Senior World Championship – Final

La Coruna, August 11, 2017. Final results

(Photo courtesy of Matias Capizzano)

Regatta report, photo gallery, interviews, full results …

1. PUR Raul Rios & Mac Agnese, 36

2. ESP Gustavo del Castillo & Rafael del Castillo, 41

3. ESP Rayco Tabares Alvares & Gonzalo Morales Quintana, 42

4. ESP Alfredo Gonzalez & Cristian Sanchez Barreto, 52

5. BRA Mario Tinoco & Alexandre Muto, 56

6. BRA Alexandre Tinoco & Victor Perez, 57

7. ESP Alvaro Martinez & Gabriel Utrera, 59

8. ESP Raul de Valenzuela & Antolin Alejandre, 62

9. BRA Bruno Bethlem & Rodrigo Lins, 64

10. ESP Damian Borras Camps & Sara Franceschi, 70

Regatta report by Luis Soubie

The Snipe family sailed their 2017 World Champinship in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. And even though we sailors thought that a bigger Worlds than the one in Rio 2013 and Talamone 2015 would be hard to run, the Spanish fleet came up with a fantastic event.

The venue couldn´t have been better. Sunny, windy, changing and hard conditions were present for both the Junior and Senior Worlds.

…

I’m lucky enough to have sailed in many Snipe Worlds and I can tell you without a doubt, this was the highest level Snipe regatta ever. We had all our latest World, Western, South American, North American and European Champions, and Champions from other classes too (1). The level of competition was incredible and challenging, proved by the fact that in the last race many sailors could become Champions.

The best did.

Results

We have a great new World Champion. I had the chance to see (and suffer) Raul Rios’ sailing during the past three or four years, and while he is very young, he has the sailing maturity of a veteran. Easy to understand how he was also an Optimist World Champion. He was the best at A Coruña, no doubt of it, so congrats Raul and Mac Agnese for a fantastic regatta and super fair sailing!

In addition, the fleets of ESP and BRA showed an incredible level of sailing, taking all the positions from 2nd to 11th, with no Brazilians and only 2 Spanish in the silver fleet. Amazing level. Fantastic crews that fought for five days in hard conditions, staying in top of the results.

The Junior Worlds had a fantastic racing also, with new Champions Tiago Brito and Antonio Rosa (BRA), followed closely by Mafalda and Tomas Pires de Lima (ESP). The six top boats were within 10 points. Tiago and Mafalda also competed in the Senior Worlds, finishing 19 and 14 out of 85 boats, showing that the future of the class is alive and pushing us, the old guys, very hard. Well done to all of them!

Organization

The event organizing committee took care of everything. Thanks to Martin Bermudez (SCIRA Spain National Secretary and European Secretary). We had fantastic measurement installations and staff, one of the best Principal Race Officers I’ve ever seen (Cesar Sans), and a great jury that did a fantastic job. The safety on the water was great; I had the chance to use it and they took care of me fast, safe, and with expertise.

For future events, we must agree that having a tent with food and drinks for when we came back from racing should be a MUST. It was fantastic to recover our energy and to have the chance to sit and talk with friends from other countries.

Prize giving ceremonies were short and nice. If I have to mention something I would change, it would be only that at registration I would give a backpack for the skipper and crew, or none at all; and that it would be good to have T-shirts and hats for sale, to bring a memory home.

The Galicia food was memorable (if you failed to try “Pulpo a feria” and “Pimientos de padrón” you were not there…) and the experience simply fantastic.

We the people of the Board, guided by our Commodore Gweneth Crook are working very hard on finding venues and clubs to host bigger and better events, with more social activities and more fun for us all. Please don´t hesitate to contact us and give us your opinions and suggestions, regarding this or any other issue.

Interview with the winners

Note 1: 6 Snipe World Champions (Alexandre Paradeda, 2x Augie Diaz, 2x Bruno Bethlem, Alexandre Tinoco, Mateus Tavares, Gustavo Carvalho), 1 Olympic Gold Medal (Angela Pumariega), many Olympians, 2 Pan Am Games Gold Medal (Alexandre Paradeda, Alexandre Tinoco, Raul Rios), 1 Laser World Champion (Peter Commette), 2 Star World Champions (George Szabo, Augie Diaz), 1 Optimist World Champion (Raul Rios), 1 4xJ80 World Champion (Rayco Tabares with his team of Snipe sailors).

Final Results – Silver Fleet
Final Results – Gold Fleet