After three days and a full program, with seven sailed races, the Australian Yeahnah team took the HM King Juan Carlos Trophy today, with 11 points.
The championship was raced at Clube Naval de Cascais by eight teams, from five different nationalities, which had excellent conditions throughout the championship – there were three days of clear skies and shining sun and while the first two days had the famous champagne sailing conditions, Sunday there was room for light wind.
On the first day, two races were held with the wind blowing from the northwest quadrant with an intensity of around 14 knots. The Belgian team Saturno of Xavier Vanneste, with Karl Odent and Gustavo Lima, won the inaugural race – thus winning the Vincie Trophy. The second race was won by the Australian team of Pete Cooke, Torvar Mirsky and Frederico Melo that ended the day leading, with 3 points. After the races, the sailors were greated at the club house with a happy hour, offered by Petticrows.
On the second day, the fleet completed the three scheduled races with similar conditions from the previous day and the Australian team Yeahnah scored another bullet and two third places, managing to stay in first place, but with a small margin of just one point.
On the last day, the conditions were a little bit lighter than the previous days, with the wind blowing around 7 knots, and three teams went on the water able to win the title, with all being played until the last race.
Yeahnah, Pete Cooke’s team with Torvar Mirsky and the Portuguese Olympic sailor Frederico Melo in the crew, went on to win the championship, with 2 points of advantage over the Portuguese team Easy, of Michael Zankel with Diogo Pereira and João Matos Rosa, who ended up taking second place, with 13 points.
With 15 points and closing the podium, were the Portuguese team of Pedro Mendes Leal, Tanit Cabau, Pedro Rebelo de Andrade and Natali Alexandrova, who won the last race of the day, thus winning the Stavros trophy.
Also worth mentioning is the Irish team Cloud, of Jonathan Bourke, Conn Harte Bourke and Sam Gillivan who were the first Corinthians – the first crew without any professionals.
This was the 28th edition of the championship, that was established in 1995 when His Majesty King Juan Carlos I of Spain donated a trophy to Clube Naval de Cascais, to honor the place and the club where he learned to sail and compete.
The championship was supported by Turismo de Portugal, Visit Cascais, Cascais City Council, Portuguese Sailing Federation, Cascais Marina, Sagres and Vista Alegre; and had the environmental certification of the NGO Sailors for the Sea, which awarded the race with the “gold” certificate, the second highest in its ranking.
