J/70 World Championship at Clube Naval de Cascais - Day 3
by Press CNCascais 10 Sep 22:31 PDT
4-12 September 2026
It was a challenging day for the frontrunners at the J/70 World Championship in Cascais, as moving the racecourse closer to the shore resulted in a very different scenario to that experienced in previous days. Lighter winds and almost no swell reshuffled the battle at the top of the fleet.
With six races now completed, the first discard also came into play, adding another twist to the increasingly tight overall standings. Spain's Luís Bugallo was among those who paid the highest price, surrendering the overall lead and dropping to third place.
Brazil's Harold Solberg seized his opportunity, posting an eighth and a fifth to regain the lead he had held at the end of the opening day. American John Heaton moved into second place overall. He is sailing with Portuguese crew members Gonçalo Ribeiro and Paulo Manso, who are keeping a Portuguese presence near the top of the leaderboard.
Among the day's standout performers was Algarete, skippered by Alejandro Pérez, who delivered an excellent and remarkably consistent performance with two third-place finishes. Those results moved the team into the overall top ten and made him a particularly relevant voice through which to assess the day's racing conditions: "It was an amazing day. We had great conditions out there, managed to get a couple of good starts and handled the fleet well on the downwind legs. The inside course is much more shifty, so even if you don't have the best start, there are plenty of opportunities to gain places by using the shifts and the puffs coming from the right. We really enjoyed racing in those conditions. Now we're inside the top ten, so the goal is to keep pushing, try to get into the top five and put ourselves in a position to fight for the win."
However, the Portuguese teams lost ground and slipped out of the top five. Diogo Pereira is now 11th overall and Tiago Morais is 13th. With the battle for the top positions still wide open, the J/70 World Championship is heading into a decisive stage in Cascais. Racing continues on Friday, with two more races scheduled.
Full results so far can be found here.