Pantanal 25 Dark Ice wins her first races

The Pantanal 25 design was developed to be a trailerable cruiser/racer with a good a speed potential. When Dark Ice, the first Pantanal 25 to be launched, began to participate on the 2008 Santos, (the largest Brazilian port and the most important yachting centre in the whole country), racing season, we knew the moment of truth had arrived.

After six months of hard work trying to produce a design that would please people of both sexes from the most different places, and knowing that we could not disappoint them with just an indifferent performance in the racing course, imagine how anxious we were trying to guess how fast the boat would go after the starting gun had fired.

We should have been more relaxed, however. Soon we were to receive the first news confirming that the boat was up to our expectations.
The Pantanal 25 design had already caused bursts of enthusiasm among many competition minded sailors. On the other hand, nobody wanted to bet in the speed potential of a twenty-five footer provided with galley, enclosed heads, two comfortable double berths and a nice dinette with place for six persons to sit around a comfortable drop leaf table, before a conclusive test on the racing course had been accomplished.

Jorge Intaschi, the builder of Dark Ice, has done a first class job when constructing the boat. He followed faithfully the project specifications, building the boat in foam sandwich, exactly as recommended in the design’s scantlings. This was of utmost importance, since the true potential of the boat would be jeopardized if its weight surpassed the theoretical displacement.

Dark Ice, in spite of being hardly sailed yet and having to compete for line honours, since she didn’t measure in any existing local rule, was thrown into the arena with the difficult mission of proving her merits against boats much larger than she is.

The first race was epic. Dark Ice crossed the starting line behind the whole fleet. The wind was very light and she drifted among the other yachts with the elegance of a dolphin. The course was windward-leeward, and when beating to the windward mark, she passed all boats except a thirty-four foot racing machine, crossing the line in second place overall.

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The second race Dark Ice participated was more exhilarating still. As it already happened before, the crew still was adjusting the sail trim when they heard the starting gun. The wind was light, so the loss for a bad start was immaterial. Pointing harder and sailing faster than any other boat in the race, they lead the race at the windward mark and from there on never lost their leadership, arriving half a leg before the second boat, a thirty-four footer. When overtaking the other boats,  Jorge threw them ice-cold water bottles, just as a friendly, or was it a teasing, gesture.

When the race was over the other crews admitted that in light winds Dark Ice was “the boat”, sailing faster and pointing harder than anyone else.
The third and fourth races, one week after, the wind was stronger then, and at that time, in spite of sailing very well and still pointing harder than other yachts, water line length prevailed and the best Black Ice managed to do was a second to arrive position. In short, Jorge Intaschi is absolutely pleased with the performance of his boat and we thank him for showing us that he made a good job as an amateur builder, as well as an ocean racing skipper.

The Pantanal 25 class is already spread. The first to get into the club was a client from New South Whales. Then came new builders from the U.S., Switzerland, Italy, Sweden, Brazil, Canada, Turkey, Chile, Spain, Greece and other countries. Now that there are some of them already sailing, and as the Pantanal 25s is continually expanding in numbers, we hope soon it becomes an international one design class. If you are building a Pantanal 25, or finished the construction of one of them, wanting to inform us about your experience, we are willing to transmit to other members of the group.

Zirrdeli. A Pantanal 25 amateur construction in Turkey
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Click here to know more about the Pantanal 25 Class