The 2014 Superyacht Cup, set in the waters off of Palma de Mallorca, Spain, has come to a close. This year's race saw ample competition in all the classes, including the always beautiful to watch J Class superyachts with a fleet of five in attendance.
After three days of exciting racing action – plus an extra day of competition just for the Js – the Superyacht Cup came to a close yesterday with a clear leader overall. The Frers-designed 34.2 metre Royal Huisman superyacht Unfurled has been named overall winner with a score of 2, 1, and 1 in Class 2. The winning team was a family affair, with four families sailing on board Unfurled including father and son Ross and Campbell Field.
The Tripp-designed Wally yacht Saudade finished in top spot in yesterday's race in Class 1, but her total score was not enough to beat out the new 46m Vitters superyacht Ganesha, who won first in her class and second overall in the entire Superyacht Cup. Not bad for her fourth-ever regatta.
'For us winning the class is good, it is only our fourth regatta with the boat and we are still learning, in fact it is a bit of a surprise to get second, but we sailed well,' says Ganesha's navigator, Nacho Postigo. 'It was another interesting course today, not least on the second leg when the breeze came in with a bit more than we all expected, we were on a broad reach with big gear up when the wind peaked for us at 24 knots, and we kind of thought "Oh My God!" but we hung on, it was a bit of a wild ride. But we were fine. second to Saudade was okay; they are a good team. And for the overall, Unfurled are well deserved winners, they sailed better, they sailed clean and sailed well, they were better all round.'
In Class 3, last year's winner Claasen Shipyard superyacht Heartbeat needed to score the top spot in the last day of racing to take the top spot in her class again. With a score of 1, 2, and 1, they succeeded handily. 'It was great to win again, but it was more difficult this time with more competition,' says Heartbeat's owner. 'We have a secret weapon, my holiday spinnaker, we had it up today and that makes a difference. We had our best race today. We had to win today.'
Claasen can be proud that two of its yachts took top spots in their respective classes. Its J Class superyacht Lionheart also won in the J division, with J Class yacht Ranger coming in second and J Class yacht Hanuman third overall.