Clear blue skies and a solid breeze of 15 to 25 knots from North/NorthEast is forecasted for this weekend 3rd SB20 Cascais Winter Series organized by Clube Naval de Cascais. This will give spectacular sailing conditions to the 33 boat fleet that will sail for the win.
“Conditions are going to be challenging and will push crews to come with their very best boat handling and smart tactics as this wind from onshore is shifty and tricky to play inside the bay where most likely races will be held”, said Vasco Serpa, SailCascais CEO, the local provider of SB20 charter boats and the current SB20 Portuguese Champion. “Definitely is not going to be a weekend to be very bold. You will have to hold yourself in contention at every moment and be patient to wait for that opportunity when it comes. If it’s going to be a shift, pressure or just a mistake from your opponents. You have to wait and nail it when it comes,” – he added.
The fleet is again full of local and foreign talent. Adding to the pool of local habitués in the class that count several Portuguese Olympians, like the brothers Gustavo and Jorge Lima, sailing two different boats, there will be the two time Star Bacardi Cup winner and TP52 helmsman Afonso Domingos aboard ContactoAtlantico.
On the foreign contingent this 3rd Winter Series will count with the two strong Ukrainian teams of ItParfume, of Anatoli Petrov, winner of the last Winter Series in December, and Team #GameChanger of Julia Freespirit, their current national champion. Between the other 6 teams coming from Belgium and Russia, is the team of Sergjs Filatovs a newcomer from Latvia.
“On behalf of Clube Naval de Cascais I would like to give a warm welcome to all the foreign crews attending this first Winter Series of 2018” said a satisfied Goncalo Esteves, president of Clube Naval Cascais. “The Club, together with the Portuguese SB20 Class association have been promoting the Cascais SB20 Winter Series since 2015/16 the. Now with the contribute of SailCascais we have been able to get not less than 30 boats at the starting line and we are confident that with the commitment of all we will see 40 boats per event soon.” continued Goncalo, concluding by congratulating both parties for their remarkable work.
Among the fleet two all-female crews, Miudas, of Margarida Aguiar and Naftalina Rosa, of Teresa B. Coutinho and three other crews with female at the helm Natalya Kravets on Matryoshka, Sara Pinto of MataUPinto and as previously mentioned Julia Freespirit on #GameChanger.
With the fleet set and conditions more clear for the next couple of days all is ready for this event. The local favourites Dom Pedro Hotels, of Jose Paulo Ramada and Animal/Mobiag, of Vasco Serpa will have to be at the top of their game against this strong field of competitors. “The conditions will be difficult but they are the same for everybody” answered Jose Paulo when asked to comment the weekend ahead. “We are just looking forward to race again in Cascais against such competition. The quality of participants is really good meaning that we will have a tough championship ahead and therefore fun!” he concluded with an open smile.
That’s all for now, back on Saturday from Cascais with the comments to the first day of racing. Have a great end of the working week!