The Conde de Godó de Vela Trophy casts off this Thursday with an end next Sunday in a very special edition for various reasons. On the one hand, because it is the 50th anniversary of the oldest cruising regatta in Spain. Also, because it will be the largest edition in history, with nearly 100 boats. And because the Real Club Náutico de Barcelona has somehow become the home of the 37th. Copa América, a regatta that in 2024 will be held in the waters of Barcelona.
The first to start will be the 23 participants in the ORC A Two class: that is, there are only two crew members on board. This own format has two coastal regattas, one this Thursday of about 160 nautical miles. And depending on the weather conditions, it will sail north or south. The fleet will cross the finish line late at night and into the early hours of Friday. And then he will not compete again until Saturday, in another long regatta off the Barcelona coast of about 60 miles. There are up to six planned routes that can reach the north of the Costa Brava, with intermediate points around Palamós or Blanes, or to the south of the Ebro Delta, around l’Ametlla de Mar or Vilanova.
This class has gained strength in Barcelona, ​​since the ORC A Two World Championship will be held in these same waters in September, so the Conde de Godó Trophy will be the great test for this fleet. That is why a call effect has been created with the participation of ships from the Netherlands and Finland, among other countries. Jacinto RodrÃguez’s El Duende, which will be skippered by Inés RodrÃguez, defends the title in the mixed category.
On Friday, when the ORC A Dos are resting after the 160-mile regatta, the rest of the classes will start, where the ORC (with six divisions), practically half of the fleet, and the J70 one-designs, with their own class and feminine, they will be measured in their usual walking sticks.
Among the biggest boats we find in ORC 0-1 Rats on Fire, which is the great reference of the Conde de Godó Trophy after the different sagas of the José Cusà Bribón. Rafael Carbonell’s Swan 45 is the active boat with the most Conde de Godó trophies in its showcases, with a total of 13. In 2022 he only did the Barcelona regatta and this year he will try to add his 14th, with Jorge MartÃnez Doreste at the helm.
He will face the legion of DK46, the boats that caused him the most complications in the last Copas del Rey. On this occasion, the three models designed by Mark Mills will coincide: the Soler-Cabot Visher, with Luis MartÃnez Doreste at the helm, the HM Hospitales Hydra by Óscar Chaves, with the Olympic champion Fernando León at the wheel, and the great novelty of this season and who will also have a lot to say, Tomás Gasset’s Urbania and who has Iñaki Castañer on tactics. Without forgetting the 50-footer, like Pablo Garriga’s Tenaz or Toni Guiu’s TP52 Blue Carbon.
In ORC 2, the German Elena Nova comes from winning PalmaVela and in Barcelona she will meet Pep Soldevila’s Es Tes Unno…, podium finisher in Godó in 2022. In ORC, L’Immens Laplaza Assessors skippered by Carles RodrÃguez is another of the great candidates for victory in its class.
