Platu 25 World Championship - Spanish crews set to take on the world

by Sabrina Bonaiti on 29 May 2011 Platu 25 World Championship 2011 will take place until the third of June on the Traunsee Lake, in Austria.

Everything is ready for the most important appointment of the Platu 25 season. The most competitive International crews have already reached Gmunden, a nice and welcoming town on the lake.

The Platu 25 Spanish class, after a very intensive National season ( the Spanish Championship has just concluded in Marbella two weeks ago) will take part in the event with five crews. There will be 'Bribon- Movistar' helmed by Marc De Antonio from the 'Real Club Náutico Barcelona', 'GAES – Mundo Marino' helmed by Paco Sánchez, 'Cormedia-Coppel Dental' helmed by José Manuel Pérez from the Club Náutico Portosín, 'Matahambre' helmed by Alfonso Bonilla from the Club Marítimo de Marbella and the 2009 World Champion boat 'Vilagarcía' that, for this occasion, won’t be helmed by Carlo Paz but by Bernardo Paz.

The Spanish crews will have to face very strong competition. At least two of them have the chance to conquer the podium. Most assuredly, the first of them is 'Bribon-Movistar'helmed by Marc de Antonio, one of the strongest skippers, and not just in the Platu 25 class. The 'Bribon Sailing team', born in 2006, has already won awards on many occasions. In 2008 Bribon came third in the World Championship in Eraklion (Greece) and in 2009 third in the Worlds in Punta Ala (Italy). The crew – composed by Hugo Rocha (tactician); -Victor Mariño (trimmer); Sofia Bertrand (pit); Aleix Sellés (mast) and Javi Ibáñez (bowman), won also the Spanish Championship in 2010. and conquered the third step of the podium in the 2011 Spanish Championship just concluded in Marbella.

As Marc de Antonio remarked: 'We have never been in Traunsee. We have some friends that have been there and told us that it's a very beautiful place, but the sailing area is a bit complicated. Sailing in lakes is special, and knowing the sailing area is an advantage. We usually sail at sea, but we have sailed some regattas in lakes. The sailing area will be complicated so it will be difficult to be consistent and we are sure that until the last day, the winner won't be decided. We are sure that everyone will have to fight a lot for the first places. We feel able to be on the podium but reaching it is always difficult. We have to sail well, be consistent, and if we do that, we will have options'.

There is another Spanish boat very motivated and competitive. It’s 'Cormedia-Coppel Dental'. The co-owner Alfredo Mella, together with José Manuel Pérez is going to face his fourth Platu 25 World Championship with the target to improve the eighth position obtained in the 2010 Worlds in Alicante. As the Alfredo Mella from Galicia said: 'We are satisfied of our improvements. We passed from a 26th position in Ala to an eighth place inAlicante (same points with the seventh) where we obtained also some partial wins. Therefore we are getting ready to achieve a good position, in the first five or if it’s possible on the podium' For Mella, the main concern is about sailing on a lake. 'I’m a bit worried about it because we don’t really know what we are going to meet. The wind intensity and direction can change rapidly even if I think that the fast boats sails fast in any condition'.

'GAES-Mundo Marino' owned by Juan Carlos de Haro and helmed by one of the best Spanish skippers, the Olympic Champion, Paco Sánchez from Murcia, decided to go to Austria a few days before. As Alvaro de Haro, the bow man on 'GAES- Mundo Marino', explained: 'We’ll go to Gmunden two days early because we want to set the boat up and test the racing area. Sailing on a lake is a new experience for almost all of us and we need to get used to it. The local boats will have an advantage of knowing the Traunsee Lake perfectly. Therefore, we want to be ready and competitive from the first day of the regatta. It’s our third Platu 25 Worlds and we’d like to improve our position. In Alicante, during the 2010 World Championship, we came tenth. We worked hard to find the means to go to Austria and it has been expensive, so we’ll give it our maximum, and we’ll fight for the podium'.

Provisional list of enrolled boats Here

www.platu25.com" target="_blank">Paltu 25 website

*English edited by Kev Sott (Thailand NCA)