Trofeo Pirelli-Copa Carlo Negri
Santa Margherita (ITA), May 1-4

Giraglia Rolex Cup
Saint Tropez (FRA), June 8-10

Rolex Trofeo de la Reina
Valencia (ESP), July 10-13

Copa del Rey AUDI Mapfre
Palma (ESP), July 26 - Aug 2

Trofeu Quebramar-Chrysler
Cascais (POR), Aug 28-30

Trofeo Cesar Manrique
Puerto Calero (ESP), Oct 16-18

News

Quebramar-Chrysler crowned winner of the Copa del Rey

Saturday, 4 August 2007: Quebramar-Chrysler was the indisputable winner in the GP 42 class. It is its first Copa del Rey after seven years sponsoring a sailing team. Its crew, from Desafío Español and with Spanish sailor Laureano Wizner as helmsman won again today’s two races with a total of eight victories in eleven races. A dominance already shown at the Trofeo SM La Reina de Valencia and that took him to the top of the podium of the 26 Copa del Rey Camper Audi with 20 points advantage over second classified Canarias Puerto Calero, with Jose María Ponce at the helm. Jan Santana and Jordi Calafat’s Zurich were finally third overall although tied with the Canary islands team. They were OCS in the first race and had to take a penalty and this made them lose the silver medal. Italian boat Seawonder was left at one step of the podium.

The first race was easily won by Quebramar-Chrysler who finished 53 seconds ahead of Canarias Puerto Calero. With that second place, the Canarians moved one step ahead towards wecuring the second place overall. Their two other close contestants, Sewaonder 007 and Zurich, had a very difficult race. Zurich was early over the line and after recrossing their only option was to take a huge gamble and split away from the fleet, hoping to take advantage of a possible wind shift. Unfortunately for them, that shift never came and they had no possibility at all to recover. Nevertheless, Zurich had the possibility to discard this race (its worst in the event) but the Italians unfortunately had worse results and would have to excel in the second race to reach the podium.

The second race, final of the event, started with Quebramar-Chrysler guaranteed winner. Even if they had to abandon, their safety margin was enough. The thriller was to be played for the two remaining spots on the podium. Flavio Favini at the helm of Seawonder 007 skillfully stayed ahead of the two other boats but the lead was not enough. He crossed the finish line second, but Canarias Puerto Calero was third and Zurich fourth. As a result, the two Spanish teams were tied with 34 points and the tie was broken in the advantage of the Canarians that had two first places in the Copa del Rey.

 

Quotes

Gonçalo Esteves, owner of Quebramar-Chrysler: For me this victory is the culmination of a dream that started various years ago. I have been trying during the last five and the fifth was the good one. This year we established a very professional project and I put all my weapons on the hands of Laureano Wizner with whom I was also last year, and that confidence was compensated this year.

I also want to stress the enormous help I received firstly from Agustin Zulueta and the Desafío Español in general, since not only did this allow us to employ a crew comprising of America’s Cup sailors we were also given the right to use the facilities of the team base in Valencia, in order to fit out the boat and train.

Crew work was fundamental in this triumph. They all are great professionals and have been able to take advantage of such a great yacht and class that Jan Santana and I supported from last year.

Finally, I’m proud to be the first Portuguese owner to win the Copa del Rey and it’s also excellent for the sport of sailing in my country.

 

Photos

Check the photos from the final day of the Copa del Rey here.

 

Provisional Classification after 11 races (1 discard)

1. Quebramar-Chrysler (3+1+1+1+5+1+1+3+1+1+1) 14 points
2.Canarias Puerto Calero(1+6+3+5+1+4+3+6+6+2+3)34 points
2.Zurich(4+2+4+3+2+3+2+5+5+7+4)34 points
4.Seawonder007(8+8+2+2+3+5+5+1+2+6+2)36 points
5.Roma(5+5+8+8+4+2+8+2+3+5+7)49 points
6.Movistar(2+7+5+6+6+7+6+7+4+4+6)53 points
7.Quum Marketing(5+4+6+4+7+8+4+11+7+8+5)53 points
8.Fermax(6+3+9+7+11+6+7+4+8+3+8)61 points
9.AA HPB(9+9+7+9+8+9+9+8+9+9+9)86 points
10.Totalboats(11+11+11+11+11+11+11+11+10+11+10)108 points