My father, Carlos, second Count of Godó, was a great lover of sports. If 70 years ago he launched a tournament with his name, which is a reference in the world of tennis, half a century ago he thought that sailing needed a regatta in Barcelona and named the trophy after him. In 1974 it coincided that he was president of the Salón Náutico and the Real Club Náutico de Barcelona. That year he presented the award for best sportsman to Antonio Goróstegui, a Cantabrian skipper who had managed to become world sailing champion, so sea sports were at a good time.
The first edition of Godó de Vela was held from Monday to Thursday, and the trophies were handed out on Sunday in a well-attended social event. Dragon class boats competed and Presumido won. The following year, the Conde de Godó Trophy was more important: the boats were half-ton cruiser class, and the first of the regattas (and the last) were between Barcelona and Palma. The Bribón, owned by José Cusí, won, and was going to be the boat with the most victories in the Godó de Vela, in many editions with Juan Carlos de Borbón at the helm.
As I celebrate my 50th anniversary, I look back and realize that I have inherited my love for the sea from my father and, above all, from my grandfather Ramón. He discovered the pleasure of sailing when he was older and had an important 47-meter-long yacht, which he commissioned from a Southampton shipyard and which he named Rosa VV, in homage to his wife, now deceased. . But three days before the end of the Civil War, an incendiary bomb destroyed it. She had been seized by the Republican authorities and turned into a hospital ship on the Mallorca-Barcelona route.
Years later, my father bought a spectacular boat, the Rosalind, in the same English shipyards, a 28-meter sailboat, made of teak and mahogany, with which he participated in numerous regattas. He was a good competitor, but in a race in which he had no chance of winning, he asked the captain to slow down so as not to go so steeply and to be able to taste the paella that the on-board cook had prepared. For once he decided that the important thing was to participate, without ceasing to enjoy the pleasure of sailing the sea without haste.
In my case, I have always liked sailing and it has been an honor to be able to contribute to making Barcelona a benchmark city in sailing competitions. Between 1996 and 2003 I was president of the Real Club Náutico de Barcelona, counting on the complicity of my good friend Juan Pla, with whom we tried to do our bit in this task of maintaining the strength of sea sports. Among the initiatives that we promoted was the Village, which allowed the facilities to be opened to fans, in addition to obtaining new income.
Now it is my daughter Ana who appears as vice president on the board headed by Jordi Puig, who is aware of the possibilities that are open to the club. This fiftieth anniversary of Godó de Vela coincides with the work to fine-tune the America's Cup, which is the competition with the most impact in the world and the third sporting event with the most impact for the host country after the Olympic Games and the World Cup. soccer.
Its origins go back to London in 1851, and the regatta served to commemorate the Great Exhibition that the British capital hosted. Barcelona will be, more than ever, the capital of water sports. Few sports are capable of combining effort and solidarity, strategy and civility like sailing. The fifty years of the Godó Trophy are the result of the perseverance of a pioneering club with a century and a half of history, the work of its boards of directors and the complicity of its sailors. Good luck to all and happy regatta.
