The penultimate stage of the Italian J/70 Cup took place at Lerici, a seaside resort on the Ligurian Sea just south of Geneva/La Spezia. A total of 31 teams sailed in the regatta, including all of the top teams sitting at the top of the series leaderboard. Teams were coming from nine nations across Europ: Italy, Germany, Monaco, France, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland and Poland. It was skipper Sofia Giondi who helmed her team on WANDERLUST to victory at Lerici. She also won the Corinthian division. On Friday, a storm rolled through that forced the RC team to cancel the day’s racing. The first race of the series started at 2:00 pm Saturday, with pouring rain and 10 knots of 330° wind, decreasing slightly during the race. Winning that race was Sweden’s Jimmy Hellberg on ELVIS, followed by Tomasz Feret’s Polish team in GRP 1 in second place, and Luca Domenici’s Italian crew on NOTARO TEAM. During the afternoon, the sky opened up, but the clouds also took the wind away with them. The attempt to start a second race shortly after 4:00 pm proved futile, and the racing was abandoned a few minutes later. On Saturday evening, the crews were guests of the J/70 Italian Class in the Villa Marigola for an end-of-season party. Sunday dawned with good breeze, and the RC team lived up to their promise to schedule the maximum number of races on the final day, four in total. In the end, it was Sofia Giondi’s WANDERLUST team of Filippo Baldassari, Luca Tubaro and Matteo Morellina who compiled a record of 6-3-3-11-2 for 14 points net to win the regatta. Tied on point at 17 apiece were Filippo Pacinotti’s G-SPOT and Luca Domenici’s NOTARO TEAM. Winning the tiebreaker countback was Pacinotti’s G-SPOT team (Karlo Hmeljak, Alessandro Franci and Michele Paoletti) with a 4-BFD-6-1-6 tally. Settling for the bronze was Domenici’s NOTARO TEAM (Diego Negri, Michele Mennuti, Lorenzo Bressani and Costanza Tomasin) with a 3-8-4-7-3 scoreline. Rounding out the top five was Sweden’s Jimmy Hellberg’s ELVIS in fourth and Poland’s Tomasz Feret’s GRP 1 in fifth. Corinthian Division: Winning quite easily was Sofia Giondi’s WANDERLUST team, followed by Gianfranco Noe’s WHITE HAWK crew (Matija Succi, Giuliano Chiandussi, Barbara Bomben and Alexander Gabriel Harej) in second, and Lorenzo Donati’s YCI-BULLA team (Cesare Massa, Giacomo Frongia, Michele Cutaia, and Silvia Galuppo) taking the bronze.
The 2023 sailing season for the Italian J/70 Cup was notable for the wide variety of sailing conditions each team had to face and overcome multiple challenges. The four-event series started in April in Porto Ercole, then went to Rimini in May, then moved in July to Malcesine, then finally to Lerici. Luca Domenici’s NOTARO TEAM were consistent, fast and dominated this year’s Italian J/70 Cup, winning by over 50 points. The balance of the podium came down to the last regatta. Winning that battle was Alessandro Molla’s VIVA with 137 points net. Just 10 points back was Mauro Roversi’s J-CURVE with 147 points net. Rounding out the top five saw Sofia Giondi’s WANDERLUST taking fourth, but also winning the overall J/Cup Corinthian Division. Fifth place went to Luis Albert’s PATAKIN. Behind the season champion Sofia Giondi in the Corinthian Division was Gianfranco Noe’s WHITE HAKW in second place. Taking the bronze was Massimo Rama’s JENIALE EUROSYSTEM, fourth was Jon Calascioine’s CALYPSO, and fifth place went to Elisabetta Saccheggiani’s WHY NOT #CAIM.
For more Italian J/70 Cup sailing information, visit http://www.j70.it.