The “Vuelta al Lago” is an event that takes places over four days in Chile. The Cofradía Nautica de Frutillar is the principal yacht club on the lake with around 20 boats. Surazos in Puerto Varas is the second largest club in size and very important in terms of number of boats. For the XIII version of the “Vuelta al lago Llanquihue (Around Lake Llanquihue) Race,” all of the lake’s boating clubs join together. During the four days of sailing, the fleet of 13 boats included a J/70, two J/24s and a smattering of other boats up to 34 feet. The 55nm race-track was divided into four legs/races:
Frutillar- Puerto Varas
Puerto Varas- Puerto Oscuro
Puerto Oscuro- Puerto Octay
Puerto Octay- Frutillar
For this year’s event, the winds were mainly light from different directions, especially east and southeast. The wind shift and wind holes where changing pretty radically around the different courses, so the fleet needed to handle those changes and look for the wind across the lake. The cruise to Puerto Oscuro on the second day was especially nice. It was a 19nm race from Puerto Varas, with winds from the southeast of 0-5 kts during the first third of the leg, then afterwards a fantastic 10-15 kts wind into the finish for the final two-thirds of the race. All crews slept on their boats. For the J/70 crew on SANTANDER, that included Juan Eduardo Reid and Francisca Cordero. “Great rest on the V-berth of this wonderful little boat!” said Juan. The third leg to Puerto Octay also had light winds, but ending with a 10-15 kts breeze from the southwest. The boats arrived on a tight reach to Centinela Peninsula and raced to the bottom of the bay where Campo el Molino is situated. The J/70 managed to beat the M24 boat-for-boat on this leg. The first two boats to finish in all races were the J/70 and the M24. The final results saw the J/70 SANTANDER sailed by Juan Eduardo Reid and Francisca Cordero winning with a 2-1-1-2 record for 6 points.

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