Sa Ràpita crowns the best Techno and IQFoil sailors in the Balearics

This weekend, coinciding with the Balearic Day long weekend, the Balearic Techno 293 and IQ Foil Championship was held at the Club Nàutic Sa Ràpita (CNR), a meeting that brought together, from Friday 1st to Sunday 3rd March, more than 60 sailors from different clubs of the archipelago, with representation from each of the islands.

The championship included a total of 9 races (3 per day) for the Techno 293 class sailors and 12 races (4 each day) for the IQ Foil class, all of them in the fleet. In the case of Techno, the sailors have been divided by age and gender, in the sub13 and sub15 subclasses, each of them in male and female categories. As for IQ Foil, they competed in the sub17 and sub19 categories, male and female.

"The meeting has been marked by tough conditions, in a regatta course with a lot of waves and strong wind, both in intensity and direction, as they have been very strong winds," explains Miki Bover, sports director of the club.

The races started on Friday, with an average intensity of 16 to 17 knots, starting with Techno 293, which was able to hold 3 races in each of the categories before returning to port. "As the championship evolved and we were doing the scheduled races, we were losing sailors from the fleet, until we lost more than half of those registered, because the conditions and the hardness of the event with this weather meant that many participants were withdrawing," recalls Bover. 

Then it was the turn of IQFoil, which was able to hold 5 races. "Faced with the harsh weather forecast for Sunday, which in the end was confirmed, we brought forward one race in order to make progress," explains Bover. 

On Saturday, the wind strength increased even more to 20 knots, with some gusts of up to 23 or 24 knots. As a result, the Techno 293s had to stay in port, while the IQFoils had five more races, one more than planned for the day.

"This is a very important championship for the club, not only because it is the second time we have hosted it, but also because it has served us as training and to accumulate experience and polish details for the organization of the Spanish Cup, which will be held at the CNR at the end of March", says Miki Bover. This competition will be open to Balearic sailors who have participated in the three regional qualifying regattas: the Federation Cup, the Illes Balears and this Balearic Championship.

"What's more, it is the first step towards the IQ Foil World Cup, which our club will have the privilege of organizing next autumn," he adds.