SAFA Skysailor Magazine

14 SKY SAILOR May | June 2023 PWC Castelo, Brazil – 18 to 25 March 2023 by Ruth Jessop Castelo’s truly stunning landscape with huge granite domes surrounded by mountains and waterfalls, makes it one of the most beautiful places to fly in the world. It’s complex aerology makes it a technically challenging aerial playground. The World Cup’s return to Castelo and the Ubá valley was long overdue. Hot off the top spot from the recent Super Final in Mexico in December, Honorin Hamard, was competing, with Baptiste Lambert, third in the Super Final, a real challenger. However, for once, this is probably not going to be all about the French. Top Brazilian pilots Rafael Barros, Rafael Saladini, Luciano Horn, Erico Oliveira and Gilmar Couto were also in with a real chance of landing on a top spot with conditions they all know very well. Not to mention young Brazilian prodigy, 21-year-old Caio Buzzarello. With 18 AA pilots taking part, it was certain to be a very challenging competition. Task 1 – 19/3/2023 After three days of rain, the day dawned with blue skies and sunshine. The Castelo 2023 PWC launched in front of a very excited crowd. A three turnpoint (TP), 71km task took pilots on a circuit in front of launch followed by a SW leg. The start of the race was threatened by a wall of rain from substantial overdevelopment a few kilometres behind launch. Thankfully, it held off, and everyone charged off to the first TP west of Castelo. Most opted to connect with the ridge on the opposite side of the valley. A few did well starting there. A mixture of weak and the occasional strong climbs meant pilots spread out quite quickly. When everyone had to turn back around for