Alonso Collantes tops Sunfish Midwinters

Published on March 24th, 2018

Reigning World Champion Alonso Collantes saved his best performance for the last day to top the 42-boat fleet and win the 2018 Sunfish Midwinters Championship, held March 22-24 in Panama City, FL. After ten races, former World Champ Johnathan Martinetti and Alonso Collantes were tied at 42 points while David Hernandez had 43. The eleventh and last race was going to be a three-way match to determine first, second, and third overall.

After rounding the first leeward gate, Hernandez was second, Martinetti third, and Collantes fourth. Martinetti was yellow flagged for the second time in the regatta and had to retire from the race, paving the way for Collantes to closely follow Hernandez around the race course and finish one boat behind to win the tie-breaker.

Martin Alsogaray had to survive a broken outhaul end-cap, but benefited from Martinetti’s RET on the last race to take third overall. Divisional awards went to Caterina Romero – top female and 5th overall, Eugene Schmitt – top master and 6th overall), and Adriana Barron – top youth and 10th overall.

Guatemala, Argentina, and Ecuador clinched the three 2019 Pan Am Games berths and will be joining host country Peru next year. Remaining Pan Am Games berths will be decided at the 2018 South Americans in Colombia on April and the 2018 North Americans in Waukegan, Illinois in August.