(Puerto Sotogrande, Spain)- Over the September 3rd to 6th weekend, the
highlight of the J/80 summer sailing season in Spain took place at the
famous seaside resort of Sotogrande, hosted by Club Nautico Bevelle. An
extremely competitive fleet of thirteen boats participated from
Santander, Barcelona, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca and a large Andalusian
local fleet.The stage was set earlier in the season with the local Andalusian boats having to fight off an armada of powerful teams visiting their city. Teams like Marc Antony’s BRIBON-MOVISTAR from Barcelona and the formidable duo of Carlos Diaz and Alex Latapia sailing OXITAL from Santander would be their toughest opponents.
Despite the strong visiting teams, the local knowledge favorites lead by Juan Luis Páez’s HERBALIFE or Pablo de Villar’s PUERTO SOTOGRANDE could easily be factors at the top of the leaderboard.
After nine very competitive races, it was clear the battle was going to be between the visiting BRIBON-MOVISTAR team from Real Club Nautico Barcelona and the locals- Paez’s HERBALIFE team sailing for Club Nautico Sevilla. Both teams won four races and neither team finished outside of the top four! Quite an impressive performance for both boats. Starting out fast was BRIBON-MOVISTAR, ringing up a 3-1-1-3-1 for the first five races while HERBALIFE was just managing to hang onto second place. However, in the last four races, HERBALIFE must’ve drunk their own concoction of Herbalife remedies and took off on a tear with a 1-3-1-1 to nearly win the series. In the end, BRIBON-MOVISTAR was declared J/80 Spanish Champion, winning with a total of 16 pts while HERBALIFE settled for second place with 17 pts total.
While the two lead boats were wrapped up in a fierce duel for J/80 Spanish supremacy on the high seas, behind them was yet another strong fight for the top five. Notably, places 3rd to 6th finished within 7 pts of each other! Taking the brass ring (bronze, as it were) was the duo of Carlos Latapia & Jesus Gonzalez-Amaliach on OXITAL, sailing for Real Club Maritimo Santander, finishing with 32 pts total. Just one point back in fourth was Dinisio Martinez and skipper Julia Vallo sailing PUERTO SHERRY from Club Maritimo Puerto Sherry, sitting on 33 pts. Four points back in 5th was Pablo de Villar’s PUERTO SOTOGRANDE, sailing for their local club- Club Nautico Bevelle. For more J/80 Copa de Espana sailing information
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