December 5, 2009 (Charlotte Amaile, St. Thomas, IVS) - Juan Carlos Escobar, Humberto Zepeda, Benjamin Diaz and Jorge Guevara are representing El Salvador at the 2nd Annual Carlos Aguilar Match Race.

Carlos Aguilar grew up in El Salvador and was a passionate sailor and surfer. Eventually, Aguilar moved to St. Thomas and established his architectural practice. He and Juan Carlos Escobar were good friends and stayed in touch and occasionally raced against each other.

Escobar and all of the members of his team became interested in match racing, especially once they heard about the inaugural Match Race Regatta in honor of their friend. They did what they could to learn how to match race, however with only two boats to race, the team had to split up and race against each other. They are perpetually recruiting other sailors to join them as crew. Unfortunately, they spend more time teaching their recruits the subtleties of crewing than they do practicing maneuvers and match racing tactics.

With each international match race they attend, they take another steep step up the learning curve and take home a more burning desire to see match racing take hold in their home country.

Humberto Zepeda, Juan Carlos Escobar, Benjamin Diaz, Jorge Guevara from El Salvador at the 2nd Annual Carlos Aguilar Match Race. Photo by Lynn Fitzpatrick.