«The Christmas Race and the Palamós Optimist Trophy give young sailors a lot of training»

—The Christmas Race has reached 48 editions, but this year there has been a change of spirit.

—We are very proud to have reached this figure, we are already on the verge of turning 50 years old. We have received institutional support from practically the entire municipal council and we have signed a three-year agreement that will allow us to go from a regatta that was organized practically entirely within the club to opening it to the population. This year we were completely on Palamós beach, where we set up a village with events during the four days. It was already a very important step and had two objectives, to make the regatta grow more and for the event to have much more visibility for the population of Palamós.

—It is a very consolidated regatta. It was born as an Olympic class competition and gradually evolved into a promotion class regatta with very young but high-level crews.

—Yes, we had almost 500 sailors in this year’s edition, with a very important international participation from 16 countries, such as France, Italy, the Netherlands or Great Britain, and of course Spain, which were the most numerous. Apart from Europeans, we also had Americans, Argentines and Bermudians. The truth is that we are very happy with the participation. They are regattas that, due to the dates they are celebrated, both Christmas and the Palamós Optimist Trophy, provide a lot of training for young sailors. You cannot say that you are an experienced sailor if you have not been through them at some point.

—Christmas is getting better. The 29er class has been opening the EuroCup in Palamós for two years at its own request. This is for a reason.

—The 29er class has opted for Christmas and Christmas for the 29er class. And for the 50th anniversary we would like to recover some Olympic classes that were already in the regatta, such as the 49er.

—There are also contacts with the Nacra class, so they can participate. Without going any further, there is a crew from the club, Ruben and Rita Booth, who will try to be in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

—Yes, the Booth brothers sail for the Club Nàutic Costa Brava-Vela Palamós and have been youth world champions. Other sailors from our club are Ramon Figueras and Emma Collins, who have been Spanish champions in the Europe class, and Jordi Cargol in 2.4. And who also sails with our necklace is the supermaxi Alarife 100 of Juan Entrecanales, who is a member of the club, and who, at more than 80 years old, comes to see us to collect the club’s flag and display it with great pride on his boat wherever he goes.

—What are the plans for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Palamós Christmas Race?

—There are two years left, but in 2025 we want to start organizing it because we want it to be a special edition, to be an event to be remembered.

—The Club Nàutic Costa Brava is the oldest club in the province of Girona. It has grown with the merger with the Palamós Sailing Club.

—Yes, the Club Nàutic Costa Brava was founded in 1946 and currently has three legs. On the one hand, Esport Blau, which is school sailing, of which we were pioneers in Spain and which is subsidized by the Catalan Federation and the Palamós City Council. We also have a regatta team, which grows year after year and is giving very good results, and thirdly we are the club that organizes two of the largest regattas in Spain, the Palamós Optimist Trophy, which is the largest Optimist regatta of the world in the open sea, and the Christmas Race, the second most important regatta in Spain after the Princesa Sofía Trophy in Mallorca.

—What they are also waiting like a rainy day is for an issue that affects many clubs in Spain to be resolved, that of concessions.

—We are waiting to be able to definitively renew the concession, since we have been precarious for eight years and this affects us at the level of investments. Let’s hope it is resolved in this last temporary assignment, for four more years. We are awaiting a master plan that should be released during this period. We hope it is as soon as possible so that there is a contest, and we hope to win.

—Having stability is very important to be able to manage the future.

—We do not rule out organizing a World Cup or European Championship of some kind in the future. We would need more modern facilities because let’s not forget that it is a club that is more than 70 years old and there is a lack of real estate investments, pontoons, cranes…

—How do you see the future?

-Optimistically. Palamós has Marina Palamós, with 900 moorings, Front de Mar in the beach area which has more moorings than the club, and then we have a dock shared with the fishing port. I think Palamós deserves a yacht club with the powerful experience we have in sailing and also to support other sports, such as open water swimming or rowing.