Today the bay of Palma witnessed the grand sight of eight classic schooners lined up for a magnificent parade of sail to kick off the 2016 Palma superyacht cup. The fleet of classic yachts included; Elena, Eleonora, Naema, Moonbeam IV, Mariette, Kelpie of Falmouth, Germania Nova and of course our vessel Shenandoah of Sark. The weather was very accommodating with glorious sunny conditions kicking in a sea breeze for the start. Charlie Wroe from Mariette orchestrated the line-up as all the schooners came together for the starting gun.

The fleet then charged upwind across the bay of Palma from Dique del Oest round Isle de Sech. For us on Shenandoah we were sat in between Eleonora and Elena, sandwiched between two beautiful Herreshoff replicas. Very tasty! Unfortunately the wind was far too light for us to be competitive but nevertheless we had a great beat upwind and rounded the windward mark close behind Germania Nova. We the run deep into the bay of Palma for a finish outside the port. A magnificent sight for all on the water.

After the race we the crews all met up for a brief prizegiving and Shenandoah was awarded the “Concourse d’Elégance” prize from Alice Widows. In her speech she said that; “I wanted to recognise the herculean effort it has taken the owners, Captains and crews to getting these boats race ready and out on the water. It was a challenging task to pick a winner from this amazing rostrum of large classic yachts. However, one vintage vessel stole the show with her gleaming bright work, decks, detail and well turned out crew, it was Shenandoah of Sark that had the “Je ne sais quoi” factor today”,

It was a very pleasant surprise for the crew and the owner of Shenandoah who had flown in especially for this Big Day Sail. A special mention was made to Charlie Wroe, Captain of Mariette for his enthusiasm in bringing all the big schooners together. Let’s hope we can do this all again soon.