Historic victory for Sail Team BCN in its debut in the youth America’s Cup

Sail Team BCN, the Spanish representative in the Unicredit Youth America’s Cup, and sailing for the Real Club Náutico de Barcelona, ​​has had a dream debut in the youth America’s Cup by taking victory in the first race contested by the six teams in pool B, made up of participants who do not belong to a major America’s Cup challenge. In addition to the local team, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands have started their participation today after pool A, made up of the affiliates of the major challenges, did so last Wednesday.

The wind, which was light and shifty after the heavy rains that fell during the morning in Barcelona, ​​allowed the contesting of a single race, in which Sail Team BCN had a spectacular performance. After a brilliant start by Sweden, which dominated the first two thirds of the race, the Nordic sailboat stopped flying when it fell off its foils and Sail Team BCN, which had been sailing in second place from the start, managed to stay in flight throughout the final stretch to overtake the Swedes and take a historic victory.

Martín Wizner, the starboard skipper of the boat, was very satisfied after the victory. “This has been thanks to the effort of the whole team and the training. We have tried to keep things simple, take care of the batteries and do as few manoeuvres as possible. We have hit a couple of logs, but we were lucky that it didn’t affect us and we have taken the victory. We have to be realistic and our objective is to go to the semi-finals to have another day of racing and compete against people who have had many hours on this boat.”

Antonio Torrado, port trimmer, highlighted the team’s strategy. “It was a very difficult day because there was very little wind, so taking off was difficult, but once flying it was easier. Our goal was to stay flying and not move the sails or foils too much so as not to wear out the batteries and we achieved that. We had a good race, to be honest.”

Sail Team BCN faces the second day of competition this Saturday from 2 p.m. if the wind allows it. In theory they will have to compete in eight races in this first phase, and the top three finishers will go on to the semi-finals. Pool B standings after the first race:
1. Sail Team BCN (ESP) 10
2. Concord Pacific (CAN) 7
3. Swedish Challenge (SWE) 5
4. Team Germany (GER) 3
5. Team Australia (AUS) 2
6. Dutch Team (NED)  1

Sail Team BCN is sponsored by Foundation 0 and CaixaBank, and is supported by Ajuntament de Barcelona, Port de Sitges, Highfield, Musto, BWA Yachting, Sailproof and Time Out. The team is sailing on behalf of the Real Club Náutico de Barcelona.