This is the Sailor’s King Training League, the Real Club Náutico de Palma’s new regatta

Real Club Náutico de Palma (RCNP) will launch, on March 21 as a pilot event, the Sailor’s King Training League (SKTL), a new regatta designed to explore a racing format that is “completely different” from the usual one. The competition will be held aboard the BluSail 24 one-design fleet, the same boats used in the Copa del Rey MAPFRE Women’s Cup.

The SKTL was created with the aim of encouraging real-time competition and offering a more direct spectacle for spectators. According to RCNP sailing committee member Hugo Ramón, the concept is based on a regatta model that is more “visual, aggressive, appealing and controversial.”

The SKTL also aims to become a “festive” event within the club’s sporting calendar. “We want to put together something completely different, break the rules we have known for more than 100 years, and make sure participants have an even better time than in conventional regattas,” explains Pedro Marí, RCNP’s technical sailing director and one of the project’s driving forces. In his view, there is a broad base of sailors of different ages who have stopped sailing, and this kind of competition could restore their motivation. “Since we started promoting it on social media, we haven’t stopped receiving calls from people who want to take part, and even from some regional sailing federations willing to help us promote it.”

Sailor María Bover, one of the SKTL’s creators together with fellow club member Albert Torres and coach Jaume Genovard, admits that the rules of the game have not yet been fully defined. The organizers are currently in the middle of a full “brainstorming session” as they work to shape the protocol that will govern the regatta.

“What is certain is that it will be very different from what we know. For the first time, teams will have a series of wild cards that will be drawn before the regatta and that they may use, or not, depending on what suits them,” Bover explains. Among those options could be, for example, forcing a rival to lower their spinnaker or even stopping the race. Genovard notes that the possibility of introducing changes to the right-of-way priorities established by the official rules is also being considered. “In the SKTL, anything is possible.”

The BluSail 24s are 24-foot boats without a cabin. Their rig has been adapted to make handling easier. “We’ve tuned them up by replacing the spinnaker pole with a bowsprit for an asymmetric spinnaker, which is much easier to handle,” says Marí.

Each boat will be equipped with a 360-degree camera that will make it possible to follow the regatta, for now on delay and, in the future, live, as well as to resolve possible protests using the footage. “A VAR system for sailing,” Bover jokes.

“Sailing is a sport deeply rooted in tradition, and that is something that deserves the utmost respect,” Marí concludes. “We do not want to change the rest of the regattas; we simply want the SKTL to be something that has never been seen before.”