Rafael Lorenzo with the then mayor of Baiona, on the occasion of the delivery of the Golden Carabela (Photo Val Miñor TV)

Sad news for the sailing family that we echo... Admiral Rafael Lorenzo Montero died. The figure of this adoption baton is indispensable for the history of the emblematic Monte Real Club de Yates de Baiona, of which it was comfortable in the 1970s by the unforgettable Rafael Olmedo Limeses.

On that Board of Directors which inherited the Yates Club in 1973, after the exceptional Bermuda-Baiona Regata, no doubt the most important transatlantic regatta... ever held.

They were very complicated years, in full economic recession and with an inflation of about twenty percent a year... the economic shortcomings were palliated with much work and more illusion... the result of that in 1976 being Rafael the comandoro and Humberto Fernández Cervera "Piruchi" the sailing delegate, was born the Trophy Count of Gondomar; two years later the one that would be I Regata Lymington- Baiona, which was organized with the mythical British RORC.

A personal friend of Pepe Gandara, he had to deal with that World Cup of 420 of 1977 and later his Castro duties forced him to live away from his Baiona in which he resided in the summer period for five decades.

As a Field Assistant to Don Juan Carlos I, it was decisive in the birth of the Prince of Asturias Trophy in 1986... I remember that at a festive celebration in Marin, José Manuel Piñeiro (deceased days ago) asked him to intercede before the Royal House to allow himself to put in this way the regatta that was being cooked, on the occasion of the formation as a marine of Don Felipe at the Naval School of Marin... a few days later the organization would be set up and the anecdote that my wife, Zulema Prado, took him in our class of "and the victor of the city of Switzerland," that he was to the victor of the city:

I also remember the last race in which I saw him participate in his "gregal..." the "Galgo" with which he won in the 80's one of the first solo sailing races to organize in the bosom of Mount Real Club de Yates.

Rest in peace, Admiral, thank you for everything you did for that exceptional Club, as is the Monte Real Club de Yates de Baiona and for the Galician candle.

Manuel Pedro Seoane
Digital Nautical Editor

Rafael Lorenzo Montero (Madrid, 1939). He was a field assistant to S.M. Rey Juan Carlos, Chief and Professor of Communications at ETEA, Secretary of the Navy General Staff, Chief of Operations of the Tramontana Exercise, Chief Admiral of the EMA Tactics Division, Chief Vice Admiral of the Arsenal de Ferrol, Chief Vice Admiral of the Joint General Staff (Jemacon) and General Director of Defence Policy (Digenpol), among other positions.It was embarked in the "Odiel" dragamines, in the 41st Corbetas Squad, in the "Déalgo" aircraft carrier, in the 3rd Helicopter Squad and the General Staff of the Aeronaval Group, exercised the "Guadalmedina" Cazaminas Command, in the "Extremadura" Fragata, in the "Prince of Asturias" aircraft carrier, and was a counter-admiral in the Starfleet Combat Group, and the European Maritime Force (Euromarfor).