Exactly one month after the first official J/70 Cup 2022, preparations were underway for a great European season in what is the most active one-design Class globally. Over the past few weeks, J/70 Italian Class has chosen new management: Federico Siragna (PP ALPHAZER), elected President, will replace Mauro Roversi (J-CURVE), who has come to the end of his term, while Massimo Rama (JENIALE-EUROSYSTEM) and Paolo Acinapura (ACINA SAILING TEAM) took over from Vittorio Di Mauro (PLAN B) and Federico Leproux (ALICE) on the Board of the Class. Federico Siragna’s first official statement was in favor of the outgoing Council, also greeted on a social level by an important number of fans, “Mauro Roversi, Vittorio Di Mauro and Federico Leproux have shown that passion and dedication make the difference: they managed the Class in the difficult years of the pandemic and under their guidance we were able to race safely and having fun: I think this alone deserves praise. As for the election of the new Board, I accepted the position of President with pleasure and a sense of responsibility: the J/70 Class has always enjoyed important numbers: it goes without saying that making them grow is our goal, but also to the more it is to effectively ground a number of innovative ideas that have emerged over the course of the winter. Among these, also the Alphazer Trophy EnergyStart which, both during each stage and at the seasonal level, will award the best interpreter of the delicate starting phases and will join the Garmin Cup as a satellite award.” Federico continued, “we remind you that the J/70 Cup 2022 will be divided into a total of four events: the debut leg scheduled in Punta Ala (April 22-24), where last year Claudia Rossi’s PETITE TERRIBLE- ADRIA FERRIES won the Italian Championship, while Mauro Roversi’s J-CURVE made the circuit his own, J/70 Italian Class decided to follow the trips to Alassio (20-22 May), where the fleet will be on stage for the first time, then Rimini (17-19 June) and Riva del Garda (15-17 July). Another priority focus concerns the 2024 J/70 Europeans that will be hosted by Punta Ala!” Day One: When the Punta Ala regatta got underway, the J/70 Class did not betray expectations, managing to draw 41 boats representing 10 nations to the starting line of the first event of the season. In spite of the weather forecasts, which predicted unstable wind throughout the day, the Race Committee managed to lead the fleet in three races characterized by light breezes, in which the tactical choices of each crew made the difference, creating at the end of the day a very compact ranking. The leader after Day 1 was Monegasque Pompee Loic with SAILING RACING TEAM, followed by Gianfranco Noè on WHITE HAWK. The third step of the provisional podium was for the Spaniard Luis Albert’s PATAKIN. The Englishmen on BRUTUS II and the former European Champions on Luca Domenici’s NOTARO Team closed the provisional top-five. Day Two: The weather forecast was correct, for once in a while. The wind from the South, stable on an average of about 23-24 knots, with gusts beyond 30 and rough seas meant zero racing for the day. “The weather in Punta Ala was not kind to the fleet. The Race Committee tried to do its best to take advantage of the complicated conditions of these days and complete a satisfying regatta. I thank all my fellow sailors for showing up with their crews. It was a good start, with the hope that things will get better and better during the season, with a growing fleet for always fun, sporty and exciting regattas,” commented the President of J/70 Italia Class, Federico Siragna. Winning was Loic’s SAILING RACING TEAM (Adrien de Belloy, Naud Mattis, Buchart Phillippe), followed by Albert’s PATAKIN team (Paulo Manso, Eduardo Reguera, Domingos Afonson) in second, and Domenici’s NOTARO TEAM (Elena Paolucci, Michele Mennuti, Pietro Sibello, Lorenzo Bressani) in third. Alessandro Zampori’s DAS SAILING TEAM Andrea Felci, Branko Brcin, Flavio Grassi) and Fassitelli’s JUNDA- BANCO DEL SEMPIONE (Francesco Orlando, Stefano Cherin, Davide Vignone, Leonardo Bonelli) rounded out the top five in fourth and fifth, respectively. J/70 Corinthian World Champion in Porto Cervo 2017, Gianfranco Noè, won the gold medal with his WHITE HAWK team (Matija Succi, Giuliano Chiandussi, Barbara Bomben, Alexander Gabriel-Harey), followed on equal points by Luca Tubaro’s ANIENE YOUNG (Filippo Baldassari, Matteo Morelina, Matteo Cecconi) and William Twomey’s Irish team on WILD CARD (Neil Hegarty, Patrick Crosbie, Richard Harrington). The first winner of the Garmin Cup 2022, awarded to the crew who performed the best in the fleet on Saturday, was Sam Carter’s BRUTUS II, who received a Garmin Quatix 6 as a prize during the awards ceremony. New for the year, the Alphazer EnergyStart Trophy: dedicated to the best crews in the starting phase, a special classification drawn up on the partials recorded in the passages at the first windward mark. To have recorded the best performances was the Swedish Jonas Kjellberg’s INTERMEZZO. For more Italian J/70 Class information, visit https://www.j70.it/en/.