Palma Superyacht Cup

THE SUPER YACHT CUP

The Superyacht Cup is the longest running regatta in Europe. Having become a firm favourite with owners, captains and crew who visit Palma de Mallorca annually for the fourday event, 2018 will be the super yacht mainstay’s twenty-second edition. With early summer conditions forecast and reliable sea breezes, the bay of Palma will once again offer some of Europe’s most idyllic racing conditions. I wonder if now is the right time to lay out my sailing credentials, in case any crews need an extra hand, or perhaps someone to help lighten the yacht’s ballast of champagne.

I can count my most memorable nautical experiences on two hands. My earliest memory (playing with Destroyers in the bath to one side) is visiting an old fort off the coast and joining the other spoilt children in the hot tub, whilst the parents hid in the bar on the top terrace. It might be a distant memory now, but it serves as the moment my brain was programmed to love the ocean. This was followed by my school’s annual RYA sailing academy. What right-minded educator thought dragging a mini bus of preteens to a lake and unleashing them with dinghies was a good idea needs a medal.

A brief half-decade in Bristol meant attending the annual harbourside festival. Despite the lovely old wooden yachts that moored to watch the event in private, you avoided the promenade like the plague. This was indeed

Bristol’s cashcow for the waterside, taking in as many families with screaming children as it could. Perish the thought of attending without a private mooring and well-stocked bar.

Perhaps the most harrowing was sailing a small catamaran off the coast of Placencia in Belize. Whilst it was a beautiful trip with a stunning coastline and good friends, we capsized more times than I would care to admit. We brought no water or supplies, and my diving watch almost became the sole casualty when It got caught in the rigging. Also, of our three-man crew, only I knew how to tack convincingly. Although by the end of the three-hour excursion, I had managed to teach the chaps enough to get us back to the coastline before sunset. Sailing away from the shore at a rate of knots and realising that none of your friends are that confident, makes the fear very real.

By far my best method of transport though, was a 126-foot gaff rigged schooner, built in 1930 by one of the most acclaimed American naval architects, John G. Alden. The Spetses Classic Yacht Regatta was a beautiful affair, and of course any event that allows me the opportunity to fully stretch out my formidable collection of white jeans and chinos gets my seal of approval. It was certainly a rural affair though, and one that required a sherpa to get to.

Now that a modicum of my nautical experience is out in the open and captains begin to call my references to ensure my credentials, let us turn our attention to the Superyacht Cup Palma, which returns on June 19th for a four-day stint. The regatta is run by the Real Club Nautico de Palma, and its organisers are proud supporters.....

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