Spanish J/80s Prepare for Worlds

(Santander, Spain)- As they have in the past few years, the Spanish J/80 class meet during the winter time to discuss the regattas, sponsors and events they will participate in for the following year.  Recognizing the J/80 Worlds are being held in Germany in early July, the fleet adjusted their regatta schedules in order for their fleets to get in enough training and racing to feel competitive by early summer.

Cantabrian Championship
Recently, the Cantabrian Championships were sailed off Santander and the event could not have been harder fought by the teams in attendance. The 22 boat fleet sailed in gorgeous Santander Bay and seeing how close the fleet was sailing over the two days of sailing, it could easily have been mistaken for a world championship event taking place.

Javier Aguado’s MAQUECHE managed to hold off famous J/80 skippers like Pichu Torcida’s OXITAL and David Madrazo’s GO-FIT to take win the regatta.  Since he’s not a Cantabrian registered fleet sailor, the actual title of Cantabrian Champion went to Torcida’s OXITAL.

The difficult sailing conditions that included very light winds for the weekend meant that little errors could become very expensive quickly!  With such a tightly knit and talented fleet, it was hard to crawl back into contention in any given race.  In fact, every team in the top five had at least one race that was in double-digits!

After the conclusion of Sunday’s racing, Aguado’s MAQUECHE won with a 6-1-17-2-2 for 11 pts net.  A last race 14th shot any chances for Pichu’s OXITAL to win the regatta, instead having to settle for a scoreline of 1-5-4-3-14 for 13 pts net and second overall.  Third was Madrazo’s GO-FIT, posting a 4-15-8-5-3 for 20 pts net.

Trofeo GREATSAILING
Elsewhere in Spain, another strong fleet of fourteen boats was sailing to win the Nautica Watches Trophy of Spain— the Trofeo GREATSAILING.  This fleet was nearly as deep and talented as the Santander regatta.  Included in this event were Jose Maria van der Ploeg, a multiple World Champion; Massimo Rama, the Italian J/80 champion; and Marc Antonio, the 2014 Spanish champion.

Unlike their friends in Santander, the fleet never got a race off on Saturday due to such light winds.  However, the regatta PRO and the RC committee more than redeemed themselves by running four excellent races on Sunday.  It was abundantly clear after the first two races that BRIBON MOVISTAR was going to be the “star” of the show, with Marc de Antonio and Sofía Bertrand ultimately claiming victory and taking the Nautica Watches Trophy - Trofeo GreatSailing.  After posting an opening duo of bullets, the MOVISTAR Team took a 3-1-4 to close the series with 6 pts net and win the tiebreaker.  The NAUTICA WATCHES team skippered by van der Ploeg took second with a 5-2-1-2-1 series for 6 pts net to lose the tiebreaker!  Third was Rosa Artigas skippering MIKAKU, fourth was Javier Scherk’s GUNTER and fifth was the Italian team on JENIALE! which was skippered by Massimo Rama.

MI MONEDA Leads Trofeo Vitaldent
There was spectacular sailing over the past weekend of the Bay of Baiona, with weather conditions that led to the quick races and lots of tight maneuvering for the teams. The crew of MI MONEDA, skippered by Jacobo Vecino, took advantage of the 20 knots of wind and successfully completed the races crossing the finish line first in all three races!

Behind the dominant MI MONEDA, the FERRALEMES team with skipper Roberto Fontan and the NEW MOON crew with Juan Luis Tuero at the helm, managed to place second and third place, respectively, for the weekend’s sailing.

After this event, the MI MONEDA team strengthens its leadership in the overall Trofeo Monte Real, with three wins in five days of competition. VIRAZON and NEW MOON could end up with the silver and bronze trophies if they can keep their good performances going next weekend.   Rounding out the top five in the standings are NAMASTE, NORTADA and FERRALEMES.

The Trofeo Vitaldent continues on March 28-29 with the last two days of the competition and the awards to the overall winners.   For more Spanish J/80 sailing information