16 teams took part this past weekend in the second stage of the J/70 Cascais Winter Series, the Atlantic Cup. Joining the growing local fleet that counts in its ranks with Vasco Serpa’s Solyd Sailing Team, current European Champions in the Class, a strong presence of the Spanish armada with Luis Bugallo’s Marnatura, a consistent top finisher at worlds and European events and Jorge Doreste current Spanish champion in Noticia leading the charge. British Melges 24 and SB20 multi world Champion sailor Geoff Carveth joined forces with Finn Dickinson, just crowned ILCA U21 World Champion aboard UK’s JellyFish and Artem Basalkin also a SB20 World Champion joined German Sergey Kirshenin Sparkle/Active Sailing. Only two races were sailed on Saturday in a shifting and eventually fading 4 to 8knots Westerly breeze. On the first race Marnatura trailed by Solyd opened a gap over the fleet just to get caught on the wrong side of the course on the second upwind. The German team of Sparkle/Active sailing, Noticia of Luis Cabiedes and Kuboo Self Storage/SailCascais in this order took advantage of the 20 degrees shift to the left and on this order wrapped the race ahead of Marnatura in 4th and Solyd in 5th. On the second race the boats in the middle of the line got a little more pressure on the first upwind in the race to earn the right corner and sealed it very early. Abril Verde of Luis Perez Canal edged Pazo de Cea with Spanish legend “Chuny” Bermudez at the helm. 3rd was Miguel Oliveira´s “Another Affair” from Porto, runner up at this year SB20 Worlds. Marnatura was fourth again beating the whole female team of Francisca Barro’s BBDouro and Solyd at the finish. On Sunday the races were cancelled while the fleet was waiting onshore for wind. One of those rare days in Cascais. Very volatile results due to the tough conditions and fierce competition. three Spanish teams at the top. Marnatura topped the table with 8 points, Noticia was second with 9 and Pazo de Cea was third winning the tie with locals Solyd Sailing Team on 11 points. The ladies of BBDouro did very well and finished 5th overall. Next stop in Cascais for the J/70s is the Portuguese Nationals from the 8th to the 10th of December. The championship had the support of Cascais Municipality, Visit Cascais , Cascais Marina, Cerveja Sagres, SailCascais and Vista Alegre. Full Results: https://regatas.cncascais.com/en/default/races/race-resultsall/text/cascais-J/70-winter-series-atlantic-cup-en