Spanish SailGP team
The Spanish SailGP team incorporates two women to its crew for the first time. Andrea Emone (Valencia, 1996), an IQFOIL athlete who aspires to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and Tara Pacheco (Gran Canaria, 1988), who will participate in the next Tokyo Olympics and who has two Olympics behind her in the class 470 (London 2012) and Nacra 17 (Rio 2016). Both athletes will travel to Bermuda, where this April the first Grand Prix of the second season of SailGP, the fastest flying catamaran competition in the world, will be held.
Both Emone and Pacheco fit perfectly into the team due to their sporting career and their values. These are two versatile profiles that can be adapted to the needs of the team. The two will join the team this season and will actively participate in training.
The incorporation of female talent into the competition is one of SailGP’s objectives in its “Race for the Future” initiative. It is intended to include women as soon as possible, since delaying it would imply widening the existing gap between men and women. Also, it wants to provide specific training opportunities for women. In this sense, the Spanish team is creating a “Foiling Base” in Puerto Sherry (Cádiz) that it will inaugurate in May, with which it will be able to continue developing female talent. One of the scenarios that SailGP contemplates is the creation of a parallel league only for women, but for this, women must first be trained in key positions on the ship.
“The 20 candidates who presented themselves had a high level. Ultimately, Tara was chosen for her experience with flying catamarans and her Olympic campaigns. Andrea is a diamond in the rough. She has a lot of potential and has a recent degree in aerospace engineering, she will surely add to the analysis of the data that is so crucial for us ”, says María del Mar de Ros, CEO of the Spain SailGP Team and the only woman in charge of a SailGP team. .
Pacheco, Olympic athlete in London, Rio and Tokyo; and Emone, the contender for Paris 2024
Tara Pacheco, graduated in Nautical Engineering and Maritime Transport, has extensive experience in classes 470 and Nacra 17. With the former she participated in the London Olympics in 2012 and with Nacra, she participated in the Rio 2016 Olympics. This year He will also participate in Tokyo together with Florián Trittel, co-skipper of the Spanish team. In both classes, she has several podiums in world and European championships, in addition to being nominated as the best sailor of the year by the ISAF, the entity that regulates the sport of sailing worldwide. Tara is passionate about the environment and will also help the team win the race for sustainability that the League has set itself as its goal.
For his part, Andrea Emone, an aerospace engineer, has been closely linked to IQFOIL, where he has a bronze medal at the 2014 Techno + European Championship and was in the Top 10 of the 2016 Techno + World Championship. In the field of sailing, he has experience with TP52 class boats, having two World Championships as a data analyst. She started in the sailing world when she was 8 years old and when she saw the America’s Cup in Valencia she said “I want to be there”, it seems that she is going to fulfill her dream. She currently aspires to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Season 2 kicks off in Bermuda on April 24
The first of eight dates of the second season of SailGP will take place on April 24 and 25 in the Bermuda Islands. The competition has become one of the most important in the sailing world, being the fastest flying catamarans, capable of exceeding 50 knots (100 km / h).
In SailGP each team represents a nation. Currently, the competition has among its ranks the teams of Australia, Denmark, Spain, USA, France, Great Britain, Japan and New Zealand. Each team competes with the same boat model, the F50, where innovations are incorporated in all boats equally. Each and every one of the teams is made up of the best sailors of different classes who have participated in competitions such as the America’s Cup, the Ocean’s Race and the Olympic Games, among others.
This second season will be played between April of this year and March 2022. The cities to be visited are Bermuda, Taranto (Italy), Plymouth (UK), Aarhus (Denmark), Saint-Tropez (France), Cádiz (Spain), Christchurch (New Zealand) and San Francisco (USA). In each of these events, they compete for 2 days, where 3 races of 15-20 minutes are run, very close to the coast, which will allow the public to enjoy the show in all its splendor.
Cádiz, Andalusia, venue of the SailGP Spanish Grand Prix in 2021 and 2022.
The Bay of Cádiz will host the Spanish Grand Prix, Cádiz – Andalusia, on October 9 and 10, which will coincide with the Hispanidad Bridge and the V Centenary of the First World Tour by Magellan and Elcano. All this offers the region an opportunity for development in the sports field, as well as an opportunity to strengthen its tourism offer.
The Spanish Grand Prize has the support of the Andalusian Regional Government Tourism Council through FEDER funds, as well as the rest of the local administrations and institutions; Diputación de Cádiz, City Councils of Cádiz, Puerto de Santa María, Rota and Puerto Real, UCA, Free Trade Zone, Confederation of Employers and the Spanish Navy. The date, strategically chosen, is an opportunity to promote national and international tourism in Andalusia, as well as to maximize the economic impact of the event, which is estimated between 20 and 30 million euros.
