Gunter leading Barcelona J/70 Winter Series
by J/Boats 6 Dec 2017 09:40 GMT
Barcelona J/70 Winter Series © RCNB
The leader of the Barcelona J/70 Winter Series comes from a most unlikely background, a top Dragon sailor in Europe.
The renowned master of the Dragon class in Europe, Javier Scherk, chartered the well-known J/70 Noticias from Luis Martín Cabiedes and, suitably, renamed it after all his boats- Gunter.
It is quite evident that Scherk and his crew on Gunter have familiarized themselves amazingly quickly to the J/70. After their first day of sailing, they had posted a 1-2 to be the leader of the fleet, followed by Luís Albert Solana's PATAKIN in second place. The scuttlebutt onshore was Scherk's crew would have to figure out how to sail "planing mode" on Sunday versus the lightish winds they sailed on the first day. Time would soon tell!
What no one expected was for a Dragon sailor to continue to excel in the J/70 class. It was a fantastic day for sailing on Sunday, with a strong northwest wind of a steady 15 kts, gusting higher into the upper teens.
Scherk's Gunter crew continued to show their overwhelming superiority throughout the two days, closing out the weekend with four 1sts for a record that left practically no option for their competitors to pass them in the series. Only Luís Albert Solana's PATAKIN could beat them in one race; and they are laying second overall. Sitting in third place overall is the Italian team of Massimo Rama sailing JENIALE EUROSYSTEM; their best results include two 2nds against this very talented fleet.
For Javier Scherk the J/70 seems to him, "A fantastic boat! What more do you want!! I find it more fun than other sportboats and it is cheaper to maintain, easier to trailer.. just a great boat all-around!"