(Talcahuano, Chile)-
We recently got an updated report from our friends "down under" in
South America regarding J/70 fleet development. Juan Eduardo-Reid sent
us a report and photos of demo-sailing on the spectacular Panguipulli
Lake nestled into the western part of the Andean Mountains during their
summer! Juan's commentary follows:"We have finally had the chance to show the J/70 in four different places this summer:
- Talcahuano- along the Pacific Coast where the Soto 40 World Championships were recently sailed by some of the world's best sailors. We only exhibited the boat since we were still waiting for our sails!
- Ranco-
it's a very big lake and sailing area, small sailing activity, but we
sailed the boat four days there! Great interest because it was so easy
to sail!- Frutillar- we went racing the 8th to 10th of February there and have the J/70 in a very good position at the club, with the J70 winning most of the time!
- Panguipulli- this is where I rigged and sailed J/70 #156 with the customer and also sailed with 5 or 6 potential customers there. In Panguipulli, it's the lake with the greatest potential as there are over twenty J/24 sailing teams and another group of good sailors, too.
We're focusing on bringing in new people to sailing on the lakes and so far the effort is bringing nice results! More news in the near future. J/70 is a very nice solution for Chile, easy to tow behind a car, easy to ramp launch-- very, very important here in Chile-- we have no hoists!"
