The Real Club Náutico de Barcelona will host the 50th edition of the Conde de Godó de Vela Trophy from May 25 to 28, 2023, the club’s flagship regatta and which throughout these five decades has been able to gradually adapt to the inclusion of different divisions and categories. This year some 50 boats will participate and one of the categories will be exclusively female.
ORC 0-1 Division The ORC 0-1 class is the queen of Mediterranean regattas. The largest boats in the fleet participate in it and it is in which mythical teams such as José CusÃ’s Bribón, first, and Rafa Carbonell’s Rats on Fire, later, have marked an era. El Bribón has won the trophy 11 times –16 if we add the J80 Bribón Movistar–. But after his goodbye a little over a decade ago, he gave way for the Rats on Fire to surpass him to add 13 titles.
In the 2023 edition there are several boats that will fight to win the Conde de Godó Trophy again, in addition to the great protagonist of the regatta of the last decade, Rats on fire, which is also present this year. A priori, the DK46 Soler Cabot-Vischer of the Swiss owner Rolf Auf Der Maur, with the Olympian Luis MartÃnez Doreste at the helm, is the great favourite. This boat will be called Mercedes-Benz in the Trofeo de la Reina in Valencia and the Tabarca Vela in Alicante in July, and in the Copa del Rey Mapfre in August she will sail as Estrella Damm.
Opposite him will be two other boats from the club –Mark Bezner’s German CS50 Olymp and Pablo Garriga’s Swan 50 Tenaz–, the largest boat in the fleet, Toni Guiu’s TP52 Properties Real State, and the Swan 42 CS Blue of Diana Corominas skippered by Jordi Costa. Without forgetting the Swan 45 Brujo of the Valencian Alberto de Castro, who was second last year and who this year will try to inscribe his name on the trophy base.
One of the great attractions of this year’s tournament will be the ORC A2 category, with crews of just two sailors. RCN Barcelona is committed to this modality, which was already released in 2022 and which will host the World Cup in September. Already in 2015, Barcelona hosted the ORC World Cup. All this has caused a knock-on effect in the Conde de Godó Trophy for part of the international fleet registered in the September regatta, among which the Grand Soleil 45 Sopu Tres of the Finnish Jorma Nuutinen and the Dutch X-35 Yellow Rose de Marten stand out. Jan Ringers, champion last year in Group 2.
In the Conde de Godó Trophy, eleven boats have confirmed their participation in ORC A2, where the IMS 50 Duende of the historic Jacinto RodrÃguez defends the mixed category title won with Inés RodrÃguez at the helm.
In ORC 2 the Swan42 Elena Nova of the German Christian Plump will be the boat to take into account, although the Es Tes Unno…of Francisco and Pep Soldevilla was already on the podium in the last edition, finishing second behind the Romanian Essentia44 and you already know what it is to win the Godó, he did it in 2012 and 2015
Among the smaller boats we find the ORC 3 class on the one hand and the 4-5 class on the other. In this case there will be a diversity of models and nationalities, in ORC 3, which has its own class, we find the Swedish Santina, a Dehler 38 by Thomas Rudewald or the Mon de l’Ona dos, a Vrolik 37, by Ramón Cañellas and in 4-5 Odysseus by Jordi Tussell and Akakukako by Kike Botet.
The J70 monotypes will be distributed in two categories. On the one hand, the absolute, with teams like Luis MartÃn Cabiedes’ Noticia, Michele Benvenutti’s ClÃnicas W, Miguel Coll’s Nautia.net, David Ramon’s Blackpatt from Andorra or Tony Hayward’s Seriousfun from Britain.
And in the exclusive women’s sailing competition, there will be six units of the J70 class that is based at RCN Barcelona, ​​in which the Dorsia Covirán of Núria Sánchez Nomdedeu stands out and with the two-time Olympic medalist Natà lia Via-Dufresne at the helm and also the RCNP-Baleà ria of MarÃa Bover, who has become the great sensation of the season. In addition to crews arriving from Santander with Eva González and from Lanzarote the Club Deportivo Código Cero with Simona Manfredini.
