The Italian J/70 Class continues to grow, as 15 nations from across Europe participated: Poland, Russia, Germany, Monaco, United Kingdom, Malta, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Ireland, Turkey, Finland, Sweden, Slovenia and France. In addition, there were teams from the USA in North America and Argentina from South America. For the 2019 edition of the Italian J/70 Cup, 98 teams participated in the Overall Division and 44 teams participated in the Corinthian Division (nearly 50% of the fleet). The four-event series started in Scarlino, then went east to Marina Dorica Ancona, back north to Malcesine on Lago di Garda, then west to San Remo in the Italian Riviera. The YC San Remo hosted the event and provided a warm welcome to the 52 teams who competed in the finale.
SAN REMO Act IV: In the end, winning the San Remo event was Franco Solerio’s L’ELAGAIN team of Giulio Desiderato, Manuel Giubellini, Nick Dal Ferro and Simone Spina. Germany’s Markus Wieser skippered MISSION IMPOSSIBLE to an easy second place with crew of Diego Negri, Victor Marino and Wolfgang Kaefer. Italian Alessandro Zampori’s DAS SAILING TEAM took the final step on the podium with crew of Andrea Felci, Enrico Fonda, Filippo Amonti and Martino Tortarolo. Rounding out the top five were Italian Mauro Roversi’s J-CURVE with crew of Carlo Fracassoli, Federica Salva, Michele Ivaldi and Stefano Orlandi in the fourth spot, and Russian Valeriya Kovalenko’s ARTTUBE RUS1 with team of Denis Rozhkov, Fabio Gridelli, Igor Lisovenko and Sergey Avdonin in fifth.
J/70 CUP Overall: As a result of the San Remo event, the final tabulations of the 28-race series, with five discards, showed a clear winner amongst the 98 entrants. Winning by a margin of 57 points was Italian Alessandro Zampori’s DAS Sailing Team with 155 points total; his crew consisted of Andrea Felci, Enrico Fonda, Filippo Amonti and Martino Tortaroio. Second was another Italian team—Carlo Tomelleri’s ENJOY 1.0 with 213 points total, sailing with crew of Alberto Taddei, Daniele de Luca and Umberto de Luca. Just two points back was top Russian women skipper Valeriya Kovalenko on ARTTUBE RUS1, finishing with 215 points. Rounding out the top five was Luca Domenici’s NOTARO Sailing Team in fourth place, winning a tie-breaker at 231 points on countback over another Italian team—Gianfranco Noe’s WHITEHAWK with crew of Emanuele Noe, Giuliano Chiandussi, Irene Giorgini and Maurizio Planine. In addition to placing fifth in the Overall division, Noe’s WHITEHAWK team also collected more silverware as the winner of the 44-boat Corinthian Division. Behind them in second place was Alessio Zucchi’s WHY NOT SLAM with crew of Alessandro Maldina, Elisabetta Saccheggiani, Gabriele Arnulfo and Amerigo Brandimarte, and taking the bronze was Mauro Brescacin’s LA FEMME TERRIBLE with crew of Francesca Russo Cirillo, Paolo Tomsic, Matteo Omari and Lorenzo Coslovich. For more Italian J/70 Cup information, visit https://www.j70.it/en/.