J80 European Championship preview

by Neus Jordi - AMT Comunicación on 27 Jun 2014 At the J80 European Championship more than 50 boats and over 250 sailors from 10 different countries will participate. Organized by Sant Andreu de Llavaneres’ El Balis, the event will take place at Barcelona’s Maresme waterfront from Saturday June 28 to Friday July 4 in Spain.

The media presentation of the event took place today at the Barcelona International Sailing Center. The event’s hosts were territorial representative of Barcelona Sports for the Catalan Government Santi Siquier, president of the Catalan Sailing Federation, Gerard Esteva, president and commodore of Club Naútico el Balis, Jordi Parés and Oriol Cornudella.

The countries that will be represented in this championship are Spain, France, The United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Oman, Poland, Russia and Sweden. The Spanish powerful fleet will try to renew the title won in the previous edition.

Spain has experienced a total dominance over the other international fleets since 2007, when the hegemony of the national boats started. In fact, the Spanish teams have also claimed the world championship in the last seven years, filling all the three podium boxes in 2011 and 2012. At the continental level, the podium of the 2010 European Champion was also filled with Spain’s colors.

The previous two world champions will be at El Balís
To retain this dominance, the Spanish fleet methodically prepared the season’s most important event that will be held in Spain. 'Factor Energia', skippered by José María van der Ploeg (CN El Balís), is the reference of this championship. Besides sailing at home, the skipper won the gold medal in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games and finished in first place of the 2012 class world title and second in the international championship the year before.

Anyhow, probably the top favorite is 'New Territories', commanded by award-winning Portuguese skipper and current world champion Hugo Rocha (CN Arenys de Mar). Despite joining the class recently, Rocha had a bright 2013 season. He joins the event after winning the J80 Catalan Championship which was also held at CN El Balis two weeks ago.

'Bribón-Movistar', skippered by Marc de Antonio (RCN Barcelona), also is favorite to finish amongst the top three. This boat won Gaastra PalmaVela and the Trofeo Conde de Godó-Merchbanc. 'Deltastone', commanded by former European champion Carlos Martínez (CN Los Nietos) from Murcia, also has a chance after winning the world’s bronze medal the last three years in a row.

Live emotions
Besides the great excitement of knowing that Spain has real possibilities of finishing in the event’s top three places, the spectacle is guaranteed in the sea. There will be live competition in real time, easy navigation, huge performances and the amazing speed that these boats of eight 'esloras' can reach. Of course the quality of the crews will decide this magnificent championship that could be enjoyed at Club Náutico El Balís in the first week of July.

Saturday’s activity will be dedicated to the registration, the weighing of the crews and their boats, the measurement of the sails and the masting and launching of the boats. All these activities will continue on Sunday, when the practice race is programmed, the same day as the opening ceremony, which will start at 8:00 p.m.

Official races will start on Monday June 30 and will finish on Friday July 4. The warning signal is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Every day will be a daily prize giving around 7:30 p.m. On the last day, the closing ceremony, which will start at 8:30 p.m., will include a special dinner, the final prize giving ceremony and a Event website