Racing for the Breitling MedCup TP52 circuit’s Portugal Trophy on the beautiful Algarve coast may have opened Tuesday with an invigorating blast of over 25 knots, but with insufficient wind Friday and Saturday, but it expired with barely a whimper today as the current Breitling MedCup 2006 champions, Peter de Ridder and his crew, emerged with their first overall regatta win this season. Monaco based De Ridder and his crew – which includes six members of the Team New Zealand America’s Cup team – collect the Portugal Trophy, the Corinthian Trophy for the regatta’s top owner-helm, and the Santa Ana Trophy for winning the 25.18 miles coastal race. Even the two days of too-quiet breezes and long hours sitting waiting for wind, and a few spots of rain -could not erase the memories of two great opening days of racing as the Circuit ventured out of the Mediterranean and on to Portugal’s Atlantic coast for the first time ever. The Bay of Lagos provided a challenging and interesting race course which was more than complemented by the excellent facilities ashore including a luxurious 1300 sq m crew’s chill out lounge. Their final score of 17 points gave them a cushion of 15 points over Russell Coutts and his crew of Torbjorn Tornqvist’s Artemis, while Ian Walker and the crew of Patches, Eamon Conneely’s Irish flagged Reichel Pugh designed boat earned their first podium place of the season, finishing third, ten points behind Artemis. An exciting showdown is set for Hyeres, France where the five regatta Circuit concludes, starting on September 10th.
Custom Search