For the third year in a row, the J/70 Chilean National Championship was hosted at Puerto Puyumen on Lago Panguipulli, thanks to the generosity of Nicolas Ibanez and the regatta’s sponsor Santander Bank of Chile. Heading up the Race Committee PRO duties was Cristian González. The weather was postcard perfect, with clear blue skies and mountain winds that would develop mid-afternoon, affording the sailors to sail three or four races per day. While Friday’s sailing was canceled due to lack of wind, the fleet did experience a gorgeous sail home in a fast-developing southwesterly of 8-10 knots at sunset. On Saturday, a beautiful southerly thermal wind of 6-15 knots developed in the late afternoon. After four races, it was the ALLEGRO team leading with Matias Seguel at the helm and crew of Cristobal Lira, Manuel Jose Lira and Sergio Baeza. Their record of 2-2-9-2 for 15 points was enough to overcome the persistent efforts of the second place team, Per Von Appen’s crew on BLACK SAILS that consisted of Juan Sanchez, Sergio Blurel and Felipe Robles. BLACK SAILS closed with two bullets for the day to produce a tally of 3-11-1-1 for 16 points. Third for the day was SIRTECOM skippered by Walter Astorga and crew of Martin Busch, Jose Lopez and Ewecer Morales with a record of 8-3-2-10 for 23 points. On Sunday, the winds ultimately filled in from the south to southeast for the first start, producing some race course anomalies the fleet had yet to contend with. Shortly after the first start, an enormous gust filled in from the southeast, and took boats from last to first (boat in the middle right) and others from first to last (those who had gone left). However, as was typical for the conditions, the geographically induced “wind bend” on the left-hand side of the course settled back in a few legs later and those who favored playing shifts to the middle-left of the course kept making persistent gains on those who did not. Sailing very consistently on the last day was the regatta winner, Per Von Appen and team on BLACK SAILS. With a 2-3-4 record, they closed out the series with 14 points to handily take the win and be declared the 2016 Chile J/70 National Champion. Matias Seguel on ALLEGRO finished with 23 points net to take the silver. Third was Carlos Vergara’s team on SENSEI (Diego Gonzalez, Miguel Perez, Tomas Middleton), winning the seventh race and getting onto the podium by one point with 27 points net. Rounding out the top five was a horse race to the end. On a tie-breaker, it was Rodrigo Solar’s BLACK JACK over Juan Eduardo Reid’s SANTANDER at 28 points each. Winning the “Owner/Driver” category for the regatta was CHUCRU II sailed by Carlos Kühlenthal with his son Ian Kühlenthal and two women crew Nikola Abello and Danya Rferrer. For more J/70 Chilean Nationals sailing information, visit http://windmade.cl/embarcaciones/clase-j70-chile/.