithas–Urbania of Tomás Gasset. They were runner-up at the Conde de Godó behind Hispania and winners of Valencia’s SM La Reina Trophy. So too was the Italian TP52 Blue, owned by Bonfiglio Mariotti, runner-up and the ORC Europeans here last year. Mauro Gestri’s Italian team on the TP52 Vudu have been racing on the 52 SUPER SERIES and so arrive sharp and competitive. They are the ORC Class 0 2026 Worlds silver medallist. The Brazilian team on Caballo Loco, the former Phoenix, led by owner-driver Fabio Dottori with Finn Olympian Jorge Zarif as tactician, has also lifted their game.
New to the 44 Copa del Rey Mapfre is the Swiss-flagged Wally Rocket 51 Kilara, which has Dutch ace Nick Heiner calling tactics. They are racing the major Mediterranean regattas this season.
The far-travelled American Swan 58 WaveWalker is a family campaign owned, skippered and steered by Woody Cullen, representing the New York Yacht Club. Joining the crew is renowned British sailor and six-time circumnavigator Dee Caffari. The team won its class in the 2024 Newport Bermuda Race and at Antigua Sailing Week in 2024 and 2025. Carl-Peter Forster’s German TP52 Red Bandit won the 2022 Copa del Rey ORC 0. They run as a very high-level training program for young sailors, and this time have Jesper Radich, ORC Class B world champion 2025 , on XR-41 Formula X as tactician.
Sail Racing ORC Class A
Niklas Zennström’s Swedish-flagged Rán team on the Carkeek 41 come to the 44 Copa del Rey Mapfre with a seriously impressive record, not least as winners of the ORC Class A world championship title two years in a row and most recently winning their class at the Sardinia Cup. Among the talented crew are long-time stalwarts: main trimmer Tim Powell, Steve Hayles navigating, Ado Stead as tactician, and Andy Hemmings trimming. All of them were with Zennström’s Maxi 72 Rán when they won their class in 2009 and 2012 at Copa del Rey.
Tey will face close competition from the new Carkeek 40 (C40 MK3) Nola of Margus Uudam and Taavet Hinrikus. It won four of six races on its debut to win ORC 1 at the 2026 Sandberg PalmaVela and finished fourth at the Sardinia Cup. But Nacho Montes’s Spanish DK46 Estrella Damm Sailing Team is the defending Copa del Rey ORC A winner and reigning ORC European champion. They already have four Copa del Rey wins in class. Olympic sailor Luis Martínez Doreste returns at the helm, with owner and campaign leader Nacho Montes overseeing one of the most successful teams in Copa del Rey history.
Uber ORC Class B
There are 23 teams competing in ORC Class B, which is largely the domain of production cruiser-racers and older race boats. Probably the outstanding boats are Julián Somodi’s Argentine PG390 Katara, which is the reigning 2026 ORC World Champion in Class B and winner of the 2024 Copa del Rey Mapfre in ORC 2. Victory at the 2026 Conde de Godó and second place at the SM La Reina Trophy highlight Katara as the boat to beat in Uber ORC B. But Javier Banderas returns with the new XR-41 Teatro del Soho–San Miguel. An eight-time Copa del Rey-winning owner, Banderas is back in the medium-sized ORC fleet with a completely new campaign. Among the international entries, Peter de Ridder returns with his evergreen BH41 Checkmate with a largely family team.
Azulmarino ORC Class C
This is potentially one of the most exciting classes at the regatta with 21 entries. Among them are five Cape 31s. The most successful so far at Copa del Rey Mapfre has been Early Bird, the team of German Hendrik Brandis who has won the Swan 45 and 50 classes four times, twice in each division. Runners-up last year, Early Bird has local Palma-based Manu Wieler as tactician. On Kiel’s Niramo, seven-times-round-the-world racer Bouwe Bekking is tactician, whilst Carlos Robles is tactician on Django, Vittorio Lombardi Stronati’s Cape 31, whilst the Portuguese boat from Cascais Firstings has 2021 470 vice world champion Diogo Costa on board.
Bekking said, “We will have fun; that is for sure. We have a great class and would love to win, but we have the world champion in the class (M.A.T. 11 Robe de Mat), and there are five Capes, so it will be good racing. I always love being here. There are some strong boats in this class. In the light we are competitive, and in the big breeze we are good, maybe less so in 13-16, say when boats with spinnaker poles go dead downwind. I won overall a long, long time ago with Bribon and further back with Rueben; it is such a nice place to be.”
Worth watching is the new Italia Yachts 9.98 Fuoriserie NextGen Altavia, owned by Michele Vitulano, skippered by Daniele De Tullio. Built as a new high-performance racing project, the Italian team has already reached the podium, finishing third in Group 2, Class C at the 2026 Italian Offshore Championship in Gaeta.
ClubSwan 42
The one-design ClubSwan 42 continues to be popular at 44 Copa del Rey Mapfre with seven entries. The top seeds are Pedro Vaquer’s Nadir and Jose Maria Meseguer’s Pez d’Abril. Antonio ‘Talpi’ Pires guides Pez d’Abril as tactician on the boat which won here last year and just won the ClubSwan 42 World Championship title
The Baleària Women’s Cup
The Baleària Women’s Cup is the biggest yet with 15 teams competing including a Magenta Project team racing under the Canadian flag, a British team and two Italian crews.
The competition format for the ORC and ClubSwan 42 classes will consist of two phases: the Preliminary Series (4, 5 and 6 August) will feature a minimum of four races and a maximum of six, and will determine the positions from which each team will enter the Final Series (7 and 8 August), which will consist of a maximum of four races. The Baleària Women’s Cup will take place from Wednesday to Saturday in a round-robin format, with the 15 teams rotating between the six BlueSail 24 boats until they have all competed against each other. The top six will compete in a Medal Race on Saturday.
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