The 2020 Newport Bermuda race took place virtually on June 19th, and featured the new Italia 14.98 high-performance yacht as one of four designs selected. The event had over five hundred participants, and the Finisterre division (Italia 14.98) had over 100. Congratulations to all who participated, and a special shout out to the winner of the Finisterre division, Cesar Garcia!

The following is an excerpt from an article written by John Burnham.

Cesar Garcia/GREATSKUA did not start with a plan to win the Finisterre (Cruiser) Division by sailing to the west side of the course. But the Spanish sailor's winning move was to abandon his early strategy and sail his Italia 14.98 at aggressive angles, heading west. The result was a first-to-finish position and a 7 minute, 4 second advantage over Derek Joubert/Maximus in second.

"I think there was a critical moment on Saturday," Garcia said in an email after finishing. "I had been getting east after a not good start, but then the high pressure ahead looked bad for the east route, so I changed completely towards southwest and I rounded the high far enough west to get good speed, but not too much west, which gave me an advantage over bonknhoot [third-place finisher). I also found a better place to attack the boats in the east; although they were ahead at that moment, I had a good windward advantage that finally paid and I could overtake Maximus a few hours before reaching the marks close to Bermuda.

 

VIEW FULL ORIGINAL POST HERE: Bermuda Race Blog