J/80 sailing has exploded in Spain over the last two years, and the Spanish have shown just how quickly they’ve mastered the boat. After a near sweep of the 2007 Worlds in La Trinite, France, the “armada” sailed into Kiel, Germany and captured 1st, 3rd and 6th places at the 2008 Tutima J/80 World Championship. Ignacio Camino Rodriguez with his crew of Alberdo Padron, Gomez Jose Luis and Armando Gutierrez aboard ESP 899 NEXTEL ENGINEERING sailed a nearly flawless series from start to finish to capture the world title. But their task was far from easy. Runner-up Jeff Johnstone, USA, sailing with the all German crew of Henning Mittelmann, Bo Teichmann, and teenagers Stella Mau and Florian Föh, narrowed the gap to only 2 points after winning race #11 while Rodriguez suffered a black flag disqualification, which he was able to discard to preserve the victory. Sailing conditions were dynamic with winds from 10-25 knots, big shifts, alternating rain and sun on a daily basis, not to mention 64 boats from 12 countries on one starting line with liberal use of the black flag penalty to keep the fleet in check. Rounding out the top five were Carlos Martinez of Spain in 3rd, followed by Patrick Bot of France in 4th and Kevin Sproul of UK in 5th. 6 different countries finished in the top ten, including hosts Peter Hecht and Uli Muenker from Germany aboard NEEDLES and PINS in 9th. Spain will host the 2009 Worlds in Santander June 28th-July 4th. Results.
