Dénis Neves velejador e sócio do Clube do Mar de Coimbra, vence Campeonato do Mundo de J22 pela equipa FRAPORITA (francês Giuseppe d´Aquino, Dénis Neves e Jean-Michel Lautier) com Dénis na proa. A prova decorreu em Travemünde na Alemanha a 26, 27, 28 e 29 de Julho de 2023. Participaram 26 tripulações provenientes da Alemanha, Holanda, Áustria e Ilhas Caimão.

A equipa FRAPORITA superou claramente toda a restante frota, com sete vitórias nas nove regatas disputadas e revalidou o título mundial conquistado em 2019. A prata foi para Jürgen Eiermann (Rastatt) e bronze para Wolf Jeschonnek (Berlin). Refira-se que a equipa campeã (NED 1273) é proveniente do Clube de Vela da ESA (Agência Espacial Europeia) em Haia – Países Baixos, onde todos são engenheiros e velejadores amadores no Clube onde o Dénis é Racing Officer. Além dos títulos mundiais contam já várias vitórias no campeonato da Holanda de J22.

Parabéns ao Dénis, Giuseppe e Jean-Michel por mais este triunfo.

Excerto da notícia original na revista Trave Münder Woche:

Four decisions were made on the penultimate day of the 134th Travemünde Week: In addition to the ranking regattas of the Kielzugvögel and Korsar, it was the title fights in the J/22 and Olympiajolle that attracted the most attention. The race committee of the Zürcher Yacht-Club (ZYC) started the day with great ambition to get many more races on the list for the J/22 World Championship. And three more races succeeded. “We would have liked to start a fourth, but the time limit put limits on us. We were only a few minutes short of being able to start another race,” reported Lionel Büttner from ZYC. However, this would not have changed anything about the World Cup title, the multinational team under the Dutch flag around Jean-Michel Lautier acted too superior. The title of European Cup winner of the Olympiajolle was secured by Harry Voss from Steinhuder Meer.

The new J/22 World Champions had to wait a long time before they could hold the winner’s trophy in their hands. A protest hearing put the award ceremony on hold. Jean-Michel Lautier, Giuseppe D’Aquino and Denis Neves seized the opportunity. The trio dived into the sailors’ village at the Marinepool store to convert the 300-euro prize money from Friday’s Trave Race into shirts and shorts. Shortly afterwards, they were celebrated by the 26 crews – as world champions. The winning crew itself significantly increased the number of nations represented. The trio is a multinational company sports team.

Skipper Lautier, 47, is French, trimmer D’Aquino, 56, is Italian, and bowman Neves, 47, is Portuguese. The boat name “Fraporita” is also derived from the national abbreviations. But that is not enough of the cosmopolitan appearance. “We all sail under the Dutch flag,” Lautier explained. The background: The trio lives in Amsterdam and The Hague, as engineers they all work for the European Space Agency ESA. Formerly competitors, they have now been sailing together for twelve years. And with success. World Championship silver in 2015 in Travemünde was followed by another second place, then the title in Warnemünde in 2019 and now gold again. “They are really good,” praises Holger Schmitt. The man from Duisburg is the head of the German fleet and felt he was in good hands with the J-family in Travemünde: “A great World Cup, with very nice races. We’d love to come again.” In 2024, however, it’s first overseas, to Annapolis on the Chesapeake Bay. Silver went to the crew of Jürgen Eiermann (Rastatt), bronze to Wolf Jeschonnek (Berlin).