Hamish Goddard
GREAT excitement here as two of the island’s great annual regattas take place over the next few weeks.
Firstly, I am looking forward to taking my Olive Press seat in one of the TP52s taking part in the annual 52 Super Series, hosted at Porto Portals from the July 24 to 28.
The 52 Super Series is established as the world’s leading grand prix monohull yacht racing series and they are busy setting up these extreme racing boats in various marinas around Palma, hot footing it from the last round in Sardinia.
It’s now our turn to host these fast, light, very powerful monohulls which sail more like high performance dinghies and raced in ‘real time’ and yet comply to a ‘box rule’ design.
The box rule binds the boats to a set of key dimensions but still leaves the design offices and the race teams with scope to exploit their own ideas and initiatives.
The result is some of the closest and most spectacular racing there is to see, with a truly international fleet of 11 boats from 10 different countries.
This is followed by the 2017 Copa del Rey starting on July 31, hosted by RCNP and one of the Mediterranean’s most prestigious annual regattas taking place over five days.
Nothing deceiving about the event’s name either, with the King of Spain competing in his Farr 45 Aifos.
I understand that if you catch the King on a port tack, it’s a ‘Starboard Sir!’, rather than just “Starboard!”. I will have to remember that…
Time for a spot of classic motorcycling…
In the words of Hugh Birley, the founder of Mallorca-based Albion Motorcycles: “Ride ‘em, don’t hide ‘em!”.
In the next few weeks, I will be joining this award-winning outfit to explore the island’s fantastic roads on their fleet of beautifully prepared classic British and European motorcycles ranging from a 1953 1000cc twin Vincent Rapide to later European classics such as a 1970s Ducati 900GTS (and many beauties in between..).
As with classic cars, these bikes are difficult and highly rewarding to ride – the old British bikes being right foot gear change.
Riding them is a unique opportunity anywhere, but particularly here with the abundance of amazing roads and spectacular coffee stops. I will report back in a few weeks’ time! Visit http://www.albionmotorcycles.com
Finally, we are all beginning to plan the classic car season again which typically gets underway in September, kicking off with an inter classic car club Go Karting Grand Prix and various outings in the amazing cars that we have in Driving Mallorca. See our event diary at: www.drivingmallorca.es
In amongst all this, our brokerage activities at Baxter Marine continue apace – no sign of the summer lull quite yet – so please see our Olive Press Best Buys!
