Victory for RGYC J80 Team in tough Ceuta regatta

By Thomas Hillman

With North Westerly winds strong enough to topple the mighty pillars of Hercules themselves, Real Club Nautico Ceuta last Saturday saw host to the second Interclubs del Estrecho sailing regatta.

It was not a day for the chicken hearted - At All.

While the author of this little piece is totally biased it’s fair to say that the Royal Gibraltar Yacht Club dominated the event.

First on the water was Obsession (Stephen Lawson) flying into 3rd place in her class with Tanjaoui (Ernest Felipes) at full steam ahead just behind beating the ‘F1’ Pogo 40 CR (Michel Rivassou). Meanwhile, in Club Class, Upoars (Nick Cruz) cruised into a solid 2nd place, the beautiful Carol May (James Coelho) got a triumphant 3rd and Haddock (Alfonso Antequera) survived.

With special thanks to Alcaidesa Marina the real story of the regatta belongs to the smallest boat in the fleet “Vertigo”.

With the rising sun and increasing wind (17knots forecast but more like 30 to 40knots actual) the Royal Gibraltar Yacht Club J80 Team (Charlie Stagnetto, Monty & Luca Spindler, Amy Pretty and Alex Dobbs) set sail from Gibraltar and headed out across the straits.

17 odd miles later, in punishing conditions, they made it to the start line with Charlie at the helm (Bob Harris having jumped off to crew with Carol May). They got a fantastic start, first over the line, and beat up wind to take the first mark to port just off the “Foso de San Felipe”.

Continuing up wind the course took them up to and then around the infamous “Piedra El Pineo” keeping up with Al Tarik IV (Jose Navaro) and battling it out with Obsession all the while. Vertigo’s gennaker (her big blue sail) can be a handful at the best of times so with winds of over 25kns keeping it under control was no mean feat.

Monty took the gennaker sheet and Amy was on the winch and together they blasted downwind to “Punta Palmera”.

Getting the gennaker up is one thing but getting it down again can be a whole other battle in itself.

But when it mattered most with Alex on the bow, Amy on the tack and Luca gathering her up in a beautiful display of choreographed brilliance they got her quickly down and rounded the mark in spectacular fashion and headed back to the start line to do it all over again.

Monte took the helm on the second lap with Charlie now on the main. In total their course was 11.6 miles and it took them 2hrs 7minutes and 7seconds of absolute focus to cross the line with a victorious first place finish beating both legendary boats AL Tarik IV and Obsession. Now all they had to do was get home.

Their return journey back to Gibraltar was brutal and we were worried that they might not make it back at all.

Ordinarily the trip should have taken them around an easy two hours or so but with recorded wind speeds (by Haddock of 50 knots at which point we turned back to Ceuta) it took them around five hours of gruelling punishment by wind, tide and a very heavy sea.

Nevertheless get back in one piece and as total champions the RGYC J80 Team so very well did.