And we come to the 13th delivery... we are already on September 12, 1990 in the fortress ofMount Boi of the Catholic Kingsat the foot of the historic Clock Tower... on Mount Real Club... about 50 "quarter tons" are already in Baiona ready to be measured from top to bottom.

The measurements have to be done in the fishing dock of the Villa de la Pintathe little space in the so-called "Perestre Pérez Pier." Yacht Club, that's what it took.

The Baionese fishermen at all times provided their support and the measurement team that he had as president of the José de Vallés, at that time the manager of the Royal National Association of Cruises... of the RANC, and that had a plethora of helpers, including family of people of the Sea of Baiona, and several meters of recognized prestige: case of Pancho ValverdeThe Italian. Pipo Po, Javier Romero "Torquemada"as well as a French meter and another Anglo-Saxon that was also the "Chief of Meters of the ORC".

The hustle was monumental on the sports plane. Spain had 12 ships in the end... but there were also Portugal, France, England, the Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Poland, Denmark, the United States, Brazil, Argentina... as well as Bulgaria and Russia...

The Bulgarian room, which in the end did not arrive in time... was sponsored by the King Simeon of Bulgariawho was a friend of Chema Ullivarri the Brand Manager of Bombay Gin, as well as José Luis Suevos.

The heir of the Bulgarian throne, who years later would end up being President-elect of his country, Simeon, often contact me through the telephone line, in the days before the beginning of the World Cup, and even announced that he would travel from Madrid, where he had his residence fixed... in the end the ship's pattern came to Baiona to the Quarter Ton, but neither The King, nor the ship would arrive in time to participate.

With regard to the "Russian" nothing was known when at the edge of eight o'clock in the afternoon of September 14 the "shipowners' breefing"to explain how the Measurement Committee would proceed with respect to daily inspections.

The atmosphere was tense because the three days of measurement had been very demanding... the level was amazing, Olympic medals, world champions from 18 countries... and between José de Vallés and me We agreed to skip protocol to make a joke to break a little what he was breathing with. and in passing give you the alternative to the official reception, which would begin in an hour.

The plot was very simple... we were in the dining area of the Yates Club, set up as a meeting room: a presidency in which I am at the table as a regatta director, accompanied by José de Vallés, the Chief Meter of the ORC, and my wife, Catalan like José... I welcome very briefly the representatives of the ships and translate me Zulema into English... then I present the two authorities that are with me, taking the floor the Barcelona José de Vallés...

José speaks Catalan, and Zulema translates him first to Spanish and then to English... the laughter begins... then I ask a Spanish-language question to Vallés... Zulema translates it to Catalan... Vallés answers in Catalan and Zulema makes it Spanish and then in English... I replicate it in Spanish... Zulema passes to Catalan... and another loop... foreigners were laughing...

The best came later, because the Italians and the Portuguese asked Vallés, and they wanted Zulema to retranslate into Catalan... the atmosphere was already clear that it would be extraordinary over the next seven days.

But the mess wasn't over here. After the "breefing" we went down to the race secretariat... and we met Emilio Presa (Piluca's brother)who was part of the Regatas Committee, with a gentleman speaking for signs and with drawings on a folio... Emilio who is?... is Vitali the manager of the Sebastopol Yacht Club of Crimea (then of the Soviet Union) who has come from advance and says that his quarter ton is coming... that a merchant near Baiona will take him down with a crane from the ship and come sailing to Baiona What do you say, they're crazy?... Well, that's what I understand!.. and I tell him, don't worry that Zule speaks to him in English... I speak something too, but this one only speaks Russian!

And there we got lost without knowing what to do... until I jumped. I have an idea!... And I didn't think of anything better than calling the Soviet Embassy in Madrid.... someone with a Russian voice answers: here the Embassy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in Spain, with whom I speak?... and I explain to him the problem we have... and I pass the phone to Vitali that I didn't know I was going to talk to the Russians... he takes the phone smiling and suddenly he gets firm and pale... And all in my office: Siberia, Siberia!... and he was noticed to have no grace.

After the scare, Emilio Presa had a better idea... he seemed to know one of the "Moscow children" who lived in Vigo... found him and was soon in the Club... we found out that he had come with $100! to return to Russia... a madman... we agreed that he would sleep on the "Monte Real" that one of the Yates Club's boats... and ended up working for the World Cup, we put some fees on him and he could pay the ticket back to Crimea.

And the World Cup begins... the superOlympic triangle that was in fashion... the barlovento beacon in Cis in the very center of the beach of Rhodes and is first turned by the "Bombay Gin" With Javier Gandara on the line... that seemed like a football field... the hundreds of spectators clapping and encouraging Javier... unforgettable. But it was a mirage, because even when Gandara who had proclaimed himself the Spanish champion of "quarter ton" and was one of the great favorites, he would fight to be in the "top ten..." because the first position would be played by two designs of Pepín González: the "Cote." with Jaime Rodríguez Touges of pattern and "AVE" by José María García Lastra who had Laureano Wizner as a tactical.

If this was not the World Cup of Javier who in the end was sixth, a penalty would send him out of the top ten after the last race... neither was it of two pieces of Catalan ships that entered the quineels: the "Up & Down" of Enric Bañeres and the "Bulevard Rosa" of Txiqui More... nor of course of the "Lada" that super Faroux with Pedro Campos and Toño Gorostegui who, while they reacted in the equator of the World winning a pair of sleeves, were to priori the top favorites... had a lot of "with the World's" a great deal of "Tomás Pérez covered the file with honor plates. Fernando León, for his part, with" Salao BBV "was the third of the Spanish product of their regularity... the" girls "with the" Mogor "of the Marin Naval School were able to participate, despite the incident of the Prince of Asturias... Maria Dolores Bgder and Piluca Presa mission accomplished!

It was a very living Level Class... with a lot of atmosphere... I remember that one of the best ships was the "Scandinavian Seaways" whose shipowner had already been the world champion with a MG 26 by Tony Castro, who had been the first "Bombay Gin..." well, Pablo Retolaza with his brat spirit (It was he who put the nickname on Milmi) He thought to baptize the Danish as"Cornuchen," simply because the individual's last name was very rare... You want to believe that the Danish made him funny and he himself said it was Cornuchen?.. I don't think I knew what it meant...

Another evil man was Italian. Carmelo Savastano... that was like the Rafaella Carra in a boy... we met Carmelo at the "Bombay Gin" in Falmouth at the 1989 World Cup and we got him to come to Baiona... Gandara recommended that Tibu buy him the quarter, which would be the "Eastern Palace" And as a thank you he did not miss the Spanish appointment and had the courage that José Luis Freire sponsored him the ship with "Marfrio," an Italian character who for many years would return to the Yates Club... the nickname I gave him: "Piparolo.".. of which there is no need for translation... that made him funny.

Italy presented no less than ten ships... and there was a very veteran who had left 5th in the 1989 World Cup, which was apparently a "possible trap" the measurement.

The boat was the "B & BV" And it was the Italians themselves who accused him... this story came from several years ago, because the ship was 10 years old and said that when he sailed in the stern he carried water from the sea over his orza by a strange mechanism... the meters went after him, and even at the end of some evidence... either they had removed the mechanism or it was simply a "bull." The other curious was the Farr Quarter Ton "Comte de Flanders" who had been street champion in the early '80s... and who was trying to buy for several Galician shipowners, case of Jaime Arbons father... in Baiona, it wasn't so fierce.

When we were already two days in competition, I told Rafael Olmedo the anecdote of the Russian... adding that he had brought caviar and vodka and wanted to invite the directors... to what he said: "I think it's great... but tell him to come to dinner with us... we invited the Milmi to dinner too and we had a laugh." And so it was that I took Vitalia, who immediately went to the kitchen and brought the caviar to the table... they offered with wodka all and it occurred to her Alfonso Paz Andrade who sang "Kalinga" was a great anecdote and even Suevos sang it by hitting the table...

On the other hand, the "Palace of the East," which was armed by José Luis Freire, was the patron of Tiago Roquette, taking off with great force the World Cup... which had the typical programming: with 5 triangles, a medium race and a long race. By the way, in the "average" that was covered in the Rías Baixas, leaving Baiona, turning in Vigo, the same in Marin... to do so in Villagarcía, because one of the judges of the beacon's passage made an error of appreciation, in the view that Lastra had "touched" the beacon of entry into the row of Villagarcía.

I had never seen José Maria so angry... I explained to the very angry judge: "how dare you say it... is a mistake of your three-meter-long sea product and that you will be half-dizzy... if I get to touch the beacon that is of iron and weighs several tons with 20 knots of wind, I destroy the ship..." In the end Suso Tornero withdrew his claim fortunately and everything went back to calm... the damage to the "AVE" would have been terrible... it would have cost him the world title... that he achieved after he reached the "Cote" of the Spanish Navy in the penultimate test and left him behind in the closing one.

In the final section of the World Cup was held the high race between Baiona and Finisterre with more than 110 miles, in a very hard area of coast... which for more difficulty was accompanied by a persistent fog.

And here, precisely, in these very complicated seas came the scare, the great scare... the "Bulevard Rosa" he was "lost" and he didn't get to Baiona in a reasonable time... he took out a helicopter, that of Galicia Televisionwhere I went with the "crazy" of July Golden that made me go through a "terrible fear" and we came to Corcubion, where we landed... we did it in the courtyard of a school and believed we looked like the "Tulypan" helicopter surrounded by schoolchildren.

And time passed and no trace of the Catalans... much less bad than when we were more desolate, we were told that they were across Limia in Portugal, because they had passed 25 miles of Baiona "confused by the fog... Arturo Delgado, who was president of the Spanish Federation, was interested in the incident, and I made a big deal of him, who by the way didn't like it at all... "Arturo didn't happen, simply that Tixqui appreciates you very much and wanted to enter Portuguese waters in honor of you, because of his Lusitan precedence."

The curtain was coming down with the great feast of José María Lastra and his team, one of the best patronea in the Spanish heavy candle, being the silver for another great, for the Admiral Jaime Rodríguez Touges.

We have reached the end of the first part of this special, that on the tracks of José Luis Suevos, certainly one of the most important characters of the Spanish candle of recent years.

But this is not a good-bye, it's just a until later... and I'm going to tell you as advance of the second part a very nice anecdote of the Milmi in the years ahead: the nineties, in which we will talk of the American Cup, of the Swedish victories in the King's Cup, the Regata Vuelta a España version Milmi...

As an appetizer, what happened in a Nautical Hall in Barcelona... we are José Luis and I in a kind of hemicycle in the old Hall in the Montjuic facilities... the reason is that the great Alan Green the manager of the Royal Ocean Racing Club of the RORC, had come to Barcelona to present the Admiral's Cup... was the largest of the sailing from Toni Tió to Pedro Campos, club leaders... and in the presidency Jorge Salvat and Enrique Puig...

It ends the British presentation, and Puig addresses all of us and says "Any questions?"... asks the micro Milmi and says: "Alan please write me two teams"... says Green; "that's impossible, at the Admiral's Cup we only admit one team per country"... and right away Suevos says, "For there is no problem, sign me two... one for Spain and one for Portugal... that this, addressing me, sends a lot in Portugal and talks to Rui Moreira who is the president and fixes it for sure. "

(end of Part One)