SB20 Portuguese National Championship at Clube Naval de Cascais - Overall
by SB20 AUS Media 24 Jun 2019 02:02 BST
20-23 June 2019
2019 SB20 Portuguese National Championship - Start line © Anna Zykova
Dom Pedro Hotels/Generali, helmed by José Pauloa Ramada, with his crew of Fausto Briosa Neves, António Pereira and Miguel Leal Faria, was unchallenged on the final day of the regatta, with misty conditions limiting visibility and light breezes leading the PRO to decide to keep all boats ashore.
This may have been a relief for Ramada who was preparing for strong pressure from the next four boats on the final day on the water.
Ukraine's Julia Freespirit (#GameChanger) with Semen Dmytrenko, Victor Kandyba and Pavlo Matsuyev, finished the regatta in second place on 33 points, eight points behind Ramada (25 points). Taking the bronze was Ramada's compatriot Vasco Serpa (Animal/Sail Cascais) with Joaquim Moreira, Pedro Costa Alemão, on 39 points.
The championship was a disappointing result for Hobart-based team and runners-up in the 2018 championship, Porco Rosso (Elliott Noye, Ed Snowball and Paul McCartney) from the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania (RYCT), who finished in sixth place on 58 points. However, with the SB20 World Championship taking place on the same waters in 2020, the experience gained from this championship will be invaluable for the Australians.
The SB20 fleet, with at least four boats from Australia including all-female crew Essence of Athena (Anna Reid, Issi DeClerck, Meg Goodfellow and Emily Nicholson) will start focusing on the 2019 SB20 World Championship, which will be sailed in Hyeres, France in October 2019.
Congratulations to all competitors and Clube Naval Cascais and SB20 Portugal for hosting the regatta.