Brazilian Maurizio Santa Cruz Wins "Open" Europeans(Arzachena, Sardinia, Italy)- Can the newly minted Italian Champions in Sardinia also become the J/24 European Champions? As "the Fates" will have it, yes. Ignacio Bonanno on LA SUPERBA wins the J/24 Europeans while past J/24 World Champion Brazilian Mauricio Santa Cruz on BRUSCHETTA wins the European Open competition.
In
the end, after a remarkable nine races spaced over four days the
Brazilian team of Mauricio Santa Cruz managed to completely dominate the
J/24 teams assembled for the European Championship. After starting
slowly (really slowly for them), Mauricio's crew sailed a
13-28-1-2-2-2-1-1-3 to win with a 25 pts total, 14 points in front of
the second place finisher, LA SUPERBA. After winning the Italian J/24
Championships, Ignazio Bonanno on LA SUPERBA sailed a very solid
regatta, starting off strongly with a 3-2-2-8-3-10-4-7 to finish with a
net 39 pts, winner of the "Europeans". Third overall in the regatta was
the American team from Seattle, Washington, Keith Whittemore and crew
on FURIO. They started with about as crappy a score-line as anyone
could imagine- 19-ocs-21 but managed to overcome the romance of the
Sardinia women and seductive coastline to score a 4-1-1-5-2-2 for the
best tally in the fleet for the last six races for a 55 pts total.
They just edged out the top German tea, Kai Mares on ROTOMAN that sailed
a solid regatta to get a 9-1-3-3-9-12-13-6 for 56 pts. Fifth was the
American team of Mike Ingham on JULIA with a score of
2-ocs-13-16-4-3-7-9-4 for 58 pts. For more J/24 European Championship sailing information
