Wally Cento Galateia wins Maxi Division at PalmaVela

The Wally Cento Galateia won the IRC-IMA Maxi division at Mallorca’s big boat season opener PalmaVela, with a perfect scoreline of six wins from six starts.

Victory in a final coastal race back-and-forth across the Bay of Palma maintained their perfect tally to win by eight points ahead of Andrea Recordati’s recently acquired Wally 93 Bullit. Second place ensured the Italian flagged team finished runners-up at their first competitive outing on the boat.

In the fleet of seven Maxis, four of them 30 metres (100 feet) or bigger, Galateia finished more than two minutes ahead after time correction, leading all the way around the 30 nautical mile course. From the visiting German team from Kiel YC on Immac Fram, the Italia 9.98 won both races today in ORC 4 to clinch their first ever win in the Mediterranean.

Florian Schluender, mainsail trimmer, commented, “We had sun, we had wind and we had two good races and took two bullets. We sorted out our communication issues before the start and so we are super happy to win. We could not be more happy.”

Spain’s double Olympic silver medallist Natalia Vía-Dufresne and crew also won the J/80 class, whilst Germany’s Michael Zankel won the Dragon class on Pow Wow.

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