The Copa del Rey MAPFRE, the Bay of Palma's midsummer institution, holds its 44th edition from 1 to 8 August this year, per the notice of race published by the organising Real Club Náutico de Palma — a week of racing on the bay's thermal breezes for an international fleet that the event's standing draws beyond a hundred boats, from grand-prix programmes to serious amateur campaigns. Entries, the International Maxi Association's notice notes, are open.
The event is the Balearic summer's structural centrepiece as much as its sporting one: the bay's race areas run within sight of the city's frontage, the club and the surrounding waterfront host the week's considerable social apparatus, and the August calendar of Palma's hotels and restaurants organises itself around the fleet and its following. The racing format — classes racing daily on the bay's courses, prize-giving closing the Saturday — has barely needed reinvention in four decades, which is the point.
The 2026 date's small novelty
Worth noting for planners: the edition runs 1-8 August, a week later than the recent pattern — the 43rd ran at the end of July into the first days of August, and the 45th, already announced for 2027, returns to 31 July-7 August. The shift matters to the August calendar's pile-up: the first week of the month now stacks the regatta directly against the peak-family-holiday fortnight in Mallorca, which will test the bay's berths and the town's tables exactly as it rewards the racing.
For the visitor and the charterer
Watching is the easiest in Mediterranean racing: the Paseo Marítimo and the harbour frontages overlook the courses, and the evening fleet returns are a civic spectacle. Charterers holding Balearic weeks that overlap the event should book berths and restaurants now rather than in July, or structure the week around the island's quieter north and west coasts — which, during Copa week, are the reward for reading the calendar.