Pantanal 25 is hard to be beaten in light wind conditions.

Jorge Instaschi, mercanteveiculos@terra.com.br, the Pantanal 25 class coordinator in Brazil, sent us the following e-mail reporting the class latest news:

“We have another Pantanal 25 hull already constructed. The latest one is Rotfahrt. She was extracted from the mould this week, and her superstructure is already laminated.
What a gloss!!!. This second unit from the same mould is going to incorporate all the improvements (sails, keel, deck layout, etc) we developed in these last seven months of racing with Dark Ice, our first Pantanal 25 to take part in the racing course.

The new boat is basically intended to participate in the same events as Dark Ice, the 2009 Santos Offshore Racing Championship. Dark Ice, however has a more ambitious plans fot this year and we have a schedule to send her to other important events in the Brazilian racing agenda.

For bad luck, (or would it be good luck?), the new boat most probably will over-sail our dear Dark Ice, since she will be lighter, thanks to a more accurate vacuum bagging technique applied in the second boat lamination. We are counting on hard times for Dark Ice from now on.

The lamination of Enigma II, the third Pantanal 25 to be built from the same mould already started, and she will also be completed straightaway. This new boat is being prepared to race under the “Brasilia Rule”, a measuring formula adopted by the capital of the country’s sailing fleet, in Paranoá Lake, the important water mirror in Brazil’s capital. Taking into account Mr Ademir Micareta’s, Enigma II’s owner, renowned sailing skills, this Pantanal 25 will most probably steal the show in the 2009/2010 racing seasons at Lake Paranoá.

It is exciting coming to learn how the Pantanal Class will spread to other sailing centres. We at Performance Pantanal 25 consider each new hull of the class as if it was a son. We are glad to follow the construction of each of them, doing our best towards producing a better boat at each lamination, and we are prepared to give all the necessary support to the new owners after launching, explaining to them all the tricks Dark Ice already taught us during these seven months of intensive sailing”.

Click on images to enlarge them.

Photos: Pantanal 25 Rotfahrt construction at Cooper Marine under the supervision of Performance Pantanal 25. Santos, state of Sao Paulo, Brazil

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Meanwhile the Pantanal 25 Dark Ice has been involved with the season’s first regattas at the Santos Racing Fleet. She took part in three races in a roll, all of them in light winds, the conditions when the Pantanal 25 had already shown that she is the boat to be beaten.
Jorge Intaschi repports:

“This year we are trying new adjustments for Dark Ice sailing trim which seem to be working beautifully. At the first regatta of the new season, even though with a renovated crew, we won the race. Jones, the helmsman making his debut at this function, was really impressed with the quick acceleration of the boat at the least breadth of wind, keeping its speed in almost no wind. Newton, another crew who came to give us a hand, was absolutely infatuated with the boat’s performance.

The second race we had Dimas, our last season’s helmsman, when we were the Santos Offshore Racing Championship winners, back to the tiller, conducting Dark Ice with great skill one more time, and he did not disappoint us. We opened an even more impressive leadership over the other competitors, as if our boat was employing another sort of propulsion.

Leonardo, one of our competitors, from the Ranger 26 “Rainha”, later sent an e-mail to the Santos Offshore Racing Association forum, telling his impressions about the races during this weekend:   
To my surprise the races during this weekend turned up to be very pleasant. Saturday we had to round Pascoal Mountain Island in a course where in the past  I seldom saw any puff of wind. This time, however, the wind was quite constant. Straight from the start, Dark Ice jumped ahead with such an astonishing speed that it looked like they were sailing with a private wind, such was the difference between them and the other boats. Notwithstanding, let’s face it, they were sailing much faster then us all. They rounded the island far ahead the second boat, and they only had to administrate the huge advantage from then on.

Sunday the wind was more typical of that area, just a lick of it! Again Dark Ice seemed to be the only boat capable of sailing in those conditions, and once more she jumped ahead of all other competitors. The race ended up being cancelled, but once again Dark Ice was far ahead of any boat…

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Photos of the Santos and Bertioga races.  Note the distance the other boats stayed behind.

Click here to know more about the Pantanal 25 class