SB20 Portuguese National Championship 2019 - Preview
by Jane Austin 20 Jun 2019 01:09 PDT
20-23 June 2019
2019 SB20 Portuguese National Championship © Jane Austin
Australian SB20 team Porco Rosso (Elliott Noye, Paul McCartney and Ed Snowball) is looking forward to a rematch with reigning Portuguese National Champion José Paulo Ramada (Dom Pedro Hotels) as the 2019 SB20 Class Portuguese National Championship gets under way in the coastal resort town of Cascais on the Portuguese Riviera on today.
Porco Rosso is in top form, sailing to third place in the UK Nationals last weekend, and is comfortable sailing in the waters off Cascais which usually offer a strong breeze and big swell, making for ideal surfing conditions. Porco Rosso finished second in the same regatta, behind Ramada, last year.
Porco Rosso won six out of ten races sailing on the difficult waters of The Solent in the 2019 UK Nationals last weekend and the skipper is confident in their preparations for the event.
"We had a pretty good regatta [in the UK]; while we were disappointed to have an OCS in one race and to get caught on the wrong side of a wind shift in another, overall our boat speed was good and we left the regatta feeling confident in our sailing," said Noye.
"The Portuguese fleet is strong with some former Olympic sailors like Gustavo Lima [Laser Class] making it a classy fleet, and there's a strong contingent from Russia. We will be keeping an eye on Absolut, Jerry Hill's old boat, which is helmed by Russian Igor Ginzburg - they could give us tough competition," said Noye.
"We have sailed here before and we have been working on our rig settings for a while, so are confident we have the right package ready for the regatta," said Noye.
The weather for the regatta is looking interesting with the first two days forecast to be breezy and lumpy, while the last two days are likely to see offshore, light and shifty conditions.
"The important thing for us is that we know each other really well, we are relaxed and having fun, and we are ready to race," said Noye.
The fleet includes nine of the top ten placegetters from 2018, with highly regarded local sailor and SB20 Portuguese World Council representative Vasco Serpa (Animal/SailCascais) also looking to wrest the Nationals crown from Ramada after one bad race in 2018 cost him the title. Countries represented include the Netherlands, Russia, Australia, Ukraine and Portugal.
The Nationals are hosted by the Portuguese Sailing Federation and Clube Naval Cascais, with the SB20 Portuguese Association, from Thursday 20 June to Sunday 23 June 2019.
The first warning signal on Day One is 1300 (10pm AEST), with 12 races scheduled for the championship.
For more details on the regatta visit www.cncascais.com