The Islander Magazine are very proud to be appointed as the official media partner for this prestigious regatta.
After a successful first edition in October last year, the interest in Ibiza JoySail is spreading far and wide with entries for the 2022 Ibiza JoySail coming in steadily. It is particularly gratifying that the majority who were there last year are coming back for more this year. As it stands in early May the fleet looks set to include.
ALIX Swan 98 Nautor’s Swan
BE COOL Swan 98 Nautor’s Swan
BLISS YD 120 Yachting Developments
DARK HORSE Swan 80 Nautor’s Swan
HAVANA OF LONDON Vitters 100 Vitters Yachts
MOAT Swan 115 Nautor’s Swan
PEREGRIN Y8 80 Y Yachts
SHANGRI-LA Oyster 72 Oyster
TURCONERI Baltic 70 Baltic Yachts
Looking to guarantee the highest standard of event and race management, Palma based America’s Cup, Superyacht and TP52 navigator Nacho Postigo has been recruited as Technical Director of Ibiza JoySail. Postigo has raced everything from tiny Mini 650 to giant Superyachts inshore and offshore. He is passionate about his love of the Balearics and whilst he might be one of the most renowned experts on the winds of his home waters, the Bay of Palma, Postigo loves Ibiza and Formentera and loves the idea of creating the perfect Superyacht regatta on waters which many big boat sailors have yet to experience.
Nacho what is your vision for Ibiza JoySail, what makes it is special and why are we getting excited about it?
The biggest appeal is that everyone loves Ibiza. When I tell people I am working for a new Superyacht or big boat regatta they are ‘really?, do we need another one?’ and then I tell them it is based out of Ibiza and everyone is interested. Everybody is charmed by the idea. They maybe do not really know the real Ibiza yet but they like the idea. They want to know.
And other than the beautiful backdrop of the islands and the chance to see them from the waters of the race track why are the waters so good for this kind of racing?
From the sailors point of view, from the technical point of view when you do race these boats you need to really be in a controlled environment. You cannot be sending them out to race in waves and in big winds. And in Ibiza we have two bays and so you can always going to have an area which is perfectly protected. And it is great because you will nearly always find somewhere to race.
The regatta is growing nicely since last year but the organisers are keen to produce a well run, exclusive event which has special attributes?
My personal feeling this will take a few editions before it really starts to be inked on to boat’s agendas, hearing it is a nice venue and the whole event is very well run year in year out. For the number of boats I think that maybe 12-15 boats would be the optimum size of the regatta. We love events like the Saint Barth’s Bucket with 25 or 30 boats but that it might be difficult to have a regatta of that size in Ibiza and really this Ibiza JoySail is really about it being exclusive with a specific ambience and atmosphere. We are looking to have a fleet size which allows us to deliver a really top-quality regatta whilst being able to split the fleets into good sized classes.
And September fits the calendar in many different respects?
The dates in September are perfect. We want to make sure that the atmosphere on Ibiza is just right, much later and things start to close down and in the high summer it is too busy, too crazy. September is just right, you have more people ‘in the know’ people who go there who are there because they go regularly because they are in love with Ibiza and have been for years. There is not so much clubbing, it has quietened down.
What is that the owners and their crews are looking for?
The first year was interesting. Some of these owners and crews were there to share a great time with friends and families and they literally said to us ‘we are not interested in the results, we go out there to go sailing round a race course and the result is not important.’ People told us that straight. We had that profile of teams and sailors and we had the sailors who were training for two weekends before Ibiza JoySail who were using the event as they ramped up their campaigns for the Swan 115 for example. So we had the two approaches, the super relaxed guys and the super pros. And everything between. Both groups enjoyed it equally. The super pros thought it was well organised with good courses and did not think it at all boring, whilst the relaxed guys did not think it too high calibre or too hard. So we got that right and I think we can keep that spirit alive.
A key component, a unique aspect is the opening passage race from Palma and the STP base to Marina Ibiza?
This race has to be fun. If it is not fun it will be stopped or abandoned. We cannot have the boats drifting around in a few knots of wind and we cannot have the boats slamming and it all becoming too hard and unpleasant. It is not supposed to be Volvo Ocean race sailing, slamming against waves. If there are either extreme it will be ‘motor to Ibiza and we race tomorrow’ no one wants to drift around for 30 hours! The perfect conditions are 15 knots of wind downwind and we can get that often.
What is the typical weather in September?
We commissioned a long-term weather study for the period and it showed that 65% of the time the winds are between eight and 15kts which is just perfect. If there is a risk it is the wind can be too light for a small percentage of time, but the main thing is that it is very, very unusual at that time of year to get too much wind.
Ana Teske
