A coastal race win to savour for Velsheda at The Superyacht Cup Palma

Velsheda proved they are still very much a force to be reckoned with when they won a hard fought 26 miles coastal race at The Superyacht Cup Palma today. Contested in perfect J Class conditions – 13-14 kts of SW’ly breeze - the typical Palma coastal race course was a good test, following almost all points of sail and spanning most of Palma Bay.

With the Velsheda afterguard, Tom Dodson, Grant Simmer and Andy Green working in harmony and the owner excelling on the helm over the long course, the 1993 launched original J was able to stay in front of Rainbow and Svea all the way around the course to earn first gun after just over three hours of racing.  

After a spirited tussle with Svea, Rainbow took second place, finishing 55 seconds ahead of the Swedish flagged team which won both opening windward leeward races on Wednesday, that margin trimmed to 26 seconds after time correction.

Well earned, well sailed
At the dock after racing Tom Dodson, Velsheda’s long-time tactician, was quietly content with the way their team worked hard to keep the newer J Class duo behind after capitalising on a good start and choosing the favoured left side of the first leg.

“We went off the pin end, Svea got a bit sandwiched in the middle and Rainbow was off the windward end and the left, our side, paid.” Dodson recalled, “We had good calls from Grant and Andy. But after that there was a fair bit left to do with a long course and a lot of legs. We had a battle to keep them behind us downwind. We were fine upwind and so each bottom mark things were bunched right up again and then if we had our nose ahead at the leeward gate it meant we could put a little dirty air on them up the beat. We did that two or three times today.”

Dodson acknowledged, “It was a long day for Ronald (owner) on the helm on that kind of course and the trimmers too, but they did well. But these two other boats, Svea and Rainbow, are tough to beat. They are quick and sailing well. So we are happy to get the win today. It is doubly special now and feels better than ever. And we have our (J Class) barbeque tonight on Bystander, (42m Velsheda mothership), so we fight even harder before that!”

Ding dong!
Now having taken three second places in a row at their first J Class event, Rainbow’s Mathew Sweetman grinned, “It was a fabulous race today, a really good wind, the other boats sailed well. Velsheda had a cracking day, they sailed very clean. And we had a nice little ding dong with Svea which was fun.”

The Rainbow captain reported, “We all got a decent start, Velsheda got to left and led around. Rainbow second around but were overtaken by Svea on the first run, Svea was going very well on run. We were ahead of Svea again by the next windward mark, but then stuck in behind Velsheda who kept a loose cover on us and that was it.”

“It was a really good day’s racing, Velsheda sailed really well, really clean all the way around the course. They were very hard to catch, we were very happy with what we did.”

“It was a great day. In the old days we would have sailed away on a day like this but now it is always going to be more of a scrap but that makes it all the sweeter. Wins don’t come as often as they used to and so we are going to really enjoy it all the more,”  Velsheda’s Dodson concluded.

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