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The Copa del Rey begins next Saturday 30 July, with two days scheduled for measurement and boat inspection. On Monday 1 August the competition begins, there will be windward-leeward, coastal and long distance races which will take place until the following Sunday 7 August.

The Transpac 52s will come to the Copa del Rey with the complete forecasted fleet for the season. In Punta Ala, Italy, the first event in the circuit, there were seven TP52s on the start line of the first race: Atalanti XV, Bambakou, Bribon, Caixa Galicia, Pisco Sour, Lexus and Orlanda Olympus. For the second event, Trofeo de S.M. La Reina, in Valencia, Spain there were nine with Aifos and Cristabella joining the fleet, and for the third, the Breitling Regatta, ten boats competed, with the incorporation of Siemens to the fleet. In the Copa del Rey, the eleventh vessel will be the recently launched Balearia, built in the Spanish shipyard 'Longitud 0', where Pisco Sour-Movistar was also built.

Balearia is skippered by 1976 Olympic silver medallist in the 470 Toño GOROSTEGUI (ESP) who is currently in Mallorca working on the fine tuning of the vessel, before its debut in this regatta.

A new feature for the Transpac fleet is the new sponsorship of the unstoppable Pisco Sour. The Chilean owners Emilio COUSINIO, Bernardo MATTE and Antonio ORLYI will adorn the boat with the colours of the giant mobile telephone operators Movistar. VASCOTTO, skipper of the boat, will also have the added support of new co-skipper CAMPOS. The boat is currently at the top of the general rankings of the Breitling MEDCUP TP52 Circuit on 147 points.

Lexus, currently in second place in the circuit, on 139 points, will aim to repeat the success enjoyed in the Breitling Regatta, although this time with the original crew captained by Russel COUTTS (NZL), with Mark REYNOLDS (USA), Peter ISLER (USA) and match race yachtsman Jes GRAM-HANSEN (DEN), due to the forecasted absence of COUTTS' protégé Dean BARKER (NZL).

Winner of the first event in the Breitling MEDCUP TP52 Circuit, Caixa Galicia, with RTW yachtsman Roberto BERMÚDEZ DE CASTRO (ESP) at the helm, will have tactician Dee SMITH (USA) returning to the team. SMITH was absent in the Breitling Regatta due to his participation in the Transpacific Race, where he was racing on an American TP52. America's Cup skipper John KOSTECKI (USA) took over for the duration of the event. The Spanish boat is currently in third place on the scoreboard with 134 points.

Bribon, owned by Jose CUSI, with HM King Juan Carlos of Spain as skipper, has a tough challenge ahead. The team must try to maintain their lead in the Corinthian Class for non-professionals against USA's Bambakou, the Britain's Cristabella and the Spanish Royal Navy TP52, Aifos. Bribon is fourth in the general rankings on 112 points.

Orlanda -Olympus with America's Cup yachtsman Tomasso CHIEFFI will have to fight hard to get into the top positions in the rankings. The Italian boat is in fifth place, only one point away from Bribon, while USA's Bambakou, with owner-driver John COUMANTAROS is sixth in the general rankings, and second in the Corinthian category on 105 points.

The Greek vessel Atalanti XV, skippered by Paul CAYARD (USA) has resolved complications experienced with the stay in the previous event. The boat was forced to abandon two of the races in the Breitling Regatta, which saw them move down into seventh place in the general rankings, with 102 points. Cristabella, on 67 points, and Aifos on 49, are eighth and ninth in the rankings, and both vessels close the classifications in the Corinthian class for non-professionals. The new edition to the fleet, Siemens, owned by Pedro PERELLÓ, has the advantage of local knowledge of the Mallorcan waters if they are able to smooth out the performance problems they experienced in the Breitling Regatta. They finished tenth in the general rankings.