PHOTOS AND VIDEO NATIONAL SAILING AWARDS 2022
The Monte Real Yacht Club hosted the gala of the National Sailing Awards
The awards sponsored by Terras Gauda wineries celebrate their thirtieth edition, rewarding the most outstanding sailors and teams on the Spanish nautical scene
Some of the most outstanding athletes on the Spanish nautical scene were honored this Saturday in Baiona at the National Sailing Awards gala, which were delivered at the Monte Real Club de Yates within the framework of the 37th Prince of Asturias Trophy.
In a club decorated for the occasion and in front of a crowd of spectators, José María “Pichu” Torcida, Nuria Sánchez, María Perelló, Marta Cardona, Javier Banderas, Piti Estébanez and Rafael Díaz went up on stage to collect their awards for best sailor , the best project, the best dinghy sailing team and the best boat. The only one who could not attend was the Spaniard Pablo Santurde, winner of the award for best sailor, whose tribute coincided with his wedding day.
Hosted by the Galician Television presenter, Carlos Macía; and the head of communication at Monte Real, Rosana Calvo; The event began with welcoming speeches by the president of the organizing club, José Luis Álvarez; and the president of Bodegas Terras Gauda, José María Fonseca Moretón, sponsor of the national awards. Both agreed to point out the importance of an event that celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and that throughout its history has served to recognize the successes of Spanish sailing.
After the welcome speeches, the winners followed one another on stage to collect their award. The first to do so was José María “Pichu” Torcida from Santander, who received the award for the best sailor for his victories in the Spanish and European J80 Championships. He thanked all those who accompanied him in the world of sailing for so long for the award. “Crew, owners, sponsors, family and especially my wife.” He had a souvenir also for his J70 crew, without which, he said, “This award would not have been possible.” And he ended by congratulating Monte Real for next year’s J80 World Championship and for the work it is doing to promote the J80 fleet.
The Mariano Aguado Communication Award went this year to the program “Atando Cabos” from the production company TacTic Audiovisual, and it was its director, Vicente Robles, who was in charge of collecting it. “After 20 years giving coverage and support to sailing, we thought that this sport did not have a specific program -said Robles- and thus Tying Cabos was born. And almost 200 shows later, what we’ve achieved has been amazing. This National Award is the icing on the cake”.
The next award of the night, for the best female project, was collected by Nuria Sánchez, for her initiative “We want to make history” , a proposal that, for years, has tried to spread and promote the figure of women in the world of sailing. In her speech, the sailor from Alicante said that they will continue working to be messengers of equality. “In these four years we have worked hard, creating and reaping the fruit that we are now. We involve the smallest, we bet on young promises and we also reach out to veterans and legends. And we can only thank all those who bet on us”, said.
With a sporting career spanning a quarter of a century behind them, the people from Malaga at the Teatro Soho Caixabank, led by Javier Banderas, collected the award for best ORC boat after achieving their sixth victory in the Copa del Rey. Accompanied by sports director Piti Estébanez and crew member Rafael Díaz, Banderas thanked Monte Real and Terras Gauda for an award that, he said, is the fruit of long experience. “The secret of our crew is that we have been sailing together for 25 years and it is now that we are reaping the rewards. It is a pride for all of us to collect this prestigious award in Baiona” .
The last prize of the night went to the youngest of the gala, the Majorcan sailors, 17 years old, María Perelló and Marta Cardona. They were distinguished by their gold medals in the World and European 420 class. “Values such as teamwork, the desire to excel, respect, perseverance, overcoming limits, self-discipline or responsibility are some of the values that make sailing for us more than just a sport, which be a whole lifestyle”, assured before concluding that “We have achieved many things this year, but we like to think that the best is yet to come”.
To this thirtieth edition of the National Sailing Awards, in addition to the presidents of the Monte Real Yacht Club and Terras Gauda wineries, organizer and sponsor of the event; the commanding director of the Naval Military School, Pedro Cardona; the territorial director of ABANCA, Walter Álvarez; the mayor of Baiona, Carlos Gómez; the territorial delegate of the Xunta de Galicia in Vigo, Marta Fernández-Tapias; the deputy for sports from the Pontevedra Provincial Council, Gorka Gómez, and the widow of Mariano Aguado, Pilar de Sas.
A display of fireworks and a party enlivened with live music put an end to the gala held within the framework of the Prince of Asturias Trophy, which will hold its final tests tomorrow, Sunday, and will crown its winners.
National Sailing Award for the world champions María Perelló and Marta Cardona
· The two-time world champions María Perelló and Marta Cardona will be distinguished next September 3 in Galicia with the National Sailing Award for the best light sailing crew
· After a successful stint in the Optimist class, these 17-year-old Majorcans from the Club Nàutic s’Arenal achieved the double (gold in the World Cup and in the European) in their first year competing together in the 420 class
· The National Sailing Awards gala will be held in Baiona under the organization of the Monte Real Yacht Club and sponsored by the Terras Gauda wineries
The two-time world champions María Perelló and Marta Cardona will receive, on September 3 in Galicia, the National Sailing Award for the best light sailing crew.
At just 17 years old, the Majorcans will be distinguished for the successes obtained in 2021, their first year competing together, in which they managed to hang the World and European gold medals in the 420 class around their necks.
They were the first joint triumphs of a crew that a year later, in this 2022, continued to fight and was proclaimed champion of the Youth Sailing World Championship, the youth sailing world championship; and runner-up in the world of 420.
“Receiving the National Sailing Award is the finishing touch to a great year and an honor,” says María Perelló, who sees the award as “A recognition of the effort and dedication, not only mine -he says- but also of the entire team that has helped and accompanied me during these years”.
A few years in which this young sailor managed to make history in the Optimist class, by proclaiming herself world champion for three consecutive years, setting a record not achieved by any woman so far.
And so, being a three-time world champion, Perelló decided to say goodbye to the boat with which she began to love the world of sailing and make the leap to the 420 with her friend Marta Cardona, whose Optimist was already beginning to it was small. Together they began to work on their new positions and responsibilities, and to think as a team, and the results were not long in coming.
“Sailing with María, who as well as being a companion is a friend, and achieving everything we have achieved together, is a dream from which I don’t want to wake up” acknowledges Marta Cardona. “The National Sailing Award is a new motivation to continue working towards reaching new goals”.
Perelló and Cardona will receive the award that recognizes them as the best light sailing crew on September 3 in Baiona (Galicia), within the framework of the National Sailing Awards gala, organized by the Monte Real Yacht Club with the sponsorship from Bodegas Terras Gauda.
Pichu Torcida, sailor of the year
· José María “Pichu” Torcida from Santander has been recognized by the Terras Gauda National Sailing Awards as the best sailor of the year for his triumphs in the Spanish and European J70 Championships
· This is the third National Sailing Award that Torcida has been awarded after being distinguished as the best skipper of the year 2010 and receiving the award for the best team of the year 2011 with the Iberdrola Team that he skippered at the time
José María “Pichu ” Torcida from Santander will collect the Terras Gauda National Sailing Award on September 3 in Baiona, accrediting him as the best sailor of 2021, an award that the Cantabrian will receive for his victories in the Spanish and European Sailing Championships. J70.
It will be the third National Sailing Award with which this 58-year-old industrial engineer is recognized, considered one of the best Spanish sailing skippers in recent decades. After being distinguished as the best skipper of the year 2010 and receiving the award for the best team of the year 2011 with the Iberdrola Team , who skippered then; Torcida will add a new recognition to its long list of awards in a few weeks.
“Receiving such a prestigious award is a great satisfaction. That they remember you, for me, has a lot of meaning, because it is a reward for the time dedicated to this exciting sport” , says Torcida, who will receive the award “Among friends and in a place as emblematic as the Monte Real Club de Yates de Baiona, which I have a special affection for”.
And it is that Galicia has been, without a doubt, one of the places most visited by Torcida during 2021, where he trained and competed aboard the Noticia, of the Real Club Náutico de Santander, the ship of which he has been the owner and skipper since 2016, and that has given him so much joy. After winning, in May 2021, the J70 Spanish Championship, held in A Coruña; The European Championship in September, in Denmark, arrived, in which he won leading a luxury team, made up of Luis Martín Cabiedes, Rayco Tabares, Pablo Santurde and Fran Palacio.
“The one-design regattas, of anyone… J70, J80, FC8, Soto40, TP52 are the best… because not only do you have to be very prepared, -says Torcida- but also have a good team. Being at the top in such close competitions is super rewarding. I miss having done more offshore regattas, but I haven’t had time for everything”, he concludes.
In J70, Torcida has already won several victories in different Spanish championships, a European gold and silver, and a third place in the World Championship. The world championship has eluded him so far in J70, but he has already had two in J80 (2007 and 2010), a class with which he has also scored several podium finishes in national championships and cups.
His sports curriculum, in which his participation in the 1993-1994 round-the-world trip aboard the Galicia Pescanova stands out, is as extensive as it is varied. It includes victories in the IMS 500, Sydney 40 and Class 40 world championships; a couple of First Class 8 European championships; a win at the 2015 Fasnet Rolex; or several Copas del Rey, among others.
A half century of life linked to the sea that Pichu Torcida has known how to make the most of, ever since his father, José David Torcida, bought him and his brother a little sailing boat to go from Puertochico to Puntal; going through the sailing courses in the Marítimo de Santander; and his first steps in the world of competition. A path plagued with efforts and victories that will take him to Baiona on September 3 to collect a prize for sailor of the year, which is also, without a doubt, recognition of a brilliant career.
The Soho CaixaBank Theater closes a brilliant season with the National Sailing Award for best boat
· The boat from Puerto Deportivo de Benalmádena has been distinguished with the National Sailing Award for the best ORC boat after achieving its sixth victory, absolute and class, in the Copa del Rey
· The project of the shipowner from Malaga Javier Banderas, brother and partner of the well-known actor Antonio Banderas, will receive the award in a year in which he celebrates 25 years of sporting career
· The Terras Gauda National Sailing Awards will be presented on September 3 at a gala to be held at eight in the afternoon at the Monte Real Yacht Club in Baiona
The National Sailing Awards gala will sound this year with a Malaga accent after the Soho CaixaBank Theater was awarded the prize for the best ORC boat of the season. The boat, armed and led by Javier Banderas, will receive the prestigious award after achieving its sixth victory -the second in a row- in the Copa del Rey, in which, both last year and this year, it took the absolute and class wins.
The crew of the boat, a Swan 42 CS from the Puerto Deportivo de Benalmádena, includes, in addition to Javier Banderas as owner and navigator on board with the electronics, and Daniel Cuevas at the helm; Olympic medalists Luis Doreste with tactics and Domingo Manrique with spi. Also Ángel Medina as mainsail trimmer, Piti Estébanez acting as sports director and Genoa trimer, Pipe Ruiz on mast, Fernando Valderrama as free, Rafael Díaz on piano, Ángel Medina Jr. as libero, Nicolás de Virgilis in the bow and Pablo Gauna as bow helper.
A computer teacher, a terrace waterproofer, a hotel worker, a physiotherapist, a student… different professions and different origins (the majority are from Malaga but there are also Canarians) in a team that stands out for its solidity, progression and adaptability.
“The perseverance of maintaining a sports project for 25 years is not something very common today and that continuity is perhaps the most outstanding thing about this crew, which has known and been able to stay together going through many different classes and boats”, assures the sports director of the Soho CaixaBank Theater, Piti Estébanez.
Their sixth victory, this year, in the Copa del Rey, in which a hundred boats from twenty countries competed, allowed them to climb once again to a podium that, since 2009, they have already stepped on 13 times; and get closer, more and more, to the legend. On September 3, in Baiona, they will receive the award for the best ORC boat of the year.
Pablo Santurde from Spain wins his second National Sailing Award
· After being distinguished as the best skipper of the year in 2020, this time Santurde will receive the award for the best sailor, as a result of his victory in the Transat Jacques Vabre aboard the Class40 Redman
At just 35 years old, the sailor from Santander has achieved multiple successes in some of the most outstanding and complex ocean regattas on the international nautical scene
· “I have followed ocean sailing since I was a child and I never thought I would do the things I have done” , declared Santurde after learning that he was deserving of a new National Sailing Award
In November 2021, after sailing 5,502 miles in 21 days, 22 hours, 33 minutes and 30 seconds, Pablo Santurde from Spain crossed the finish line of the prestigious Transat Jacques Vabre. He did it ahead of all the boats he was competing against, aboard the Class40 Redman and accompanied by Frenchman Antoine Carpentier.
His victory in the prestigious competition allowed him to write a new chapter in the history of transoceanic sailing, and almost a year after that feat, the echoes of his triumph still resonate in the Spanish nautical scene, which next September will yield a new and deserved tribute.
Santurde will receive the Monte Real Club de Yates de Baiona the Terras Gauda National Sailing Award for the best sailor, an award that, as soon as he heard the news, the sailor wanted to dedicate to his family and those who supported him from the beginning.
“In this profession we spend a lot of time away from home and the family is the one that suffers the most. I am very lucky because they support me unconditionally, and that is why they are also deserving of this award”, assured Santurde before looking back to also remember its beginnings. “Since I was little I have followed ocean sailing and I never thought I would do the things I have done. Many times the most difficult thing is to get a first opportunity that opens doors for you, and this is where I will always be grateful to Gonzalo Botín” .
With just 35 springs, this year will be the second National Sailing Award received by Pablo Santurde, who in 2020 was distinguished as the best skipper after the successes achieved aboard the M&G Tressis of the Real Club Marítimo de Santander, with which he managed to be J80 class world champion.
For this ocean sailing enthusiast, his four world championships (two in Class40 and two in J80) and his European championship (in J70) weigh as much as his victories in the Transat Jacques Vabre, the Rolex Fasnet Race, the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland and the RORC Caribbean 600.
“Despite the fact that ocean sailing in Spain does not have the following that it has in other countries, there are Spanish sailors who have achieved very important things, and the National Sailing Awards have been able to give them the support and promotion they deserve. For me it is an honor to be distinguished in this category”Santurde concludes.
TERRAS GAUDA NATIONAL SAILING AWARDS GALA
Saturday, September 3, 2022 8:00 p.m.
Monte Real Yacht Club (Baiona)
The National Sailing Awards will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Galicia 93 Pescanova
· In the year in which their silver jubilee is celebrated, the crew that placed Galicia on the international sailing map will receive the Terras Gauda National Sailing Award for the best sports project
The Galicia 93 Pescanova will be distinguished for having achieved a podium position in the Whitbread Round the World 93-94 with an entirely Spanish team led by Javier de la Gándara from Vigo
· The Terras Gauda National Sailing Awards will be presented on September 7 at the Monte Real Club de Yates, the place from which 25 years ago the Galicia 93 Pescanova left to make history
The gala of Premios Nacionales de Vela Terras Gauda will pay tribute next September 7 in Baiona to the Galicia 93 Pescanova, the boat that 25 years ago placed the Galician community on the international sailing map after achieving a podium position in the Whitbread Round the World 93-94.
Five decades after that feat, the team led by Javier de la Gándara from Vigo will receive a distinction for the best sports project at the Monte Real Club de Yates, the club that saw him leave Galicia to make history.
This is a new and well-deserved recognition for a major project that marked a before and after for sailing in Spain and for a crew that managed to conquer the seas aboard a WOR60 known as ” the flying fish” .
The boat, designed by Bruce Farr and built at the Armada de Vigo shipyards, brought together 16 sailors, 7 of them Galician, under the command of De la Gándara. Chuny Bermúdez from Coruña, Jaime Arbones, Marcos Iglesias, Juan Zarauza and Ñaco Eraso from Vigo, and Carlos Sampedro from Baiona; Barcelonans Jan Santana, Joan Vila, Nando Muñoz and Guillermo Altadill joined; Pichu Torcida and Toño Piris from Santander; Victor Unzueta from Cadiz, Paco Fernández from Alicante and Santi Portillo from Malaga.
With the encouragement of the Galician Sailing Federation, the institutional support of the Xunta de Galicia through the Xacobeo and the sponsorship of Pescanova, on May 7, 1993, the launching of the ship was held in Vigo, with the Infanta Cristina as godmother. who would participate in the Whitbread Round the World 93-94. Days later, the Galicia 93 Pescanova left the Monte Real Club de Yates for La Rochelle to take part in the Tour of Europe, which it won; and later in the Fastet Race, where they achieved the first victory for Spain in the legendary regatta. They were “training” for his great goal, which was to win the world tour.
On September 25, from Southampton, the starting point of the sixth edition of the race, they began to forge the legend. Until then, Spain had only participated in a trip around the world on 3 occasions (with the Licor 43 in the 81-82 edition, with the Fortuna Lights in 85-86, and with the Fortuna Extra Lights in 89-90), but this was the first time he did it with an entirely Spanish project, with Spanish sponsorships and crew, which would manage to get on the podium.
Ahead, almost 32,000 miles that meant an adventure, or “madness” as many branded it. They finished the first stage in second place, in the second stage they suffered delamination of the ship’s hull, and despite the fact that some gave it all up for lost, they continued. They fell to fourth place in the classification and in the fifth stage they managed to climb to third position, in which they would finally finish the test.
They made history. And the Galicia 93 project will remain forever in the memory of sailing enthusiasts. His impact, both sporting and social, was immense and his tribute, 25 years later, more than deserved. They will receive it in Baiona, on September 7, at the Terras Gauda National Sailing Awards gala, which is held within the framework of the 34th Prince of Asturias Trophy organized by the Monte Real Yacht Club and the Military Naval School. They will receive the award for the best sports project.
