hungry for more. They have taken part in three high-level championships, both in national and international stages, in which they have lacked the chance to stand up to their rivals as they would have liked and have been doing since January.
The Vilamoura Marina, south of Portugal, was the host of the Snipe European Championship from the 7th to the 13th of September. More than eighty boats coming from Italy, Norway, Belgium UK, France, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, Argentina, Chile, Brazil and USA made up the fleet that battled on a very shifty course for the title of ‘European Champions’. The Minorcans, Jordi Triay and Lluis Mas, managed to finally take it home; though it was the Argentinians, Julio Alsogaray and Malena Sciarra, who were the undisputed winners of the event.
The couple, Martín and Beatriz, kicked off in a provisional eighth position after the first day of competition. Following a very good start in the second race and having rounded the top and bottom marks in first position, a shift in the wind and a change in pressure in the second upwind relegated them to the fourteenth position. The team lost motivation after the tough blow of leading another race on the third day and losing the advantage owing to yet another shift. They finished the championship in nineteenth European position and sadly could not fulfil their initial goal of aiming for top 15.
There were two more regattas in late September and start of October in which our team did not seem to be able to escape the bad streak. On the weekend of the 27th and 28th of September the ‘Trofeo Ciudad de Coruña’ was held in very unfavourable conditions: the first day was marked by heavy showers during the better part of five hours which the sailors spent floating on Galician waters. Only one race was disputed that afternoon, with very light shifty winds which did not give the crew a chance to fight for the top places. Although Sunday looked slightly better, CETIL Sailing Team did not complete the last race and ended up in seventh position due to the DNF.
The Spanish Cup took place in Torrevieja coinciding with the huge ‘dana’ storm in mid-October; it brought together almost eighty teams who had to battle through strong winds and big swell during two tough days of competition. Martín and Beatriz managed to qualify into the gold group after three races on Saturday. They stood twelfth on Sunday morning when during the first downwind of the two laps in the circuit they suffered the breakage of the pole, which left them unable to complete the race or make the necessary reparations to compete in the following one. Disheartened and frustrated for not having raced two of the five races, they saw themselves fall to the thirtieth place and returned home for the last regatta of the month.
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The Real Club Náutico in Madrid opened its doors one more year to sailors participating in the Hispanidad regatta on the 25th and 26th of October – competition that our CEO, José Sánchez del Pozo, was able to witness first-hand. The conditions proved to be ideal for our team – a steady 15 knots with which, despite capsizing, they managed to score five first places in the five races held. This resulted in the victory for CETIL Sailing Team in the autonomic ranking of 2025.
We hope this last success helps them regain confidence for the last three races of the season where they will be visiting the Canary Islands, Motril and Chile. The latter is the venue of the Snipe Masters World Championship, where Martín will be lending his place on the boat to Alfredo Maristany, who will take place together with Beatriz, due to eligibility requirements. We will keep you posted!
