Sixteen competitors participated to determine the final winner of the COPA PIMMS Argentine J/24 Championship (Club Nautico Olivos and their local J/24 fleet hosted the event). Winning the event for the sixth time (a new record) was Matias Pereira’s team on CARRERA (A. Guerra, F. Scarpatti and J. Delgado). Here is what took place over the three-day weekend from November 16-19.
Windy & Wavy Friday: With a good 20-plus knots wind from the East/Southeast, big waves and cool weather, the CN Olivos RC Team managed to complete three good races. Participating were teams from Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Mendoza and Uruguay. Fast out of the box was Pereira’s CARRERA team, posting three straight bullets to lead by a wide margin. Also enjoying the windy, wavy conditions were Sebastien Halpern’s crew on MORRUCHO (G. Mirralles, F. Monetti and E. Despontin), posting a 5-2-2 for 9 points. Just behind them, it was a tie at 11 points for third place between the SEA WOLF crew (P. Senestrari, M. Halac, P. Despontin and skipper Guillermo Parada) and the U2 Team (G. Aporszegi, M. Ferrero, F. Ambrus and E. Pittaluga).
Saturday: The day dawned bright and beautiful, but the forecasted wind never materialized as the J/24s were slowly drifting down current on the Rio de La Plata. Wisely, it was best to cancel the day’s sailing activities not long after noontime.
Gusty Shifty Northerly on Sunday: The final day started with a good strong wind in the 20-plus knots range from the Northwest and, as the day progressed, it kept rotating into the NNE quadrants and slowly diminishing in pressure. Despite the difficult conditions to keep resetting marks for the Race Committee and mark boats, they managed to pull off running four races. That meant all the teams could enjoy one discard race for the final results. In these challenging weather conditions, it was clear the top two teams were CARRERA and SEA WOLF. Posting their worst result of the regatta on the opening race (a fourth), the CARRERA team closed with a commanding tally of 3-1-1 to win the regatta with just 8 points net. The SEA WOLF crew won the first race of the day and closed the regatta with a 6-2-3 to take the silver with 17 points net. The MORRUCHO crew’s 3-10-3-6 scoreline gave them third place on a 21 points tie-breaker over RINA-ALAGUA (team led by Nicolas Cubria and crew of M. Cubria, F. Bertrand and J. Filidoro). For more Argentina J/24 Championship information, visit http://j24arg.blogspot.com/.