· The Monte Real Club de Yates de Baiona team skippered by Juan Carlos Ameneiro completed a great competition and was proclaimed national champion of the class in the waters of the Vigo estuary
· In Galicia, the silver of the championship won by Javier de la Gándara’s Okofen and the bronze goes to Cantabria at the hands of Ignacio Camino’s Solintal from Santander.
· Luis de Mira’s Namasté is the new J80 Spanish Champion with mixed crew and the awards for best youth and female crew were shared by the Basques Fhimasa and Decoexsa respectively
With the Spanish Championship – Gestilar Trophy, the Monte Real Club de Yates de Baiona has already kicked off the J80 class World Championship that the club will organize in September 2023
The J80 fleet already has new Spanish champions of the class. This Sunday, the Monte Real Club de Yates put an end to the J80 Spanish Championship – Gestilar Trophy, which the club had been celebrating since last Friday, with almost 40 sailboats in contention and as a prelude to the World Cup that the Rías Baixas will host next year.
After three intense days of regatta and seven races completed, the Juan Carlos Ameneiro Rampage sentenced a national title for which they fought tooth and nail from the first race, against a fleet it was not easy at all and with several teams that were about to take the lead.
With his usual crew, made up of the world class champion Javier Aguado, Javier Lago and Juan José Lago, Ameneiro started the championship strongly, adding two seconds and one first with which he was at the top of the table. On Saturday they withstood the pressure of their rivals and on Sunday, after winning a protest in the last test for an off-line that they managed to appeal, they were definitively proclaimed champions of Spain in J80.
“We are very happy to have won this championship in front of so many good crews. We wanted to make a worthy participation in the national but we did not expect to be so high. In the end we have had a magnificent championship and at the last minute, with a claim for an off-line that we did not have, far from it, the committee decided it was convenient to make a repair and we have won it very tight with Okofen, which is a very worthy opponent and he has done a very good regatta too”Ameneiro said.
Behind Alboroto, just four points away, Okofen, also from Monte Real Club de Yates, took the silver trophy and the runner-up position in Spain. The team made up of Javier de La Gándara, Diego Fernández, Pablo Franco and Jaime de La Gándara signed a very good national, going from less to more from the first day. He started from fifth position and even came close to winning, which finally eluded him, leaving him a more than worthy second position.
The Cantabrian Solintal de Ignacio Camino (Real Club Marítimo de Santander) completed the podium in third position, not without having fought until the last minute for the title and after a weekend in which he never got off the podium . Armando Gutiérrez, Cristobal Piris and Abelardo Quevedo also haggled on the boat.
The event organized by Monte Real also decided the new champions of Spain with a mixed crew, a title that went to another local boat, the Luis de Mira Namasté. With Susana Baena, Amparo Molla, Luis Gutiérrez and Hilda Martín among their ranks, Namasté finished with partials of 3-13-3-13-8-23-7, in eighth place overall and as the first mixed team. A brilliant result that leaves Baiona with the second title up for grabs.
In addition to the national championship prizes, the Gestilar Trophy also gave awards to the best women’s and youth crews in the championship. The Decoexsa of the Real Club Náutico de San Sebastián, skippered by Olatz Muñoz and with a crew made up of Marta Lizarraga, Eva González, Patricia Alza, Gabriela Cruz and Carlota Gala, was the best boat manned exclusively by women.
The special mention for the best youth crew went to another Basque team, Fhimasa del Real Club Marítimo del Abra-Real Sporting Club with a crew made up of Nicolás Viar Laorden, Perico Basterra, Manuel Rey-Baltar, Alba Ortega and Tomás Trueba. They also achieved a meritorious fifteenth position.
With these results ends a very tight Spanish Championship in which the competitiveness between the crews led the fleet to fight every length, every start and every section of the route. A perfect rehearsal for next year’s World Cup, which will be held again in these waters and under the organization of the Baionese club.
“With any World Cup that is held in Spain we are delighted and that it is held in Baiona is a great place. Monte Real is a club that is dedicated to sailing and to organizing this type of championship, so it is a luxury to be here”, affirmed the president of the J80 class in Spain, Armando Gutiérrez.
The delivery of trophies, final point and prelude to the 2023 World Cup
With the regatta now over, Monte Real hosted the final trophy ceremony in the afternoon, a ceremony in which the winners of the Gestilar Trophy and the new J80 Spanish champions were crowned. The event was attended by José Luis Álvarez, president of the Monte Real Yacht Club; Javier García Valcárcel, president of Gestilar; Raúl Guerrero, CEO of Gestilar; Carlos Gómez, mayor of Baiona; and Daniel Benavides, provincial head of sports of the Xunta de Galicia.
For the president of the Monte Real Club de Yates, José Luis Álvarez, this J80 Spanish Championship is very important because “It is the starting point for the world championship that we will celebrate in Baiona next year, and because the Spanish crews have already been able to compete in Galician waters and test our regatta fields”. At the World Cup event, scheduled for September 2023, the manager of the Baiona club is confident of having a significant international presence and “that the Galician and Monte Real sailors end up in a good position “.
During the ceremony, Alboroto was also presented with the Trophy of the J80 Spain class. The person in charge of presenting the award was the president of the class, Armando Gutiérrez.
The J80 Spanish Championship was organized by the Monte Real Club de Yates with the sponsorship of Gestilar and Homes by Gestilar and the collaboration of the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation and the Royal Galician Sailing Federation. It also had the support of the Xunta de Galicia, the Pontevedra Provincial Council and the Pontevedra City Council; and from brands and companies such as Volvo Autesa, Martin Miller’s Gin or Terras Gauda, among others.
J80 SPANISH CHAMPIONSHIP GESTILAR TROPHY
Monte Real Yacht Club Baiona, 15 – 18 September 2022
Spanish Champion of J80 2022
ALBOROTO · JUAN CARLOS AMENEIRO · MRCYB
Crew:
JUAN CARLOS AMENEIRO
JAVIER AGUADO
XAVIER LAKE
JOHN JOSE LAKE
Top 5 Spanish J80 Championship 2022
1. ALBOROTO · JUAN CARLOS AMENEIRO · MRCYB
2. OKOFEN · JAVIER DE LA GANDARA · MRCYB
3. SOLINTAL · IGNACIO CAMINO · RCM SANTANDER
4. SPACO SANTIAGO ESTÉVEZ MRCYB
5. BIOBIZZ · JOSÉ AZQUETA · RCM ABRA CSR
Spanish champion of J80 with mixed crew 2022
NAMASTE · LUIS DE MIRA · MRCYB
Best Junior Crew
FHIMASA NICOLÁS VIAR LAORDEN RCM ABRA RSC
Honorable Mention for Best Female Crew
DECOEXSA · OLATZ MUÑOZ · RCN SAN SEBASTIAN
