This Saturday, June 3, one of the traditional sailing events in the Cantabrian Sea returns to the Biscayan waters of the Abra: the XVIII SURNE Regatta-58º Eskarra Trophy. From this month of June until the end of September, several important regattas take place on the calendar of the Real Club Marítimo del Abra-Real Sporting Club, which is celebrating its 125th Anniversary. Now comes one of the most relevant events for cruiser class boats and J80 class one-design boats, the latter boats that will also score points for the Euskadi Championship that is held during the same weekend. The XVIII SURNE Regatta-58º Eskarra Trophy takes place this Saturday and warns that the leading sailing competitions are approaching the waters of the Abra.
It was back in 1964 when the first edition of this historic Eskarra Trophy was held., a championship with tradition and history of Basque sailing. It is now 59 years since that remembered start (58 editions after being suspended in 2020 due to the pandemic), with around 30 boats of the classes in contention -with the departure scheduled by the regatta committee at 1:00 p.m.-. They will sail to try to achieve victory in a regatta with a lot of pull among the crews, who consider it one of the most special in the extensive calendar of the Club de Las Arenas.
The sailors aspire to inscribe the name of their boat in the trophy that will be raised by the absolute winner of a test that arose in the 60s of the last century due to a beautiful initiative of the former president of the Real Club Marítimo del Abra-Real Sporting Club, Don Ramón Zubiria, as a tribute to José Luis Azqueta and his sailboat ‘Eskarra’. Dozens of units from the Cantabrian fleet will be present at this XVIII SURNE Regatta-58º Eskarra Trophy, consolidated as one of the most anticipated competitions and which changed its name nineteen years ago for sponsorship reasons.
A year ago there was the final victory of Maitena in the Regatta class, also absolute winner, of Ignacio Giménez’s Kenex V in Cruise I, of Koldo Báez’s Marmotinha in Cruise II, of Javier Onaindia’s Symphony in the class without certificate and of Fingolfin among 80 monotypes. Since the Viking won it for the first time, the Eskarra Trophy is one of the most sought after by the fleet, which sails every first weekend of June in search of raising a fantastic cup of the usual, orejona and special.