2021 Lusitania Christmas Race at Clube Naval de Cascais
by Clube Naval de Cascais 8 Dec 2021 23:44 AEDT
4-5 December 2021
For the eighth consecutive edition, Lusitania sponsored what is the biggest regatta of the Clube Naval de Cascais and also one of the biggest races on the national calendar: the Lusitania Christmas Regatta.
In its 35th edition, the event also had the support of Marina de Cascais and had the participation of around 200 sailors representing 16 clubs from Portugal, France, Holland, Finland, England and Russia. 36 races were held in three different race courses, for the Optimist, ILCA 4, ILCA 6, 420, Finn and SB20 classes. With wind on both days of the race, it was possible to carry out the program of six races for each class.
On Saturday the day started with wind blowing from the west quadrant at 8 knots and at the scheduled time, all classes lined up at the start line. On that first day, all classes completed the three scheduled races in a spectacular sailing day. As tradition dictates at the Christmas Regatta, when the sailors arrived from the sea they were greeted with cake and hot chocolate.
On Sunday, with the north wind blowing since the early hours of the day, all fleets sailed early to sea to complete the three races scheduled for the day.
Once again, the Optimist Class was the biggest fleet at the event. The big winner among the youths was Tiago Santos, from Clube Naval de Cascais, who with two bullets in six races won the highest place on the podium. Vasco Soares from Clube de Vela do Barreiro took 2nd place overall. The third place overall went to the sailor from the Associação Naval de Lisboa, Miguel Plantier. The first female place went to Madalena Wanzeller from Clube de Vela do Barreiro.
Among the infant division on Optimists, the victory went to Francisco Quartin from Associação Naval de Lisboa. Maria Nunes, from Clube Naval de Cascais was ranked 2nd and won first place for women in the intfant division. Lourenço Teixeira, from Associação Nautica do Seixal, completed the podium in third position.
José Mendes, from Associação Naval de Lisboa, current Portuguese champion in the ILCA 6 class, was the big winner in this class. In 2nd place was the sailor of Sport Algés e Dafundo, Nicholas Lobato and, completing the podium, the sailor of the Clube Naval de Cascais, Max de Groot. Mafalda Neto Marreiros, from Associação Nautica do Seixal, won in the women's suit.
In the ILCA 4 class, João Botelho from Associação Naval de Lisboa ascends to the highest place on the podium, Joana Paleta from Associação Nautica do Seixal is runner-up and consequently is the winner of the female category. Ricardo Plácido was also in the lowest place on the podium at the Associação Nautica do Seixal.
In class 420, the duo from Clube Naval de Cascais, composed of Francisco Uva Sancho and José Vozone, completed the weekend of regattas in a big way, winning first place in the general overall and also first place in junior division. Mario and Vasco Soares' team from Associação Nautica da Madeira were runners-up. The Clube Naval de Cascais team, made up of Katharina Leite and Mafalda Cruz, finished the podium in the general classification and in first place for women. The victory in the Under 17 category went to the Associação Naval de Lisboa duo of Teresa Quartin and Diogo Serra.
This year the Christmas Regatta was the stage for the national championship of the classic Finn class. The big winner and National Champion in this class was Nuno Espirito Santo Silva, Jorge Pinheiro de Melo was runner up and the lowest place on the podium was occupied by Fernando Bello.
In the SB20 class the 26 boats competed in the 2nd Cascais SB20 Winter Series. The big winners were the world vice-champions aboard The Comet by Liza Zherebtcova with Andrey Klocho, Artem Basalkin, Mikhail Ushkov. In second place were the British John Pollard, Jack Wetherell and Henry Wetherell aboard the Xcellent, in the lowest place on the podium, in third place was the French team Skin in The Game by Ed Russo with Gilles Favennec and Jonathan Lobert.
See full results here...