Corinthian Estonia Team Lenny of double Olympic medallists Tonu and Tomaas Töniste, with Maiki Saaring, Marko Lilienthal and Andres Viisemann won the 5th stage of the Cascais J/70 Winter Series. The Estonians topped the 9 boat fleet, by displaying superior boat handling and team work, scoring 1, 1, 1, 3, 3. Strong winds of up to 35 knts and a massive swell battered the west atlantic european coast allowing only five races to be completed in Cascais. On Friday the race committee managed to pull two races on a tiny two hour window that the spot on forecast allowed, cancelling the third race when half way through a 30knt gust was swiping the race course. On Saturday the forecast was a no go with westerly winds forecasted in the 20 to 35 range and the swell building up to 6 meters towards the end of the day. but Mother Nature decided to play tricks and as the forecast was not materialising in the morning the race committee sent the fleet just to cancel for the day when the starting procedures where already in place for the first race of the day. It was just getting too wild. Sunday came, the sea was still built up but set to come down and a W/NW breeze in the 15 to 23 knots was on allowing for 3 races. Beautiful sailing conditions again. Trailing the leaders by one point were the current European Champions, Solyd Property Developers/SailCascais of locals Vasco Serpa, Paulo Manso, Bernardo Plantier and Pedro Alemao with 3, 2, 6, 1, 1. Third were the Portuguese National Champions Trimarine/SailCascais of Rui and Henrique Brites, Francisco Melo, Luis Pinheiro and Manuel Ramos also from Cascais. In the end everybody happy. Great work by everyone involved, the organising club, Race Comittee and sailors. Epic weekend in Cascais.
The championship had the support of Cascais Municipality, Visit Cascais , Cascais Marina, Cerveja Sagres, SailCascais and Vista Alegre.
Photo Credits: Nene Ayres Pereira
Videos – Credits Bow Media
Day 1 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coZkBeQ8xuo