Wednesday, March 31, 2010

J/80 Champion Racing IMOCA 60 New York-Barcelona

J/80 Champion sailor Tono Piris from Santander, Spain J/80 champion Spanish sailor, Antonio ("Toño") Piris from Santander, is skippering in the New York-Barcelona Race in IMOCA 60s.  You'll have seen his name frequently pop up in reports of the extremely competitive J/80 fleet racing off Santander, especially in this last Winter Series.  Great training to keep you sharp offshore in a 3,000 match race!! Toño began sailing in the Optimist class and soon moved on to the Laser, becoming runner-up in the Spanish national championships in 1981, and later winning in the youth category , as well as taking part in the Junior IYRU Laser World Championships in Portugal. He has sailed on boats across many different classes, such as J/24s, J/80s, IOR, IMS, IACC, TP52, as well as having taken part in the building process of many of them: Hispania, Galicia Pescanova, EF Education y EF Language, España 92, Rioja de España, Bravo España, Caixa Galicia and Iberdrola.  Read more about this epic assault on a Trans-Atlantic record with two IMOCA 60s racing.  http://www.ny-bcn.org/en/index.jsp