NED 412 “Troika” Pieter Heerema holds the Trophy with Lars Hendriksen & Claus Olesen.

It was a very pleasing final day for Pieter Heerema, with his team of Lars Hendriksen and Claus Olesen, as they rounded off a successful championship with a 1st and 3rd place to win the 23rd H.M. Juan Carlos Trophy by a clear 8pts.  Pieter told me “Portugal is having an unsettled spring with lots of rain, cool temperatures and an unbelievable swell. But we were very happy to perform well in a 7 year old Petticrows instead of our usual Pedersen & Thuesen. In the end our lead of 8 points looked comfortable but it did not feel like that. There were huge waves and huge shifts with big dead spots making it very tricky and nerve racking”.  Well done to the NED 412 team…

Close racing on the final day in Cascais, as NED 412 Pieter Heerema wins overall.

Despite the 8 point lead of the winners, it was all extremely close for the other podium positions with only 1 point separated the next 3 boats.  SUI 311 “Sophie Racing” (23pts)  just squeezed out NED 411 “Olinghi” (23pts) on countback leaving SUI 296 to finish 4th (24pts).  So congratulations to Hugo Stenbeck for taking the runners up spot and well done to top Lady Helm Charlotte ten Wolde for finishing 3rd overall.

 Runners Up SUI 311 “Sophie Racing” Hugo Stenbeck, Martin Westerdahl & Robert Stanjer.

It was a very good 3rd and 2nd place on the final day that helped the 4 person “Olighi” team of Charlotte Ten Wolde with sister Juliette, best friend Janka Holan and local professional Pedro Andrade take the final podium place. It’s great to see 3 young ladies sailing at this level in the Dragon Class, always smiling and adding so much colour to the fleet 🙂 Well done girls !

3rd Overall NED 411 “Olinghi” Juliette & Charlotte ten Wolde, with Janka Holan & Pedro’s Brother 🙂

So there we have it, another Juan Carlos Trophy over. Many congratulations to all the podium teams and a big thank you to the Race Management at the Club Naval de Cascais for successfully completed the scheduled 7 race series despite testing conditions.

Higher, Faster, Longer………    Stavros.