(Barcelona, Spain)- Over the past weekend, the famous Spanish J/80 fleet
held their national championship, known as the Copa de Espana in
Barcelona, Spain. The fleet enjoyed a great turnout and had nine races
over the course of the three-day event hosted by YC Barcelona. Winning
the event was Marc de Antonio’s BRIBON MOVISTAR. Continuing their on-going battle for Spanish J/80 fleet domination all season long were the two protagonists, BRIBON MOVISTAR and Jose Maria Van der Ploeg’s NAUTICA WATCHES (a past J/80 World Champion and Olympic medalist). No matter what NAUTICA WATCHES did, they could not overcome the momentum established all season-long by de Antonio’s BRIBON MOVISTAR. Both boats traded taking 1st and 2nds all regatta-long. However, the big break to establish a larger lead for BRIBON MOVISTAR took place in the 7th race when NAUTICA WATCHES posted a 5th place. Thereafter, the two leaders each won one of the two last races, BRIBON MOVISTAR winning the match race over NAUTICA WATCHES.
The “brides maid”, to some degree, was Javier de la Gandara’s OKOFEN, grabbing whatever scraps were left on the table from the two giants battling at the top of the leaderboard. In the end, they grabbed the bronze on the podium. While starting off a bit slow, Gandara’s OKOFEN nearly averaged the scores of the top two boats during the middle of the series, with scores of 2-3-4-3-1. However, after winning the ninth race, their elation quickly dissolved into despair as their 6-5 in the last two races eliminated any mathematical possibility of cracking the top two. In the end, the teams had great sailing over the three-day weekend. For more Spanish J/80 sailing information
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