“Provezza” On Fire in Cascais.

TUR 1212 “Provezza Dragon” has won the 22nd King Juan Carlos Trophy, in Cascais.

Andy Beadsworth holds two smaller cups as Ali Tezdiker and Simon Fry hold the famous Trophy aloft at Prize Giving yesterday after adding this Grade 1 event to their Stavros Match Race victory earlier in the week, a brilliant achievement for three excellent sailors and extremely nice guys! Well done.

Fighting hard to win the title, “Provezza Dragon” give full concentration downwind.

Andy explained his final race tactics “With the easterly wind we wanted to protect the left side of the first beat, so elected to start below our main competitors. There was certainly a tidal advantage on the left but we were also aware of building pressure on the right. We made a clean start with good boat speed and were in good shape at the first mark. We knew that if NED 412 won the race we would need to finish in the top 6 boats, so we sailed conservatively from then on staying in touch with the leaders to finish in 4th place”.  Great sailing Andy, Ali and Stirfry, your back to back victories this week are very well deserved.

NED 412 “Troika” leads the fleet on the final day of the King Juan Carlos Trophy.

Setting the pace in the final race was indeed NED 412 “Troika” helmed by Vendee’ Globe helmsman Pieter Heerema. This experienced team opted to play the right side of the first upwind in complete contrast to TUR 1212. At first it looked doubtful that tactician (former Gold Cup & European Champion) Lars Hendriksen had made the correct call, but halfway up the 2 mile beat more pressure filled in from the right and “Troika” began to fly.

2nd overall NED 412 helmed by Pieter Heerema, Lars Hendriksen & George Leonchuk.

In 3rd place overall was GBR 758 “Fever” helmed by 2013 World Champion Klaus Diederichs, who put together a very good series in this highly competitive field. Klaus is also doing an excellent job as Chairman of the IDA Technical Committee which will oversee a variety of measurement checks at the coming World Championships in June.

3rd overall “Fever” Jamie Lea (3rd left), Klaus Diederichs (centre) & Diego Negri (right).

The Club Naval de Cascais President Goncalo Esteves, awards the “Fever” team their Hendricks Gin and engraved Glass prizes, along with the Deputy Mayor and sponsors. Goncalo also invited more boats to Cascais to compete in the Portuguese Nationals followed by the 2017 World Championships.

Corinthian Winners SWE 385 “Still Crazy” Team with Goncalo & Vasily (IDA Chairman).

Best Corinthian team and also a great top 10 finish (9th overall position) was  Stefan Winberg, crewed by Fredrik Brotell and Markus Lagerquist. This team have been competing all winter and will give 2015 World Corinthian Champion, Will Packer, a great battle in a few months time. With 8 teams travelling over from Australia and many more European crews joining in the fun, this Cascais Worlds will be something to be remembered….

Principle Race Officer Jose’ Casella, will be assisted by Goncalo Neves at the 2017 Worlds.

In closing I want to congratulate the Principle Race Officer Jose Cansella, assisted by Goncalo Neves and all the Club Naval race management, they did a very good job in testing conditions. With good, clear VHF communication from former IDA Secretary Thomas Wilton, the on the water organisation is preparing perfectly for the Worlds.

The Final actions from the Winners…..  Don’t drink it all Ali 🙂 

Higher, Faster, Longer………………….     Stavros.

Thanks as always to Ricardo Pinto…   The “Ace” On-the-Water Man!