Snipes in the fog

No practice race but a look at the form for the World Championships in Portugal

The tune-up race, scheduled for Monday, had to be abandoned due to a fog bank settled off Leixões, Portugal. The first race of the TMN Snipe World Championship is scheduled for Tuesday at noon. The Championship, taking place at Leixões runs to 15 September and is organized by the Clube de Vela Atlântico and will be challenged by 60 crews from 18 countries.

American crews are the favourites for the title with North American Augie Diaz, a consecutive world champion, topping the list. Diaz is crewed by fellow American Mark Ivey.

They will be facing a powerful fleet however, headed by American team-mates Ernesto Rodriguez/Leandro Spina, winners of the Milaneza Trophy (Pre-race for the World Championship). Also in the first line of competing crews one finds the Brazilian champions, Bruno Benthlem/Dante Bianchi and the Pan-American champions, Alexandre Paradeda/Pedro Tinoco, also from Brazil: "It is my first time at Leixões. I’ve been training for two days with weak winds, but I have to use what I get ", said a well humoured Paradeda.

The Spanish fleet, the largest European one, is headed by their national champions Francisco Ferrer/Marina Ferrer. The light winds seem to please the double-hand team of the neighbour country: "Since we're a light weight team, the light winds and current we’ve been getting may come to our advantage. Nevertheless, the American fleet is very strong ", says Francisco Ferrer.

Portugal is represented by six crews. Diogo Cayolla/Rui Castilho, Tiago Roquette/José Távora, Joaquim Moreira/Ana Champalimaud, Diogo Talone/Pedro Pintão, Martinho Fortunato/Tiago Marcelino e Gonçalo Guerra/Tiago Guerra.

Cayolla, the current National Champion, expects to make the best out of home waters and sail his way to the top ten: "It would be fabulous to finish among the first ten. This is my first international championship of the year and we're facing professionals ", he emphasizes.

1	ARG-28696	Ignacio F. Viña & Matias F. Viña
2	ARG-28969	Nicolas Capdevila & Rodrigo Nisi
3	BAH-30630	Robert Dunkley & Shane Deppe
4	BEL-30357	Bart Bomans & TBA
5	BEL-30580	Emmanuel Hens & Enrico Michel
6	BRA-29821	Alexandre Paradeda & Pedro Tinoco
7	BRA-30546	Bruno Amorim & Dante Bianchi
8	BRA-29950	Henrique Haddad & Guilherme Hamelmann
9	BRA-30421	Victor Demaison & Alexandre Tinoco
10	CHI-30367	António Poncell & Nicolas Valdivieso
11	CHI-28794	Felipe Robles & José Lopez
12	DEN-30013	Kim Hyttel & Hege Berthelsen
13	FRA-28541	Justin Frebault & Jean jacques Frebault
14	FRA-29856	Thomas Jérôme & Laure Bourjot
15	GER-30666	Miguel Graça & Hugo Teixeira
16	ITA-29685	Giampiero Poggi & Fabio Ceccarelli
17	ITA-30009	Paolo Lambertenghi & Antonio Bari
18	ITA-15790	Pietro Fantoni & Giovanni Stella
19	ITA-30474	Stefano Longhi & Walter Lorefice
20	JPN-30332	Bahuru Kodama & Toshihiko Tanaka
21	JPN-30233	Junichiro Shiraishi & Takumi Nakamura
22	JPN-30328	Kenji Abe & Hiroshi Yamachika
23	JPN-30216	Shigeru Matsuzaki & Hiroyuki Sugiura
24	JPN-30643	Shoji Kajimoto & Nobuyuki Imai
25	JPN-30283	Takashi Hasegawa & Yusuke Tanaka
26	JPN-30561	Tokuma Takesue & Kazuhiro Itou
27	JPN-29635	Yusuke Shindo & Kaname Hayashi
28	MEX-25715	Jorge Murrieta & Andres Akle
29	NOR-29940	Birger Jansen & Cecilia Faire
30	NOR-13923	Jorn Haga & Anniken Bjerke
31	NOR-30186	Jostein Grodem & Asbjorn Grodem
32	NOR-30498	Ulrik Sandvig & Henrik Grythe
33	POL-30536	Piotr Manczak & Tomsz Waszak
34	POL-30537	Krzysztof Kluza & Miłosz Misiorny
35	POR-29541	Diogo Cayolla & Rui Castilho
36	POR-29958	Diogo Talone & Pedro Pintão
37	POR-30183	Gonçalo Guerra & Tiago Guerra
38	POR-28368	Joaquim Moreira & Ana Paula
39	POR-29967	Martinho Fortunato & Tiago Marcelino
40	POR-30045	Tiago Roquette & José Távora
41	RUS-29490	Dmitry Berezkin & Julia Geraseva
42	RUS-29480	Evgeniy Rizhikov & Semen Chistikov
43	ESP-30147	Alfredo Gonzalez & Cristien Barreto
44	ESP-29724	Francisco Ferrer & Marina Ferrer
45	ESP-29719	Gustavo Palop & Felipe Pascual
46	ESP-26260	Pablo Arqueros & César Rosado
47	ESP-29930	Raúl Santaella & José Torre
48	ESP-29854	Rayco Alvarez & Gonzalo Quintana
49	SWE-30560	Nicklas Torlegard & Emil Svensson
50	SWE-30197	Henrik Jörhov & Lina Hamel
51	URU-29251	Pablo Defasio & Eduardo Medici
52	URU-29828	Philipp Umpierre & Martin Puricelli
53	URU-28026	Ricardo Fabini & Frederico Waksman
54	USA-30288	Augie Diaz & Mark Ivey
55	USA-29222	Brian Bissell & Danny Pletsch
56	USA-30473	Ernesto Rodriguez & Leandro Spina
57	USA-29995	Gonzo Diaz & Adrienne Korkosz
58	USA-30325	Henry Filter & Gustav Wirth
59	USA-30330	James Bowers & KIM Couyranz
60	USA-24702	Jerry Thompson & Robert Lindley
61	USA-30571	Peter Commette & Sheehan Commette
62	USA-28810	Tomas Hornos & Enrique Quintero