Soto 40 World Championship - Huge expectations on penultimate day

by Soto 40 Media on 12 Jul 2014 We’ve arrived at the penultimate competition day in the Soto 40 World Championship that confirmed the equality of the eight crews and boats of the fleet. Alegre and Noticia IV were today’s winners. The Spanish boat also reduced its distance from Ngoni, which is still top position overall with 25 points.

The eighth race of the day started at 1:05 pm with a 12 knots SE wind that gradually moved to the East, reason why the Race Committee had to change the windward mark. The champion of this race was Andrés Soriano’s Alegre, which made a very good start and took the lead from the beginning of the race. Antonio Piris, Alegre’s pitman, who is also tactician of the Soto 40 Mitsubishi in Chile and has made three America’s Cup campaigns as well as two Volvo Ocean Race, described: 'The first race of the day was good, we’ve done easy starts in this championship, but then we realized that it wasn’t working properly and that the fleet that chose the left side had more chances, so today we had the idea of fighting that position. And we made it without trouble. That’s what took us to the right side of the course and helped us to make an easy race. It’s a pity we didn’t notice that before!'. Luis Martín Cabiedes’ Noticia IV and Tony Buckingham’s Ngoni arrived second and third position, respectively.

The wind increased up to 16 knots at the beginning of the second race of the day. After a General Recall, the boats set off at 2:38 pm. Pedro Mendonça’s Bigamist leaded the fleet until the last gybe, when the Spanish Soto 40, with Laureano Wizner as tactician, managed to cross the finish line in the first position, adding its second victory. José María 'Pichu' Torcida, helmsman of Noticia IV, said: 'We are happy. Today we had very good starts. In the second race we made a really good start, we reached the windward in first position, after Bigamist, we kept our position in the first downwind and the next reach was evenly match. Bigamist, on the left side, managed to overcome us. In the last downwind we chose the left side of the course, in which we thought we’d find more pressure. And finally we overcame Bigamist and finished first'.

There’s nothing decided yet. The British boat Ngoni leads with 25 points but Noticia IV is near him with three points of difference. The silver medal is between the Portuguese Bigamist and Uon. Tomorrow, with only one race left, we’ll watch a movie final in Valencia’s waters.

The 2014 Soto 40 Worlds is being held at the Marina Real Juan Carlos I (Valencia, Spain), place that held two America’s Cup editions. The competitors are: Alegre (IVB), Bigamist (POR), Earlybird (GER), Glen Ellen XXII (FRA), Ngoni (GBR), Noticia IV (ESP), Santander (CHI) and Uon (POR).

There’s one more race left to define the Championship, which is scheduled at 1 pm (CEST). Event website