In the last weekend of June, six races were sailed for the Autumn Championship, hosted by Cofradía Náutica Algarrobo, off the Pacific Coast of Chile. Seventeen J/70 showed up at the starting line. On Saturday morning, lack of wind led to a postponement until the early afternoon, but a cold breeze from the west started blowing around 2:30pm. Three races were sailed with winds ranging from 10 to 13 knots. The battle between Pablo Amunategui’s SANTANDER and Juan Reid’s WINDMADE started in the first race. In the first beet, WINDMADE (J/70 hull #001) managed to get in front after SANTANDER tried (and failed) to do lee bow getting to the first weather mark. On the second beat, SANTANDER chose the left, tacking immediately after rounding the leeward gate. A good left line of breeze gave them the advantage on the second windward leg. The final result of the first race: 1st SANTANDER and 2nd WINDMADE. The conditions were very nice, and the fleet could spread out and play windshifts and breeze lines across the race course. The second race of the day was a lot more complicated for SANTANDER, finishing 13th while WINDMADE finished fifth. First was Pedro Cabezón (Corinthians and new skipper in the Class), and second again was Diego Gonzalez’s SENSEI. For the third race of the day, Reid’s WINDMADE won handily, followed by Cristobal Molina’s LEXUS in second and Matias Seguel’s VOLVO in third. The day closed with WINDMADE leading, followed by SENSEI in second and VOLVO in third place. The weather forecast for Sunday was complicated with some rain during the morning, but the day continued to get better than expected. The breeze start blowing from the north at 8-12 knots, with tricky, choppy seas (north seas come directly from offshore), and that made for a challenging race course with difference in pressure and direction. The seas were very difficult to steer on starboard tack, as you were going perpendicular to the wave train. It was close racing all day long Sunday. Pablo Amunategui & Rodrigo Guzman’s SANTANDER sailed clean, posting a 1-3-2. Meanwhile, WINDMADE struggled a bit on the last day, with finishes of 7-1-3. In fact, in the last race, Reid’s WINDMADE had a bad start and made an amazing recovery (thanks to great tactics from Rodrigo Amunátegui) to get the third place. With six races, one discard race came into play. On total points, WINDMADE won, but with discards, both WINDMADE and SANTANDER were tied with identical records of 1-1-2-3-5 at 12 points each. It came down to “who-beat-who” in the last race, tipping that advantage to SANTANDER over WINDMADE. Rounding out the podium was Diego Gonzalez’s SENSIE with 14 points. The balance of the top five included Seguel’s VOLVO in fourth and Andres Ducasse’s TSUNAMI in fifth. In the Corinthian division, there was just about a three-way tie for first. Two cousins, Cristóbal Pérez on TRILOGIA and Francisco Pérez on ELEANOR RYGBY, both finished with 46 points. That tiebreaker went in favor of TRILOGIA. Just one point back with 47 points was Paolo Molina’s ALBATROSS. After the Algarrobo event, the 18-race Chilean J/70 Autumn series concluded, with two discards permitted for overall results. Crowned as champion was Juan Reid’s WINDMADE with 49 points total. The silver went to Andres Ducasse’s TSUNAMI with 62 points, and the bronze to Pablo Amunategui’s SANTANDER with 67 points. In the Corinthian Division, winning the Autumn Series was Pablo Cisternas’ UROBORO with 153 points. Second was José Antonio Jiménez onboard JUMENEZ with 170 points, and third was Francisco Pérez skippering ELEANOR RYGBY scoring 183 points.