Wanderlust wins Italian J/70 Cup Act IV - Lerici
by J-Boats 29 Oct 2023 00:18 PDT
Italian J/70 Cup- Act IV- Lerici! © J/70 Italian Class | MMelandri
This past weekend, the penultimate stage of the Italian J/70 Cup took place at Lerici, a gorgeous seaside resort on the Ligurian Sea just south of Geneva/ La Spezia, Italy. A total of thirty-one teams sailed in the regatta, including all of the top teams sitting at the top of the series leaderboard.
Teams are coming from nine nations across Europe - Italy, Germany, Monaco, France, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, and Poland! Following the trail-blazing performances of fellow woman skipper Claudia Rossi's ENFANT TERRIBLE, it was an ascendant woman skipper- Sofia Giondi- who helmed her team on WANDERLUST to victory at Lerici. She also won the Corinthians division, which would make her performance a "first" in Italian J/70 class history.
Day 1
The fleet was not blessed with the best of weather conditions on Friday to start the series. In the end, a storm rolling through that even produced a water spout, a rare phenomenon on the Mediterranean Sea, forced the regatta RC/ PRO team to fy the "AP over A" flags to cancel the day's racing.
Day 2
Bad weather continued to harass the J/70 fleet, with an hour delay. The Race Committee started the first race of the series at 2:00 pm, with pouring rain and 10 knots of 330 degrees 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 the famous 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 the start.
On Saturday evening, the crews were guests of the J/70 Italian Class in the splendid location of Villa Marigola for an end-of-season party and to celebrate the launch of the J/70 Hall of Fame. The teams enjoyed wine tastings from Cantine Tinazzi and then live music with a Gin Vento party.
Day 3
Sunday dawned with good breezes and the RC/PRO 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 that compiled a record of 6-3-3-11-2 for 14 pts 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. Setting 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 place and Poland's Tomasz Feret's GRP 1 in fifth place.
Corinthian Division
Winning quite easily was Sofia Giondi's WANDERLUST team, followed by Gianfranco Noe's famous WHITE HAWK crew (Matija Succi, Giuliano Chiandussi, Barbara Bomben, and Alexander Gabriel Harej) in second place, and Lorenzo Donati's YCI-BULLA team (Cesare Massa, Giacomo Frongia, Michele Cutaia, and Silvia Galuppo) taking the bronze medal.
Notaro Team wins Italian J/70 Cup 2023
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 the picturesque town of Porto Ercole, then went to the exciting seaside resort of Rimini in May, then moved in July to the quaint lakeside village of Malcesine on Lago di Garda, then finally to Lerici just south of La Spezia (the yacht building capital of Italy).
Over the four regatta series, a total of 27 races were sailed. There was no question from the start of the first regatta, that Luca Domenici's NOTARO TEAM were head and shoulders above the rest of the fleet all season long. His team was consistent, fast, and literally 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 pts net. Just ten points back after having a disappointing final regatta in Lerici was Mauro Roversi's J-CURVE with 147 pts net. Rounding out the top five saw Sofia Giondi's WANDERLUST taking fourth place, but also winning the overall J/Cup Corinthian's Division. Fifth place went to Luis Albert's PATAKIN.
Corinthian Division
Behind the season champion Sofia Giondi in the Corinthians 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 www.j70.it.