Soto 40 World Championship at Real Club Nautico Valencia - Day 1
by Soto40 Media 8 Jul 2014 18:16 BST
6-12 July 2014
Today the fleet completed the first official races of the Soto 40 World Championship in Valencia waters. The winners were Ngoni and Bigamist, but the British boat was the one which is top after the first day of racing.
The first race started at 1pm with an 11 knot SE wind and the winner was the British Ngoni, owned by Tony Buckingham, with Mark Lamy at the helm. The Portuguese boat Uon, owned by José Manuel Caldeira, finished 2nd followed by Luis Martín Cabiedes' Noticia IV.
The second race started at 2:30 pm with wind from the same direction and 14 knots. Bigamist won this race, crossing the finish line at 3:30 pm, followed by Uon and Ngoni. Gabriel Marino, Bigamist's tactician, explained: "In the second race, with more wind and a heavy genoa, we could make a good start despite the tight starts that we are having. At the second buoy we were already in second position with a certain distance from the rest of the fleet. We kept second place, we think the race had a good distance, long, but we sailed clean. And in the last downwind we were able to overtake the other Portuguese boat. We are happy because we felt better with the boat in a little more wind and the results are good for the crew's mood."
After two races, Ngoni is in the top position with 4 points. After it we find the two Portuguese teams: Uon, which also adds 4 points but is occupying second position, and Bigamist, which places third place in the Overall leaderboard with 6 points.
Ngoni's tactician, John Kostecki, who participated in the America's Cup and in the Volvo Ocean Race, said: "We had a good day. The first race obviously went well for us. In the second race we didn't' have a great start but we were able to come back from a bad start and we are happy with the results today. The conditions were pretty nice today, but probably for us the difficulty was in the start which is very important, it makes things easier to make a good start. But the crew work is good and we are ready for more racing tomorrow."
There are four more days of intense racing left for the competitors Alegre (IVB), Bigamist (POR), Earlybird (GER), Glen Ellen XXII (FRA), Ngoni (GBR), Noticia IV (ESP), Santander (CHI) and Uon (POR).
The next races are scheduled for tomorrow at 1 pm and you'll be able to follow them with the links available at www.soto40.org/soto40worlds