• 40 sailboats and more than 600 crew members make up the global elite of classic boats that these days are visiting Barcelona
  • The regatta has been performed in front of the Port Olímpic and a southwest wind of 18 knots has accompanied these classic sailboats during the course
  • This edition counts for the first time on the majestic British yacht with 50 meters length, the Eleonora, in the Big Boats category

Barcelona, 17th July 2014. The Port Olímpic of Barcelona has been the backdrop of the first day of the VII regatta Puig Vela Clàssica. An excellent wind accompanied the sailboats throughout the course and they sailed very close to the shore, so that the audience could enjoy a breathtaking staging with forty boats from five countries and more than 600 crew members sailing all along the Barcelona coastline.

This first day has coincided with the day off of the Puig 12mR World Championship, which will restart tomorrow, Friday, and which will lead both regattas converge at the sea, offering a unique performance ever seen on the coast of Barcelona: an exceptional week that brings together the whole elite of classic boats, real nautical jewelry that will transform Barcelona into a floating museum of extraordinary beauty.

The Big Boats, Vintage and Classics fleets have played their first round and the wind, an important southwest wind, has led unbeatable conditions on the first day of the regatta, with an intensity of 17 to 20 knots and a very slight swell.

Moonbeam IV, Samurai, Peter and Marigold, first leaders

The Moonbeam IV was able to defend her rating against the Eleonora and the Mariquita, who preceded her at the finish line, but after applying the statutory compensation times she achieved the first partial of the Big Boats. Her “little brother” and youngest in the class, the Moonbeam III, arrived after him, while the Mariquita was third and the Eleonora, competing for the first time in the Puig Vela Clàssica Barcelona, was fourth. It is important to highlight that the Rosalind was not able to complete the round, which with six sections had a distance of 19.4 nautical miles.

The Classics are again the most numerous class, bringing together 20 vessels. The Italian Samurai dominated the race with authority, two minutes and thirteen seconds ahead the French Emeraude after the time compensation. The second position was hotly contested, as the German Samarkand was just three seconds behind the Emeraude. Another trio, formed by Argos, Alba and Outlaw were classified in this order, set in a narrow range of 23 seconds, after more than two hours of competition to conclude the 13.46 miles distance, distributed in five sections.

The Peter of Claudio Melli, from the Marconi yachts category, winner of the 2011 and 2013 editions, has shown her intentions to achieve the triple victory in the Puig Vela Clàssica Barcelona. Navigating without any mistakes and squeezing all the potential of this Jarl Lindblom design from 1939, the Peter, has achieved an advantage of 6,45 minutes to the Majorcan Sonata, who has managed to control another twice champion (2009 and 2010) of this trophy, the British Blue Peter.

Among the boats from the Gaff yachts category, there was a narrow victory of the Marigold over the Kelpie of Falmouth, separated by 28 seconds. The Malabar X completed today’s podium after beating the Marigan and the Gipsy.
The regatta program for tomorrow plans the second day of the Puig Vela Clàssica Barcelona for the Big Boats, Vintage and Classic fleets. Meanwhile, the 12 Meter World Championship will resume, celebrating its fourth day.

At 13:00 the committee of the regattas has initiated the starts sequence (Big Boats, Classic, Gaff and Marconi Yachts), establishing the course number 6 for Big Boats, and number 4 for Classics and Vintage.

The majestic Eleonora joins the “greats” of the regatta

The awesome Big Boats category -Vintage and Classic boats with lengths from 25 meters- that includes the traditional boats Moonbeam III (25 meters), Moonbeam IV (29 meters) or Mariquita (29 meters) hosts for the first time to a real “mastodon” of the classic sailing: the Eleonora. This majestic vessel is almost 20 meters longer than the Mariette of 1915 (33 meters), the vessel with the biggest length that has ever participated in the Puig Vela Clàssica until now.

This 50 meters British boat is an exact replica of one of the most famous vessels in the regatta world, the Westward, built in 1910 and designed by Nathanael Greene Herreshoff, known as “The Wizard of Bristol”, after having built numerous challenger boats for the America’s Cup.

The Eleonora was built at the Van der Graaf shipyard in Holland and was launched in 2000. Since then, she has successfully participated in classic sailing regattas. Thanks to the VII Puig Vela Clàssica Barcelona, the audience can admire for the first time this stunning boat, who has the same length as an Olympic swimming-pool.