Last countdown in Palma for the J/70 Worlds

With the registration and measurement process underway since yesterday, Friday, at the Porto Pi Naval Base, the organising team of the Sandberg Estates J/70 Worlds is working around the clock to get everything ready for the start of the competition.

With just three days to go until the first starting signal of the Sandberg Estates J/70 Worlds, the entire fleet is already immersed in the measurement and registration process, which has been taking place at the Porto Pi Naval Base since yesterday, Friday, until midday this coming Monday. The support of the Spanish Navy and the Naval Regatta Commission has provided the necessary means and space to carry out a logistical challenge, in which the organising team of the Real Club Náutico de Palma (RCNP) and the International Association of the J/70 class have thrown themselves into.

In the words of Vivi Mainemare, sports coordinator of the RCNP: ‘we have the unconditional support of the Porto Pi Naval Base and we are here measuring all the boats that are going to participate in the World Championship. We have set up tents, cranes, an office and we have a space provided by the Port Authority where the boats are being prepared for the measuring process’.

With the aim of speeding up the process as much as possible and making it as easy as possible for the participants, the organisers have divided this space into various stations where the sails, keel, rudder and all the material that will be used during the Worlds are checked.

‘When the teams arrive and once they have been assigned their hull number, they go through the different stations. In some they measure the sails, in others the depth of the keel, the measurements of the masts, etc. At the end of the process, the boats are launched back in the water and returned to the club’, explains Mainemare.

One of the key figures in this whole process is Nuria Oliver, coordinator of the measurement area, who states that ‘we are very fortunate to have these facilities, the views under the lighthouse are incredible and it is a very accessible and comfortable place. I think the teams are quite aware of the work behind it, they see a lot of predisposition from the staff and the truth is that they are very grateful’.

A total of one hundred boats will pass through Porto Pi until Monday the 16th in order to obtain the certificate that will allow them to fight for the most important title of the season from Tuesday onwards.

For Christopher Howell, executive director of the class, the work of the organising team is the key to pulling off an event of this magnitude: ‘It's my first time here in Palma and the club has been fantastic. They have welcomed us with the red carpet, and everyone is very attentive to providing us with everything we need’.

The Sandberg Estates J/70 Worlds 2024 is organised by the Real Club Náutico de Palma and the International J/70 Class Association. With the sponsorship of Sandberg Estates and the institutional collaboration of the Palma City Council, the Spanish Navy, the Balearic Port Authority, the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation and the Balearic Sailing Federation.