The Monsaraz Lago Alqueva 2015, came to a end, it’s a pity because it was a great event for the first event of the year in European Cup. We started with a big fleet of 42 guys from 4 countries, Portugal, Spain, UK and France. Maybe 2015 will be a great year for Formula Windsurfing in Portugal. Every year the fleet is growing a lot and now is the biggest class of Windsurfing in Portugal. [more]
In this event we had everything, fantastic place, music in the event area, good food, good wine, all kinds of wind and a fantastic fleet of competitors with their families. In the first 3 days we had very light and unstable winds with shifty and tricky conditions, and because of that in the first 3 days we only had 3 races.
The first day of the event, we had a very light wind, very shifty and very unstable (6 to 12 knots), we tried 3 times do a race but without any success, every time we start a race, the wind was going down, after several hours, the race committee finish the day.
In the second day, the wind change a little of direction and start to pick up a little, the possible first race was at 12.00, but we had to wait 30m more before the wind stabilized, we start the first race of the day at 13.00, with wind between 09 to 14 knots. We made two race back to back before going to shore to relax and with food waiting. After the 45m of relax, was time to go again, to the water with the same wind, in the afternoon, we made one race, because the second race of the afternoon, was impossible because the wind go down completely. The 3 races were won by Miguel Martinho.
On the 3 day everyone waited for the wind because it was very light and unstable. Today also was the dinner party of the event.
It was the opposite on the last day of the event. We had lots of sunshine but a very strong wind between 22 and 32 knots, strong conditions for Formula in this last day and we had to wait some hours. The organization had some problems to fix the marks, but after 2 hours we finally had two races back to back, fast races with strong wind – the good thing was we had flat water !
At the end of the championship everyone was happy with very good conditions for competitors and their families. Alqueva is a fantastic place, everyone that came this year wants to come in 2016, and already the competitors and the organization are starting to work for next year to be better than this year.
The first 3 places were: POR-5 Miguel Martinho; ESP-14 Juan Vieito; POR-78 Bruno Bertholo
