J70 Italian National Championship at Porto Maurizio Yacht Club

In the southern parts of the island of Sardinia, one is struck by the sheer magnificence of the large mountains that form the geography of the seashore, unlike the north shore, which is relatively rocky and flat.

Nestled in a cosy harbour flanked by those mountains is Porto Maurizio and the Yacht Club Porto Maurizio. This past weekend, the YC Porto Maurizio and their passionate volunteers hosted a fleet of twenty-five boats from all over Italy and Europe (including France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Great Britain, Turkey, Monaco, Poland, and Austria). The YCPM Race Committee/ PRO team was up to the challenge to provide world-class racing to the equally passionate sailors assembled for the Italian J/70 National Championship. They managed to run eight races over the three-day event.

The regatta turned into a four-way battle for the podium, with just four points separating them at the conclusion of racing on Sunday. Winning their first major Italian J/70 regatta was Yann Inghilesi's CICLONE team (Niccolo Bianchi, Stefano Angeloni, and Carlo Fracassoli) with a total of 32 pts net. As a measure of how tough the competition was, CICLONE managed only four podium finishes in eight races! Their record of 11-2-1-8-1-12-3-6 had a discard of a 12th.

Earning the silver medal was a perennial winner in the Italian J/70 class and a long-time veteran, Luca Domenici's NOTARO TEAM. His familiar crew included Diego Negri, Michele Mennuti, and Davide Bortoletto. Reflecting the winners' difficulties in getting top finishes, Domenici's team managed only ONE podium finish with a 2nd! They were not immune to double-digit finishes either. Their tally of 7-5-4-6-7-4-16-2 had a discard of their 16th for a total net of 35 pts, just 3 pts behind the winner!

The bronze medal was an even closer fight between two teams- Gully Guryel's Turkish team on DENIZCIK and the Italian Mauro Roversi's J-CURVE. Tied at 36 pts net each, it was Guryel's DENIZCIK team (Massimo Bortoletto, Ali Tezdiker, and Lorenzo Bressani) that won the countback in the tiebreaker process over Roversi's J-CURVE team (Giulia Albuzio, Filippo Amontillado, Stefano Cherin, and Giulia Conti).

Rounding out the top five was the Swedish team of Filip Engelbert on ELVIS with 46 pts net. The ELVIS team included Jakob Gustafsson, Jimmy Hellberg, and Marcus Hollander.

Corinthians Division

The veterans on the British team CALYPSO, skippered by Ali Hall (crew of Jon Calascione, David Kohler, and Benno Marstaller), won the Corinthians division by just three points. Taking the silver medal was Denis Infante's French team on EURO-VOILES of Joyet Berier Swan, Francois Barbet, and Theo Di Guglielmo. Then, rounding out the podium for the bronze medal was the Italian crew of Massimo Rama on WHY NOT #CAIM (Filippo Vulcanile, Matteo Ferreti, Matteo Capurro, and Giorgia Taddei).

The balance of the top five included the Swiss team of Oldani Urs on IVA from Yacht Club Zug in fourth place and Gianfranco Noe's Italian crew on WHITE HAWK.

Full results can be found here.

More Italian J/70 Class sailing information at www.j70.it/en