J70 World Championship at Clube Naval de Cascais
Haroldo Solberg and the OCEANPACT – Viking crew fended off a strong challenge from John Heaton to win the J70 World Championship in a dramatic final race in Cascais, Portugal.
Solberg, Tinoco, Silva and Robles are the new J/70 World Champions, having endured a tense final day that went down to the last race.
Sailing on the OCEANPACT-Viking boat, Solberg went into the final day with a narrow lead over the American John Heaton. A 13th-place finish in the penultimate race left the two teams neck and neck, setting up a final showdown for the title.
With everything at stake, Solberg kept Heaton close throughout the final race, controlling his main rival rather than chasing a top finishing position. The strategy paid off. Despite finishing 21^(st), the Brazilian team did enough to hold on to the overall lead and claim the world title.
Meanwhile, Spain’s Luis Bugallo and the MARNATURA crew moved into second place overall, and Heaton, who was racing with Portuguese sailors Gonçalo Ribeiro and Paulo Manso, dropped to third place after finishing 48th in the final race.
Bugallo and his MARNATURA team had another reason to celebrate, having won the J/70 Corinthian World Championship, which is awarded to amateur crews who compete without direct financial compensation or personal sponsorship.
The Portuguese fleet also made its mark on home waters. Tiago Morais finished 12th overall, while the Portuguese national champions closed the championship with a strong fifth-place result in the final race.
After ten races in Cascais, Brazil finished top, Spain took the Corinthian title, and the highly competitive international fleet provided a fitting finale to one of the season’s major J/70 events.