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Ilhabela Sailing Week in Brazil By
Luciano Secchin
From July 9 to 16th, the “crème de la crème” of South American racing community had a meeting in paradisiac Ilhabela (which means in Portuguese Beautifull Island) to take part of the Ilhabela Sailing Week. Among the hundreds of sailors in more than 190 boats from Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and UK were Olympic medalists like Torben Grael, Robert Scheidt, Lars Grael, Marcos Soares and Alex Welter. The fleet was completely diverse, from IMS machines (yes we still racing these boats here), like the Fortuna, a brand new Frers 60 the belongs to the Argentinean Navy and Mitsubishi Motors, (former Cristabella), a Vrojlik 47, to some heavy and slow cruisers, that were there just for fun. In this fleet also were 7 Bennies 40.7 and 11 HPE’s 25, a Brazilian built sportboat, both sailing in a one design class. The Brasil 1, the first Brazilian Volvo 70 also was there for some PR sailing, as the ABN Amro crew 2, sailing a Vrojlik 51.
The first race was the classic Alcatrazes racing. Usually its known to be a boring and long race, since its common that we have weak winds and cold weather. But this year was different, we had a nice weather and Brasil 1 took the line honors and broke the race’s record, completing it in just 6 hours. Fortuna Came in second, and Farr-designed Aries 4 from Jorge “Guga” Zarif (who went to the 84 and 88 olympics in the Finn class)
Race 2 was an inshore racing with light winds, and brought a great surprise. A classic wooden-built Sparkman & Stephens, Sunstone, which belongs to a British couple sailing around the world, won the race in the IMS class!!!! It was great to see the face of the guys who spent hundreds of thousand of dollars in boats, sails and crew, beaten by this old ladyJ
Race 3 was the medium Round Ilhabela Race. We had a nice 25 knots breeze, which helped some boats, like Mitsubishi Motors to surf at 20 knots. Sadly, Brasil 1 was not there, so we could not see she surfing. This race was won by the Beneteau 40.7 Odoya, from Salvador da Bahia, which has the 3 times Laser medallist Robert Scheidt as tactician. The following 2 races were inshore races, with a nice easterly breeze, warm weather and a beautifull sun. Aries 4 won both in a brilliant way, giving the title for his crew from Sao Paulo. Sailing in Ilhabela is not just racing against top-notch guys, its fun!!!! The island is a natural paradise, with lots of beaches and waterfalls; it has a nice nightlife and great weather. It would be great to have more people from outside Brazil here!!! More information: www.ilhabela.org www.svilhabela.com.br |
