Argentine Champs a racing weekend with excitement

written by Matias Collins  on  December 22  of  2025 and read by 198

Leading to win ARG 34 its race on Sunday
@Carlos Maffei

An unbelievable weekend for Soling racing, only 6 boats, all sorts of wind, including a gale and super light winds.

ARG 42 leaded by 14 times Argentine champion Gustavo Warburg, Hernan Celedoni and Raul Vidal granted their 15th title.

The first day on Friday a nice 13 to 15 knots breeze from the South East a typical sailing in the Rio de la Plata had on the first race a surprise when USA 853 sailing with Matias Collins, Gonzalo Celedoni and Joaquin Jordana after rounding third the windward mark had an excellent downwind ride managing to obtain the inside of leader ARG 42 a the rounding mark and with a perfect maneouvre obtained the lead and from there flew away to win the first race. In third behind ARG 42 came ARG 34 with Diego Cappagli, Alejandro C. Moore and Pedro Windmuller.

The second race of the day ARG 42 took the lead followed by ARG 34 and URU 3 sailed by Ines Prota(18), Hernan Saveedra and Santiago Prota, USA 853 got stuck at the start, routing just ahead ARG 44 with Santiago Marquez, Federico Bande and Damian Caeiro all the way coming from Quilmes a south area in the Rio de la Plata which demands a 5 to 6 hs sail to the “sailing center” of Buenos Aires.
At this second race again a superb downwind from USA 853 placed them in third and a great upwind they clinched their second place again following ARG 42 and ahead ARG 34.

The third race of the day again had USA 853 and URU 3 starting way behind the fleet, The first one at the first beat already showing the speed to catch with leaders and again in the downwind consolidating the second place behind ARG42 who sailed in the lead from the start.

Saturday was interesting, a light wind forecast, with some rain, hot, etc. The first race had a light west wind, under a soft rain, very unpredictable, but ARG 42 managed to lead followed by URU 3 and ARG 34, it was only at the last downwind where URU 3 lost its grip pulling ARG 34 with them and ARG 40 sailed by Martin Jordana, Santiago G. Cantelli and Maximiliano Reggio finished second, followed by ARG 34.

The wind died and then moved to North, the start was already in a 10 to 13 knots of wind increasing, ARG 34 pulled away to the left and managed to round first the windward mark, followed by ARG 42 and USA 853 all close together, the wind kept increasing, now the downwind had 18 to 22 knots , the brown water had its shaky beige caps, the jibe was perfectly executed by ARG 42 and USA 853 but ARG 34 in the lead had its broach, after the leeward rounding the wind were already 20 to 30 knots and increasing, ARG 42 and USA 853 pulled away and rounded the windward mark in style with 35+ knots to wind and started the surf down without the spinnaker, only URU 3 managed to round the windward mark but their mast just snapped. Only ARG 42 and USA 853 managed to finish the races executing chicken jibes (a tack) to reach the finish line. After the finish the races for the day were abandoned and the two boats sailed in with the jib one, but not forgetting to use either the toping lift(spa boom up) or spinnaker halyard as running backstays attached to the main sheet tower.

At the harbour, URU 3 had their spare mast, and spent the whole afternoon and beginning of the night transferring parts and lines to the spare one. Activity finished on the next day since some lines were cut requiring them to either add extensions and or replace them.

On Sunday the weather was different, very light winds, from the South east again, a strong sun, and on the first race a 30 degree shift to the right who saved all bad starters that went to the right including ARG 32, ARG 34, URU 3 leaving USA 853 and ARG 40 with perfect start but at the end in the wrong spot, ARG 34 leaded the race followed by URU 3 and its new mast, on the downwind ARG 42 catches them up passing URU 3 and USA 853 also from behind managed to place itself in third. The race finished with ARG 34 and its victory followed by ARG 42 and USA 853 consolidating their championship but adding suspense to the second place dispute.

The second race after the first windward mark ARG 42 in the lead had the championship in its hands, and ARG 34 now added more suspense, but the downwind choices for USA 853 were better and they managed to pass ARG 34 to finish second and created a only one possible scenario to lose the second place overall at the third race, in ARG 34 need of a victory and USA 853 a 5th of worse place to beat them in the tie breaker.

Carlos Gastelu, the IRO in charge waiting for an hour and not seeing better winds, abandoned the races for the day managing to complete 7 of the 8 races scheduled.

The teams later had their prize giving ceremony with a nice BBQ cooked by the famous “Mario” the club worked who is always paying attention to the Solings.

Complete Results


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After the rounding mark , Buenos Aires in the back ground
@Carlos Maffei

ARG 34 rounding first the leeward mark on Sunday
@Carlos Maffei