43 Copa del Rey MAPFRE Overall
by Copa del Rey MAPFRE 2 Aug 21:20 UTC
26 July - 2 August 2025
Vesper score decisive European ORC title for the USA, other titles go to the wire
The 2025 ORC European Championships contested at the 43rd Copa del Rey MAPFRE finished with the Bay of Palma delivering sparkling sailing conditions for a fitting finale which saw three of the four division titles decided on the last race.
For the second year in a row the big boat class title has been won by a boat from outside Europe. David Team's American crew on the TP52 Vesper lifted ABANCA ORC 0 class with a race to spare, continuing the long history of success in the Mediterranean for an all conquering Botin design which won world and 52 Super Series titles as Quantum Racing. Indeed the success rekindled many happy memories of wins on the Bay of Palma for a core group who are past alumni or present members of the Quantum crew, not least tactician Morgan Larson, super dependable Tom Burnham, bowman Greg Gendell, Sean Clarkson and young Italian navigator Nicolo Sanfelici.
After a fifth in the first race of the series of nine, the US boat never finished worse than third and clinched the title with a 1,1,2 to win by 13.5 points ahead of the Italian TP52 Blue and the French TP52 vice world champions Paprec.
Vesper owner David Team from Newport Beach, California is enchanted by the regatta, the absolute jewel in the crown of Med regattas, and is delighted to come out on top of a class which saw nine TP52s in the top ten, ranging in age from the 2019 Paprec and 2018 Crioula to the 2005 Farr designed Aifos on which the King of Spain, H.M. Felipe, took sixth. Reflecting his respect for his fellow competitors and down to earth spontaneity the king made an unexpected dockside tour to pass on his congratulations, not least to Team and his crew.
Team smiled on the dock, "It's my first time here, my first time racing in the Med this season after La Giraglia. This is great. We have been racing around the USA for five or six years, the GL52s, Newport RI, the west coast and Florida where we are on the podium, often having great battles with Fox there, and we decided we want to do something different and have some fun experiences in Europe. We went out today and just raced like everyone was all tied on points and we secured a race win. We thought about not doing the second race in case we affected anyone's race or results but I said 'we are here, we are here to go sailing.' It is fabulous to win here, it such a prestigious regatta and the level of participation in terms of the numbers of boats is fantastic, so much more so than the States and the race management and ambience has been really first class. And I guess we will get to meet the King this evening and that will be cool. And we will be back, for sure, maybe not next year, maybe not with this boat, but we will be back."
Runners up Blue, Bonnfiglio Mariotti's Rimini based 52, are top European team, happy to be runners up against such strong competition, their tactician Afonso Domingos, Portugal's three times Olympian, said, "We are very happy with second with our team. It is well ahead of our hopes and expectations, we aimed to just have a good event but second and being first Europeans is much better than we thought. We were stable, consistent and we have good speed and our manoeuvres are always good and that makes a difference. Today was good to get a second and a fourth, a good way to finish. We made some changes to the mainsail for here and we were faster but we would have to do a lot of things to beat Vesper, they sail really well and have an edge of speed and here that makes a big difference."
Sail Racing ORC A went to the wire but it is the DK46 of Ignacio Montes which extends their remarkable winning record at Copa del Rey MAPFRE. The overall top trophy winners of the regatta three times and four times class winners collect the 2025 ORC European title for their 34 boat class. Winning by 5.5 points, a relieved but jubilant skipper Luis Martinez Doreste said, "The week started well, because we came fourth but the main thing was we had a good feeling that the boat was really fast. That day we felt we could have won the race. Then came the long race, and there the ClubSwan 42s had a clear advantage because they have much more square metres of sail area and it was difficult to catch up with them, as was demonstrated. Then the windward-leeward races began, and there, when the wind picked up a little, we had an additional advantage. We started sailing really well, with good starts, not missing a single tack, and yesterday and today we nailed them all. We are very happy... Copa del Rey champions and European champions!"
The Ubico ORC B fleet crown a European champion from Estonia. Matti Sepp and his crew on the modified X41 Technonicol repeated the success of compatriots Sugar who won in Finland last year.
Sepp, who previously raced the Match Race Tour with the core of his winning team here, was ecstatic, "This is huge for us to win, it is the biggest sailing event in the Mediterranean, the best organised and with the best wind and so for us to come here and win is just huge. It is a dream. It is amazing. The key thing I think for us is we are bunch of friends out to have fun, we race for fun and we really enjoy it. It was tough today as it was so close between the top three boats and the wind maybe favoured us a bit today on the bigger boat. But it was always tight. And this is big for Estonia, we are only a small country in amongst many big sailing countries here. We had two Estonian boats at the top of the fleet in the top four, so I am very happy for our country."
Uber ORC C saw Early Bird, Hendrik Brandis Cape 31 lead at the start of the regatta but the German ClubSwan 50 world champion had to settle for second behind a Spanish team on the Judel Vrolijk 37 footer Nunoto Cafiver Sailing which retained a higher level of consistency counting three race wins a second and three thirds in their scoreline. Coming from behind to surpass Early Bird yesterday and then clinch the tile, theirs was perhaps the most raucous welcome back to the dock.
Álvaro García (ESP), strategist for the new European champions said, "We started off average with a sixth place that we considered good. But we knew there was a lot of room for improvement. We kept climbing every day, higher and higher. We didn't have any bad days, and the only discard was on the first day. It was a perfect week. It's an achievement for a team with little training: we only trained for a week, but we put together a very good team and managed to work very well together."
The Ubico ORC Class B Corinthian winners are Jose Pineda Rosello's Spanish Ker 39 Alitan 4 and the Corinthian winners in Uber ORC C are the Spanish X-35 Nemox-Isen of Antonio Jose Romero Vasque. The Corinthian crews are all amateurs with no professionals on board.
María Bover and the crew from the host club, the Real Club Náutico de Palma, won the Balearia Women's Cup, adding to victories in 2022 and 2023. The skipper of Balearia Team RCNP enthused: "We are extremely pleased. Today was a very close final and we made many mistakes, such as going off course, being penalised, and even one crew member falling in the water. It was exciting until the very end. In the face of so many adversities we were nervous but we are very happy because we started off a bit slow, but we gained a lot of confidence the day before yesterday and yesterday, when we finished first many times. We faced today, the final, with a lot of confidence on board, but it is true that these Medal Races were worth double, and that made everything very close until the end. The competitors were really skilled and made it very difficult. It was a very exciting Copa del Rey. We're very happy."
The 44th Copa del Rey MAPFRE will be held from 1 to 8 August 2026.
Find out more at www.regatacopadelrey.com