The Philippe Briand designed 32m sloop Gliss, built by Royal Huisman, came home in 9th in today’s spectacular final race of the Horus Superyacht Cup Palma which was enough to bring Marco Vogele’s mint green-hulled yacht overall victory. The picture shows her in a right old tussle with the Mike Sanderson-steered Mari-Cha 111 on the final leg.

Sailed in sublime conditions in Palma Bay the race was blessed with a steady 17-knot onshore breeze which saw the fleet away on time on a long course which straddled the bay.

The Fife designed Sunshine (built in Thailand in 2003) was the first away and this well sailed gaff cutter held the lead throughout, followed home by the day one winner the Perini Antara and the Doug Peterson designed Jongert Ithaka.

Try as she might, the overnight leader Black Pearl, the new Tripp design from Baltic, couldn’t claw back sufficient time to defend her position ending up 11th just behind Tenaz. This pushed her down to 6th in the overall rankings with Antara and the Wally Open Season taking 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Black Pearl took the Yachting World performance trophy for the best starts in the three race pursuit series. For a full report on the event make sure you buy the September issue of Yachting World and for full results see www.thesuperyachtcup.com Also see my blog over the coming days for comment and assessment of the regatta.