Palma de Mallorca, August 4th. Comet 45 S Libertine and Banks Sails Italia – having both sails with the Spidertech Technology - confirmed themselves as a successfull couple in the field of the IMS. The popular shipowner Maurizio Biscardi’s boat from Neaple ranked 4th among 29 competitors.

The spectacular show offered by the TP 52 and GP 42 classes did not obscure the regatta quality in the IMS classifications. In the 570 group, where run boats over 40′ feet, reced, as usual, a great number of Italian competitors: the Neapolitan shipowner, successfully sailing during the last season in the Mediterranean Sea, could not miss it. The skipper Lorenzo Bodini from Trieste raced with glory over stronger Spanish sailors. “ We raced steadily 10 very regular regattas with 10-15 knots sea breeze, except for one single race contended with a strong land wind. Disappointed for the final result? Absolutly not – stated the skipper – we are rather satisfied because we have succeeded in racing in the best way among the strongest sailing boats and sailors. Just one regret: we have not worked enough, like some Spanish teams, in optimizing the connection between rating and speed of the boat: we concentrated ourselves in preparing with great care the Italian Championship in Pescara, arriving in Palma with a very big mainsail: a definitely good layout for the Adriatic light winds, but not proper for the Palma’s stronger sea breezes. Holding that in due consideration, we could have ranked 2nd overall for sure”. The Libertine’s Team is also very satisfied with the sails, steady and fast, even though they have regatted many races. Before Libertine, three Spanish boats having a better rating than the Italian one, ranked on the top and exactly in order of arrival: Icaro (Dufur 44 mod. - Luis Mas Borrel) , Tecnocasa Go Go (Comet 45 S – Jordi Del Tarre) and Luso-Roux (Sinergia 40 – Josè Caldera). A so crowded edition of the Copa del Rey is important to make some relevant considerations regarding the IMS, such as: is the IMS on the wane? Is the historic contest between the Spanish sailors and sail makers and the Italian ones in optimizing the rating still alive? Contrary to those people saying that the parameters stated by the International Measurement System in Italy are confined only to the single circle regattas, the efforts in optimizing the Libertine (starting from the accuracy of the job of the sail makers and passing through the training of the team and the setting of the racing boat) represent the greatest evidence of the fact that the IMS is still the best contest at a high level also for those people having a limited budget of start-up (impossible to do while racing the other classes or for the one design courses). This regatta along with the awareness with which the Spanish sailors prepare their boats represents the greatest confirmation.

Libertine: downwind in a 12-14 knots race. Ph. www.regatacopadelrey.es