F18 & Mixed Olympics: Mar del Plata Sailing Week for Carranza-Blando

First event , first win for one of the 3 Argentine mixed crews campaigning for Rio. Image Matías Capizzano. 7 bullets for them, full Results here.

Impressive debut for Cecilia Carranza, ex Laser Olympic sailor, now sailing F18/N17 with 2011 F18 Arg champ Esteban Blando.
Cecilia adapted herself to every condition, from 5 to 25 knots in the tough sea waters of Mar del Plata against the very best of the local & experienced F18 fleet, now you can relate more to this crew when I labeled them as ‘Argentina´s best bet for Rio’. Still much to come, but you can´t have a better start. The other mixed crew Piñeyrua-Greggi also had a good debut, but couldn´t race half event as Franco returned to BA. Lucas Gonzalez Smith is recovering from his injured leg before LA Worlds, so it was his return to racing. All the rest were the best local teams.

Imagine our best crews , all male teams, being dominated by a rookie girl helm! Of course Cecilia has an Olympic experience no other in the fleet has, but nevertheless an impressive multihull racing debut for her. Also having the best boat handling sailor in the fleet helps…

So watch out for the new Olympic mixed teams, Cecilia is following Carolijn Brouwer’s path, coming from Olympic monohull classes, hope we can see Carolijn a Rio too.
Next Nacra 17 event is Palma in March.