Brazilian consistency beats Cascais chaos for J/70 crown

Brazil's Harold Solberg and his crew from Rio de Janeiro have been crowned J/70 World Champions after a five-day series in Cascais, Portugal, sailing Oceanpact-Viking to the title against a fleet of 100 teams from 26 nations.

The regatta, hosted by Club Navale de Cascais, ran in what organisers called "champagne weather" all week, sunny, postcard conditions that belied just how brutal the racing itself became.

The fleet's competitiveness stood out from the start. Several Olympic medallists and past World and European champions found themselves buried mid-fleet, unable to crack the top 30 after the opening day's two races. That's the J/70 class in a nutshell: brutally fair, painfully deep.

Day one saw blowout wins in both races. Solberg's Oceanpact-Viking crew, Mario Tinoco, Gabriel Silver and Carlos Robles, posted a 9th and then a dominant win to sit atop a tightly bunched leaderboard, just 17 points covering the top ten.

Conditions turned genuinely nasty on day two. Wind gusted 20-25 knots with breaking waves up to five feet, and downwind boat-handling separated the fleet dramatically, some crews gaining four to eight places in a single stretch by sailing faster and lower through the swells. American boats dominated race three, with Brian Keane's Savasana taking the win, while Jim Murray's Callisto won race four after organisers shifted the course.

By Wednesday's close, Spain's Marnatura, skippered by Luis Bugallo, led with 20 points, well clear of Solberg's Brazilians on 31 and Bruno Bethlem's Arete on 38.

Bugallo, reflecting on the tricky day, said: "It was a pretty windy day and definitely a good one for us. We didn't have our best starts, but we recovered well and put ourselves in strong positions... The J/70 is an incredible Class to race in, you're competing against some of the best sailors in the world, and with a fleet of this size, the level is extremely high."

Thursday brought calmer breeze and more drama. Selmo Nissenbaum's Brazilian team Highlanders pulled off a surprise win in race five, while race six featured a heated duel between John Heaton's American Empeiria and Australia's Tim Ryan on Vamos, complete with a protest and a penalty turn that ultimately handed Heaton a comfortable win.

Mexico's Alejandro Pérez, sailing Algarete with tactician Rayco Tabares, a two-time J/80 World Champion, climbed into the top ten with back-to-back thirds.

Discards eventually reshuffled the leaderboard, with Solberg's Oceanpact-Viking emerging on top through consistency rather than blowout speed, a 9-1 tally anchoring their eventual title.

Marnatura, meanwhile, held on to win the Corinthian Division, a strong result for a crew that had led the provisional standings outright after day two. In a fleet this deep, that consistency was its own kind of victory.