for a Tour de Europe and I remember Bar Barroco – that was a lot of fun! Now I am discovering this race, the TP52 boats and just calling tactics onboard, so a lot of new experiences for me. I am used to doing tactics while helming and sailing alone or with a small crew, so doing only that is special…
‘When the boat wins it is the crew and when it loses it is the tactician, like being the goalkeeper in football! It’s also interesting deciding when to communicate only with the skipper or navigator and when to speak loudly to the whole crew. And it’s interesting not be talking all the time, just when it’s necessary… ‘It’s a sort of low-speed sailing for me (laughs), but it really doesn’t matter because racing against similar boats is about strategy not about fascinating boat speeds. But, yes, sometimes I miss the fast multis’ speed. But I am happy to be here.’ Loïck was racing on the French TP52 Paprec in ORC 0 in a tight fleet of 52-footers. We met the morning before the first day of the ‘final’ and Paprec was leading after winning the first phase, 3pt ahead of Team Vision and 8pt in front of Rowdy Too in third. A few hours later the Paprec team added first three then seven more points… They came back to win the final race the next day but could finish only third overall. Most probably he was not very happy with the classification system.
Swans were everywhere, with 37 of the total 132 entries, includ- ing classes for the Swan 42, 45 and 50 one-designs with other Swans racing in ORC 1 and 2. But the prototype of the new ClubSwan 36, along with its designer Juan K, drew most of the interest. ‘The new 36 is one of these ships that was born well, not all projects are born that way,’ said the Argentinian designer. ‘I have sailed her several times and the yacht is well-balanced and fun to sail. The important thing is she is selling very well already!’ Juan was also surprisingly open about the renewal of various Swan models: ‘We are working on an 80-footer that will be launched in 2021. It will be a limited series of maybe six units, which for an 80-footer is a lot. If there are more, super, but six is a good fleet
at this size of boat. We are also assessing a ClubSwan 50 revamp, because we believe that with some small modifications we can avoid having to build a new boat. We are thinking that both versions will race in the same fleet but perhaps in two divisions.’ Among the Swan 50 gathering of 14 boats was an interesting new Spanish team, Tenaz. It has been years since a serious Spanish programme emerged after ‘the crisis’ – owner Pablo Garriga is a young man passionate about sailing, who has progressed steadily through dinghies, small keelboats and until recently was co-owner with Toni Guiu of the old TP52 Audax in some Spanish ORC regattas. ‘Two years ago I decided to take a new step and I looked at the Swan 50. But first we decided to race two seasons in the J/70 to improve my own helming skills,’ said Garriga. ‘I chose this class for being owner-driver, one-design, a good boat and a competitive fleet. I think it is fun and demanding. I sail for fun, but I am com- petitive and I like to win. My goal is to get to know the boat and develop a good all-Spanish crew.’
Juan Gironés as manager, Tokyo 2020 Finn candidate Alex Muscat and renowned bowman Jaime Arbones are some of Tenaz’s better-known names. They finished one from last in the first phase of the series but improved with every race to end up ninth. A good result for an absolutely rookie team. The winner of the Swan 50 was the Italian Cuordileone, though she was pressed hard by last year’s German winner Earlybird.
Meanwhile, the presence of the Mini-Maxis in the Copa del Rey went largely unnoticed. Perhaps because in such a large regatta a class with only three participants seems uninteresting. Now it will be necessary for the organisers to get maximum feed- back from competitors before deciding how to proceed with the new scoring system. The Copa del Rey works hard to maintain its rep- utation for innovation, constantly experimenting and looking for new ideas that if successful other events can copy. A useful service! Carlos Pich
SEAHORSE 25
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