Hippocampus Nº46

J70 European Championship
finishers. Or the fact that the winner of the
best-placed race didn’t get any further than
fifth place overall. Consistency was therefore
the secret to success, as evidenced by the
results achieved by the Solyd Sailing Team/
SailCascais and, above all, by the winners.
VICTORIOUS DEBUT
Interestingly, the Good To Go crew had
never sailed together before this European
Championship, for which Doug Rastello
assembled a group of men whose talent he
had no doubt about: John Wallace, Morgan
Trubovich and Steve Hunt. A solid team,
in the words of the American, and one in
which communication was a determining
factor for success: “Everyone respected each
other’s roles, and that was something we
talked about before the regatta. We agreed
that the best way to put a team together is
for everyone to have their own tasks and
not tell the others how to do theirs. I’ve
been tactical in the past, but this week I
just listened to where I should go, and it
seems to have worked”.
Vasco Serpa, meanwhile, was understandably
thrilled to have finished in second
place, especially given the slender lead over
his pursuers. In all likelihood, if there had
been more races on the final day, it would
have been more difficult for the Portuguese
to defend their position, and the new European
Champion himself admitted that the
last few hours were marked by nervousness
until the title was confirmed.
At the end, the sailor from Clube Naval
de Cascais paid tribute to his crew: “Last
season we did well, but we felt we had
some deficiencies, as we were still learning
how to make the J70 fast. So we shortened
the learning curve and went for top sailors.
Paulo was fourth in last year’s World
Championships in a Spanish crew, and
Hugo [Olympic Bronze Medallist in 470]
is probably the best Portuguese sailor and
works for North Sails. He has the technical
knowledge and brings with him a winning
mentality. It was very tough to compete
against such a tough fleet, so I’m very happy
with the result. I competed in the Laser in
the 1990s, I went to the Olympics [seventh
in Atlanta 1996], I was away from the sport
for a few years, and when I came back I
wanted to compete with the best. The J70
Class is the one that gives me that chance”.
Clube Naval de CASCAIS 33