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The Andalusian sailor Alejandro Alcázar is already immersed in the previous ones to his participation in the emblematic Mini Transat 2021, a biannual solo regatta that separates France from Guadeloupe with a stop in the Canary Islands. To do this, the man from Cádiz builds the boat “Shikitito”, a latest generation Vector 6.5 with registration ESP1004 and a CN Puerto Sherry necklace, with which he has just taken part in the XXXI Mare Nostrum Regatta for the Mini 6.5 class for two, organized by the CN of El Garraf between August 26 and 31.
The “Shikitito” arrived in Barcelona, where the first regattas of the Mini Class circuit would be held, last July to mount it and equip it with electricity, electronics, sails, etc. From Barcelona the team moved to El Garraf, “And with hardly any preparation time, we completed what would ultimately be the first miles the ship sailed”.
Once there, the ship underwent strict security controls and the last details were being adjusted to arrive at the best set-up. It was also the time to meet Etienne Bertrand, designer of the Vector 6.5 who was traveling from France to compete in the regatta with the man from Cádiz. “It has been of enormous help, since in addition to being a reputed navigator, he knows like no one a boat that has come out of his wits”.
For the regatta, the organization scheduled a 230-mile course that the team faced with uncertainty, “We started with pending things to do and giving priority to safety, being the first regatta and with everything to try, we decided to take it easy to get safety on the boat”. From there, the crossing was a continuous ‘problem-solution’, something more than expected given the ignorance of the ship, “However, and despite the fact that every time a problem arose we had to reposition everything with the consequent loss of time, once the problems were solved we had the response of the boat, getting good speed and everything working despite not being able to focus on the regatta tactic ”.
Another of the problems that the two crew members had to face was that of language, something that was also improving, “Little by little we began to understand each other with limited English and after the first hours we already knew that we had to do each one, dividing the tasks quite well. Etienne gave me many things, details about the boat and personal experiences, such as improving the boat, designs, weights, sails etc ”.
After completing the first regatta of the “Shikitito”, the team’s balance is very positive, “It is a boat that with favorable conditions goes very well, and when they are not so good, the result is achieved through effort, but it is achieved”. They were able to verify this on the last day in a beautiful hand-in-hand with Felip Mol and Marc Miro and their boat “Allevà”, a Pogo 2 that was operating in very good conditions for that boat and not so much for the boat of Alcázar and Bertrand , “But despite this, in the end we managed to distance ourselves from it with winds of 8-12 knots astern, realizing that working well in conditions that were not favorable for us, we could make it run like the usual ones”
“The important thing is that we take this regatta as a test, it has helped us to see what we have to change, what to improve, what I like about the boat and what not”, Alejandro concludes, to which his Team manager Carlos Martínez adds, “We have to keep working, but it is not a bad start to have finished the race after 230 miles and without having trained or tested the boat, we knew it was not the best circumstance but we could not let the opportunity pass, and definitely finish in tenth put in these conditions we believe that it is not bad at all ”.
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