Some great racing to be had at Los Alcazares at the Spanish Nationals. Owen Cox reports.
This week saw the return of the Spanish Catamaran championships which incorporated the Spanish A-Class National Championships.
It was great to be returning to the same waters that we had our European Championships earlier in the year, and as always, on arrival the welcome was really friendly and helpful. This was very welcome after my 1200km drive to get down to Los Alcazares. The sun was shining and the sand was golden and winds were just increasing enough to get a practice sail in on Thursday and before the main event started on the Friday for the weekend. Saturday started with an 18 knot breeze from the East and built all afternoon as the thermal winds ramped up. The fleet was split in the usual way with the Open foilers and Classics all starting on the same line and at the same time.
The somewhat unusual points scoring system meant that, whatever position you finished in on the water, the Classics and Foilers all got the same points as per their overall placing, but without any handicap system in place. It meant that the individual fleet points were slightly odd. Thus, finishing first in Classics would not necessarily mean 1 point, but it could mean 6 points, as happened to Gustavo Doreste, who dominated the racing with firsts in the Classic fleet in every race. This in effect biassed the results somewhat toward those that did well in light winds in the Classic fleet but in the heavy winds, the foiling fleet.
With a total of 10 A- Cats on the water, it made for a small and friendly but very competitive fleet. But after three races on Friday, a pattern was emerging, with Gustavo Doreste leading classics and Manuel Calavia and Emil Jarudd in the foilers. Some great sailing was had with it being quite entertaining being amongst the Hobie Cats and other mixed fleet, sailing downwind was particularly fun when they were coming upwind.
Saturday was rather different with three races in 5-8 knots of wind, with only the very lightest of helms getting on the trapeze for very short periods, and low and slow being the same for both Classics and Foilers. It became a test of stamina as the sun was just as hot and 4 hours on the water, in that heat, tested the concentration that could well needed in the light fickle winds. Gustavo and Francisco Javier Acosta, closely followed by Virgilio Bermejo, showing their light wind expertise led the Classic fleet while the rest of the fleet battled with the wind to get to the end. Foilers were again led by Manolo in very tricky conditions for a foiler.
Sunday was an earlier start and with the wind already just over 10 knots, it was a nice day to race, with almost perfect wind that slowly built to around 13-14 knots and made for some really nice fun conditions without turning it into a survival game. Three more races then ensued with Gustavo dominating again in the first two races in the Classics. Unfortunately, the great Enrique Cornejo had a sail breakage very quickly after the first start, and it knocked him out for the three race. Gustavo didn’t sail the last race, so the race was on between Owen Cox and Francisco who managed to pip Owen in the last 100m after some amazingly close racing. Emil Jarudd found his speed again with three convincing wins with Rafeta Gomez Polo in second in all three.
All in all it was a superb event in a stunning location with a highly competitive fleet.!
