The boats of the 44th Copa del Rey Mapfre complete their dress rehearsal with King Felipe VI at the helm

 The boats of the 44th Copa del Rey Mapfre, which will be held in the waters of the Bay of Palma until next Saturday, participated this Monday, before the sports program begins this Tuesday, in the official training day of the regatta, in which King Felipe VI could be seen training aboard the ‘Hispania’, the new ship of the Naval Regatta Commission of the Spanish Navy with which he will compete in the Abanca ORC 0 class.

The competition will start on Tuesday for five of the six participating classes and for 84 teams of the hundred that will meet in Balearic waters throughout the week in one of the unmissable regattas of the Mediterranean summer since 1982. Only the women’s class will wait until Wednesday to begin.

Before, this Monday, the official training day was held, which took place under the typical conditions of the Bay of Palma, used by the fleet and organization to finalize preparations and check procedures before the start of the competition.

The largest fleet will sail in compensated time under the ORC formula and will be divided into four categories. They will compete in up to ten races, including a coastal one “probably on Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on the weather conditions,” commented Chief Race Officer Gaspar Morey.

Among the 14 Abanca ORC 0 teams there will be up to ten TP52 units, including the ‘Hispania’, helmed by King Don Felipe, who took advantage of the training day to reunite with his crew. Winner of the last edition and European champion of ORC 0 under the colors of the American ‘Vesper’, the new training ship of the Spanish Navy will compete with rivals such as the ‘Urbania’ of Tomás Gasset -winner in July of the SM La Reina Trophy-, the Italian ‘Blue’ of Bonfiglio Mariotti -runner-up in Europe 2025- and ‘Vudú’ of Mauro Gestri -current runner-up in the world- or the German ‘Red Bandit’ by Carl-Peter Forster -class winner in the 2022 Cup-.

Meanwhile, in Sail Racing ORC A, the ‘Carkeek 41 Rán’ of the Swede Niklas Zennström arrives with the title of favorite as two-time world champion in the category, although in a fleet of 19 boats there will be rivals such as the DK46 ‘Estrella Damm’ of Nacho Montes – European champion 2025, holder of four King’s Cups in class and three absolute ones -, the Swan 45 ‘From Now On’ by Argentine Fernando Chain -world runner-up in 2022- or the Swan 42 ‘Elena Nova’ by Christian Plump -winner of the Cup in 2023 and 2024-.

Among the 23 participants of 11 nationalities of Uber ORC B will be the current world champion of the class and winner in Palma in 2024, the PG390 ‘Katara’ of Argentine Julián Somodi; the ‘Teatro del Soho-San Miguel’ by Javier Banderas, eight-time Copa del Rey Mapfre champion, who competes this time with a powerful XR-41; ‘Beso Beach’ by Rodrigo Sanz; or the A40 ‘RC Ebury’ of Javier Sabiote, champion of the SM La Reina Trophy in Valencia.

In Azulmarino ORC C, the world champion of the category, the ‘Robe da Mat’ by Italian Luigi Buzzi, meets; the European champion and defending champion in Palma, the Vrolijk 37 ‘Project Work’ of the Cantabrian Antonio Porrés; the continental runner-up, the Cape 31 ‘Early Bird’ of German Hendrik Brandis; and the absolute champion of the Cup in 2024, Andrés Manresa’s ‘Falapouco’.

In addition to the four ORC divisions of compensated time, two classes compete this year in real time: ClubSwan 42 and Baleària Women’s Cup. In ClubSwan 42 two boats with exceptional honors stand out: José María Meseguer’s ‘Pez de Abril’ -current world champion, runner-up in 2024 and winner of the Copa del Rey Mapfre in 2017 and 2018, 2024- and the ‘Nadir’ by Pedro Vaquer -world champion in 2024 and 2022, runner-up in 2025 and 2023, and winner of the Copa del Rey Mapfre in 2022 and 2023-.

In its sixth edition, the Baleària Women’s Cup consolidates the success of the women’s class and expands its international reach, with 15 teams from Spain, Italy, Canada and the United Kingdom. They will compete in BluSail 24 one-designs provided by the Real Club Náutico de Palma (RCNP), and in the fleet there will be no shortage of already established teams such as María Bover’s ‘Baleària Team RCNP’ in its capacity as defending champion, along with interesting new developments such as the Canadian ‘Magenta Project’, the Italians ‘Italia Team’ and ‘Rudder Rebels’ or the British ‘Merched y Mor’.

The general director of the RCNP, Manu Fraga, highlighted that the fleet is full of “world and European champions.” “Once again this year, the organizing committee is putting all the resources at our disposal to guarantee the success of the event, both in the sporting and social spheres. Now we depend on the weather, as a very hot week awaits us in Mallorca. Let’s hope that the temperature drops at night so that the gradient works and we can enjoy the thermal that makes the bay of Palma one of the most reliable regatta fields in the world. It is the only ingredient that does not depend on our effort, but we trust that we will be able to enjoy a great week of regattas,” he noted.

The competition format for the ORC and ClubSwan 42 classes will consist of two phases: The Preliminary Series – August 4, 5 and 6 – will hold a minimum of four tests and a maximum of six, and will decide the positions with which each team will face the Final Series – days 7 and 8 – with a maximum of four tests. The Baleària Women’s Cup will compete from Wednesday to Saturday in a ‘Round Robin’ format, a series of matches in which the teams will rotate aboard the six boats until the crossing is completed; The top six women’s teams will decide the title in a Medal Race on the final day. The awards ceremony will close the activity on Saturday, August 8 at the Almudaina Palace.