It was a late one on the race area for the J/70s on their second day of the European Championship at Kiel Week. In the light and shifty breezes, the Race Committee managed to start two races before the wind finally disappeared when they were trying to start the third race. So PRO Thorsten Paech decided to send the 94 crews back to the dock. The leaders of the fleet changed on paper from Stefano Roberti (Monaco) to Claudia Rossi (Italy) but only on countback. Both crews now share the same point score of 8 points. “It was a day where you would lose so much by making small mistakes. All 47 teams in our group rounded the first mark very close together, and then if you happened to be on the wrong side on the downwind, you lost a lot,” reported Roberti. Even for the joint regatta leaders, not everything went smoothly. In the first race, they were third at the first mark, but they were held from making their gybe by their rivals and lost a few places. “Fortunately, we could fight our way back up to fourth place again. That was good for us especially when we realized that our opponent had started in the wrong group.” A sixth place from the second race will be the discard for Roberti. “Since we are a rather heavy team, we are very happy with our boat speed. But Claudia Rossi with her crew is incredibly fast.” Oliver Schwall, the founder of national sailing league, is coming to terms with the idea the teams from the Mediterranean have a higher speed potential. “In the national sailing league, we are sailing with basic settings on the J/70, which we are not allowed to change. You immediately notice that these other teams know how to set up their boats better.” Sailing with his brother Rene, Bo Teichmann from the J/70 importer “Mittelmann’s Werft” and Moritz Jaeger-Roschko, Schwall is 22nd after five races. “Unfortunately, we got stuck in a wind hole in one race,” recalled Schwall. The only German crew in the top ten is the team of Pit Finis with tactician Karol Jablonski, who is clearly moving up the rankings with 7,2 on this second race day. Results (after five races):
1. Claudia Rossi / Matteo Mason, Simone Spangaro, Michele Paoletti (ITA,1/4/2/1(5)) Punkte 8
2. Stefano Roberti / Enrico Fonda, Lucovic Broquaire, Filippo Lamantia (MON,2/1/1/4(6))8
3. Edoardo Lupi / Lorenzo Bressani, Giorgio Tortarolo, Edoardo Lupi, Luca Faravelli (ITA,4/4/2/2(12))12
4. Gonzalo Araújo / Guilherme Almeida, Diego Fructuoso, Nacho Giamonna (ESP,2(13)4/5/2)13
5. Charlie Esse / Charlie Makepeace, Jason Sivyer, Anthony Esse (GBR,3/3/7/2(17))15
6. Mauricio Santa Cruz / Mario Soerensen Garcia, Luiz Marcelo Maia, André Lekszycky (BRA,7/1/3/7(21))18
For complete event information, visit http://www.kieler-woche.de/english/sailing/J70_Euros/index.php.