J/80 Youth Teams Love Sailing Palma!(Palma Mallorca, Spain)- About 130 boats filled the bay to sail PalmaVela off the fabulous island of Palma Mallorca. Unique for this year’s event was the introduction of two youth sailing teams that were participating in the J/80 class. The host club, Real Club Nautica Palma, and fleet sponsors provided two J/80s for their RCNP Youth Sailing program. The teams were coached by the club’s sailing director.
On the first day of sailing, the wind was slow to settle down, but it allowed sailing for all classes. The fleet was blessed with nice sailing conditions all day long, with sunny skies and nice onshore breezes. In the J/80s, the initial leader after posting a 3-1-1 tally was the local youth crew on OPERA SEASON, coached by Pedro Marí.
Mari
was coaching both youth teams- OPERA SEASON and TEAM RCNP, the only
female team in the entire regatta. All of them are sailors of the Real
Club Nautico de Palma (RCNP) and have experience in national, European
or world sailing dinghy. Their sporting commitments in their respective
classes prevent them from participating in offshore keelboat
competitions, except when the PalmaVela arrives and the opportunity
arises to join the team!The J/80 OPERA SEASON was provided by club partner Thomas Bscher, owner of the Wally 100 "Open Season" and the other J/80 was provided by RCNP partner Martín Aizcorbe; both gentlemen were thrilled to help with the training of young talents within RCNP on one-design offshore keelboats.
The
crew of OPERA SEASON included Jordi Lladó (Optimist), Ramiro Foguet
(Laser), Sion Rosselló and Arturo Madero (420). The Team RCNP crew had
several outstanding women sailing athletes, including Maria Bover, Lala
Akrich, Giulietta Lang, Tess Provenzal and Mar Ferragut; all of them are
top 420 class skippers and crews!Manu Fraga, sporting director of the Real Club Nautico de Palma, explains that the aim of both projects is to bring the offshore keelboat racing to the young sailors of the team, so that they know what it is like to sail aboard larger boats where, as a minimum, they are required to have four crew members.
"Although it is all still the same sport of sailing, there are dramatically different experiences and it is important the club offers these opportunities to our youth sailors! We are fortunate to have two generous supporters, Thomas Bscher and Martin Aizcorbe, to provide us their J/80 class sailboats," explains Mr Fraga.
Pedro
Marí, coach of 420s at RCNP and coach of "Opera Season", has already
been in charge of several of these projects. All his youth sailors,
except Ramiro Foguet, are new. "We try to make the sailors rotate, to
try different positions and roles in each race, they are fast learners
on how to make the J/80 sail better,“ says Marí.The second day of competition provided excellent conditions that allowed the fleet to complete the planned sailing schedule for all fleets. In the J/80 fleet, the day’s sailing produced a new leader in the form of the CODE ZERO team; they had a perfect day of 1-1-1! Notably, in ORC 2 Class, Scott Beattie’s J/97E was easily leading their class after two days of racing.
The last day of competition of at PalmaVela was intense and even dramatic, with victories (and defeats) decided in-extremis in several classes. Five of them were played on a single card in a coastal format, while the rest took the time to play two or even three windward-leeward types. In the ORC 2 Class, it was the J/97E JUST SO, sailed by Scott Beattie, which won counting all 1sts for a dramatic win in one of the toughest ORC classes at PalmaVela!
Beattie
commented on their performance, “we have a good crew, a good boat and
it is a credit to everyone on team, plus we had a bit of luck. If we do
not do it right, it's our fault. We have won here twice, and we are
looking forward to the Copa del Rey. The boat is rated as the slowest in
the fleet, going well at 8-12 knots and flat sea, but when it blows
more than 15 knots, the big boats begin to perform a little better."The J/80 class saw Thomas Rudewald's CODE ZERO with seven 1sts in nine races! Taking third was the RCNP Youth team coached by Pedro Mai. Third was Gerhard Henssen and Braunschmidt Inken’s JOTA JUERGA. Rounding out the top five was Miquel Pujadas and Miquel Corro’s ATILA in 4th and the all-women’s crew on TEAM RCNP skippered by Maria Bover Guerrero took 5th place (just 4 pts out of 3rd!). A great showing for the women’s team comprised of 420 sailors! Youth J/80 sailing videos at Palma Vela For more Palma Vela Regatta sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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