Joan Guiu Regatta kicks off the summer sailing season

A new edition of the Joan Guiu Regatta, one of the city's 'must attend' sailing events and an international benchmark event for solo sailing or in pairs, was held last Sunday. Xavier Rocas and Manuel Jene won in their vessel Cometa a Dos, with a time of 58 hours, stealing the victory from the Valentina, which, even though it came in earlier, was awarded second place after applying the time compensation under the ORC measurement system.

The little wind that blew during the weekend was something of a disturbance for this year's Joan Guiu, since the two boats were the only ones to complete the 215-mile nonstop route between Barcelona - Ciutadella - Barcelona. The other eight participants had to give up.

Barcelona, capital of competition sailing

The regatta, organised by the Real Club Nàutic de Barcelona and the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation, opened a promising summer season of sailing competitions in Barcelona. 11 June is the start of one of our classic regattas, the 42nd Conde Godó Merchbanc, which this year will bring together nearly seventy J80 and ORC type boats.

This year's event will be of particular interest, because the trophy will serve as a prelude to one of the major sailing competitions hosted by Barcelona this summer: the ORC World Championship to be held from 27 June to 4 July. With 105 boats and 1,500 sailors confirmed from 22 different countries, Barcelona has presented one of the best editions of the World ORC in memory. The event it is estimated to provide an economic return for the city of € 3.7 million.

From 15 to 18 July, the Reial Club Nàutic is organising the Puig Vela Classic Barcelona, now in its eighth year and in excellent shape. Barcelona will again become the capital of classic sailing with a unique event in Europe bringing together the best fleet of vintage and classic Mediterranean vessels.

Rowing will also feature this summer on the Barcelona coast: On 11 and 12 July the Reial Club Marítim is organising the second Maremagnum Yola Cup Classic, a sporting event that will be visible from the bridge of the Rambla de Mar. Finally, on 25 and 26 July, RCMB will also organise the first Open Coastal Regatta, which will include the participation of leading figures in the category such as current world champions Jessica Berra and Peter Berg.

The Nacra17 junior championship of Europe will close this summer packed with nautical events. From 25 September to 3 October the Barcelona International Sailing Centre (BISC) will be responsible for hosting one of the most spectacular regattas of the nautical scene with young talents and future stars of competition sailing. 

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