Mitsubishi Sailing Cup report from the President of Soto 40 Class

Just back from racing at the Mitsubishi Cup in Ilhabela.

Incredible!!! Fourteen Soto 40s, with the highest level of competitors ever seen in South America. Francesco Bruni, Dee Smith, Cole Parada, Guille Parada, Torben Grael, etc..etc.  Between all 140 sailors we had: 7 Olympic medals, 50 World titles, 11 European titles, 38 South american titles, and 164 National titles!!!!! What a line up!

Eight races in four days. Good wind, lots of current and a very complicated W/L field. 6 juries on the water to handle all protest on the water. and they had plenty of work. ISAF came in also to do all interviews for the category 1 sailors, just to keep everything honest.

Four Measurers of the class where also there; The Chief Measurer Pablo Ferrer from Spain, plus Nico Promencio from Argentina, plus the head measurer of Brazil and Chile.

At the end we came out 4th, being one of the only two boats to put 2 bullets and one of the few owner driven. But with the same token, twice we where over the line early, with a very expensive result (11th and 12th)

Negra at the end won, with Francesco Bruni as tactician. the boat was definitely not faster because of Q. It was all about consistency and great boat handling , and they had plenty of. They kept outside of the tacking wars, and always had great starts. Good for Negra! Next week Negra will be flying to Marseilles to race at the medcup with the soto Patagonia that is there.

This was the 1st phase of the Mitsubishi Sailing Cup, there are 2 more left, in Buzios (August) and Rio (september) Next we have the Rolex Cup in July 2nd also in Ilhabela, again 14 boats will be there.

The class is getting better by the minute, it is World sailing at its finest!

Regards, 

Beto