Friday, July 12, 2013

ROCAD RACING Wins J/80 Sandhamn Open

J/80s sailing KSSS Sandhamn Open regatta in Sweden (Sandhamn, Sweden)- Every year, the KSSS (Royal Swedish YC) roll out the red carpet for all Swedish sailors in one of their summer season highlights, the "Sandhamn Open Regatta".  As they have for the past few years, the J/80s had a good turnout, especially in view of the fact that three or more teams were practicing their final event before heading to the enormous J/80 World Championship in Marseilles, France.

J/80s in harbor at Sandhamn Open Regatta hosted by KSSSPerhaps establishing primal supremacy over those other Swedish teams, ROCAD RACING won this year's J/80 Sandhamn event. It was good conditions with sunshine and winds between 2-6 m/s all day. The first day offered three races and team HAPPY led after the first day, closely followed by A2 and the aforementioned ROCAD. Saturday was team ROCAD RACING's day, they nailed all four races, winning them decisively and led the fleet. During one of the races on Saturday, the field of teams was further mixed up when several large container ships sailed through the race course!

J/80 one-design fleet in Sweden- sailing off startOn Sunday it was only one race and it looked like ROCAD RACING had the event won by a significant margin.  The real fight was for the balance of the podium for second and third.  A2 and HAPPY were only separated by one point. Like an Olympic Sailing Finals Medal Race, HAPPY managed to keep the nerves under control and nailed the final race, closely followed by Rocad Racing and A2, and thus took silver. A2 finished 3rd after a very consistent sailing in the top all weekend followed by Team Heavy Duty fourth.
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