(Newport, RI)- Be sure to follow what's happening with your favorite J/80 teams this coming week. Sixty-two teams are competing in Rhode Island Sound for what promises to be one of the most competitive J/80 Worlds to date. Teams from nine countries are currently registered including boats from Argentina, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and USA. Six past World Champions are participating; including 2001 Newport, RI- Kerry Klingler; 2003 Fort Worth, TX- Jay Lutz; 2006 Corpus Christi, TX- Glenn Darden; 2007 La Trinite, France- Jose Maria Torcida (ESP); 2008 Kiel, Germany- Ignacio Camino Rodrigues (ESP); and 2009 Santander, Spain- Rayco Tabares (ESP). The last event in Santander had one of the largest ISAF International keelboat class fleets ever assembled, 133 boats!
The reigning champion,
Rayco Tabares from Islas Canarias (pictured here), will be racing HOTEL PRINCESA YAIZA- CANARY ISLANDS. Rayco's preparations for this year's Worlds included racing La Coruna Cup, the Spanish Championship. Rayco said. "We could not attend the J/80 Europeans and the reasons were economic, instead focusing all the resources we had to sure to be present at the Worlds in Newport." In the Spanish Championship in early July, Tabares had to fight some rivals that will be in the Worlds. As Rayco exclaims, "The level was very strong, three world champions in the class and prestigious sailors like Gonzalo Araujo and Chuni Bermudez. It was a pity that we could not do more races for lack of wind. With the best there, we would have loved more tests to measure ourselves against them." Rayco also wanted to speak to the current level of the Spanish fleet, not only of the representatives who will be in Newport, but also of his rivals at the international level. "The Spanish fleet is a world power and there are many boats that have chances of winning the World Cup. I believe that our fleet is the best in the world. Nevertheless, I have many friends in the American fleet, they are good, so we focus on our work and hopefully keep up with them! I have hope, and believe, that some Spanish team will again win the J/80 Worlds, however we have to prove again to the Americans who've spent many years practicing that the Spanish J/80 fleet has world-class sailors!" Follow
all the action, photos and results for the J/80 Worlds.
