The regatta director, Rafel Chirivella, trusts the social mass and fans who have sympathy for the Royal Nautical Club of Valencia to get a large fleet from 1 to 4 July (Photo José Jordan)

In the absence of three weeks for the beginning of the twenty-second edition of the Trophy SM The Queen that has in play the 33 Cup Admiral Sánchez Barcaiztegui the emblematic regatta of the Royal Nautical Club of Valencia takes speed of cruise.

The inscriptions are at a good rate and the club is already preparing its remodeled facilities so that this new edition of the test has the same quality or more that it has been showing since its creation. At the head of the group of people working since the centenary club is the director of the race, Rafel Chirivella, who in this edition is ten years in front of it.

For Chirivella, who in her vitrines has a trophy as the winner of the test, the race is a faithful reflection of what the club projects to the outside. Seriety, commitment, service to the sportsman and maximum respect for social values. But for the director the most important thing is the race itself: One of my maximals is that the race must be a race above all and the water is the absolute priority. Social acts and what happens outside are an addition, but what must always be clear is that the race is a good race. Until we have had no sponsorship budget, what we have always primed is the race staff with as good professionals as we have at the club. We have always considered that the most important thing about the event is the race. Those who come here do not come for the social, but because it is a good race to compete and with competent people to take it forward that is the one that the club brings. I stopped sailing myself to focus on work. I can't do both at once.

The race is coming and the RCN Valencia advances in a hurry in the organization of the event. The pandemic has delayed the announcement of the test and now, when it has been decided that circumstances allow it to go forward, we have to run: We are on a lot of work as appropriate to the situation in which we find ourselves. We are running at full speed because the decision to run the race was made only a few weeks ago. We think we had to get her back. We went back to last year's edition and thought that after 33 years we could not be two years out.

The pandemic forces the extreme precautions which for RCN Valencia means extra work: We manage between taking extreme care and trying to get back to normal 'between quotes' as I say. But we will adapt, the priority is the health of the people and all the people who will be at the club that week. As a race director, the priority is health, and that's why last year we suspended at the last minute. It was impossible to make a race in the water well done with what was coming ahead. This year getting 60 ships on the starting line will be a success.

For Chirivella the most important handicap of this edition is that international participation will resent. The fleet outside Spain accounted for almost one third of the entries so the decline of participants will exist: The pandemic affects us in this regard. Most foreign ships cannot come to this edition because of the problem with the crews that are from countries where there are restrictions both to leave and to return. An international race like this is affected by the closure of borders. We used to handle 30 percent of out-of-town ships that are not coming, but we assume and move on with the same quality parameters as in previous editions.

Despite the difficulties inherent in the situation we are in, Chirivella thinks that the fleet that will be in Valencia is of a very high level and represents the whole range of state cruise: There's room for everyone in the Queen Trophy. And we want people to be able to live the Trophy from within. There is the whole spectrum of the cruise represented because we have the monotype with the J70, the classes of ORC and the promotion that in the Comunitat Valenciana is the base candle that are the ones that are beginning to make regatta. We have established it with the Valencian Federation to show that this sport is open to all. The promotion class is the gateway to the other classes for in the future these regatists who begin to be in the ORC. The big budget races are a small part of the candle so you have to take care of the base. Sailing is an inclusive sport with very affordable boats. With 50 euros you can learn in the Nautico de Valencia to sail for a month.

Chirivella has been very clear: the effect of the pandemic will limit foreign participation... and this is where our social mass and those who are fond of us have to pluck to the maximum, to achieve again a large number of participants (Photo José Jordan)

The success of this year of the Chirivella race is very reliable to the partners of the Nautico, to which he asks that this year More than ever are registered in the race to participate: I think the partner is proud of his club when things are done right and he's also proud of us doing this race. It is a window not only to the city but to everyone so that the Royal Nautical Club of Valencia is seen as an international reference in the cruise sail, the partner knows and enjoys it. The one who comes to the award delivery has as much merit in the defense of the trophy as any other competing partner. The race has the handicap that the partners see it as very important and it gives them fear or respect to participate in it in the constellation that they meet, but from the club what we want is for the partners to go out to sail in the race that is the heritage of all.