(Malcesine, Italy)- The town of Malcesine geared up to host the 2019 J/70 European Championship for more than 130 boats from around the world. The host club Fraglia Vela Malcesine and the J/70 Italian Class made sure crews from twenty-three countries enjoyed the amazing sailing conditions on the famous, picturesque Lago di Garda (Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Chile, Cyprus, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Great Britain, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Malta, Monaco, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey, and USA).
After a six-race qualifying series for the four flights over the first two days, the championship flight sailed eight races over the next three days. In the end, it was an amazing display of aggressive starting, conservative tactics, and fast sailing by the only woman sailor in recent history to eclipse such an array of world-class sailing talent. The J/70 sailing world knows her well, as this was the third time Claudia Rossi’s PETITE TERRIBLE team was crowned the J/70 European Champion! Ironically, the European title remains firmly in the hands of the famous Rossi sailing family from Italy, as Claudia won in 2016 and 2017, while her famous father Alberto Rossi (a multiple Farr 40 World Champion), won in Vigo, Spain in 2019 with ENFANT TERRIBLE.
Claudia’s crew consisted of Michele Paoletti, Matteo Mason, Giulio Desiderato, and Rossella Losito. Commenting on her third win, Claudia exclaimed, “I am so excited and overjoyed about how the regattas went during this championship. We were very consistent and this paid off in the end. Today, we finally demonstrated how to race with the heart, without making too many errors. And for this, I want to thank all of my crew, because we gave our best and kept on believing until the end. We got our victory and I could not wish for anything more!”
Behind Rossi’s PETITE TERRIBLE team were Markus Weiser’s German crew on MISSION POSSIBLE taking the silver, and Mauro Roversi’s J-CURVE from Italy taking the bronze. Rounding out the top five was the top Spanish crew in fourth place- Gustavo Martinez Doreste’s REAL CLUB NAUTICO DE GRANADA, and another Italian crew in fifth- Franco Solerio’s L’ELEGAIN.
In the Corinthian division, the Spanish crew of ABRIL VERDE (with skipper Luiz Perez Canal, Carlos Sanmartin, Eduardo Reguera, Juan de Cominges Carballo, & Luis Darocha) finished first, followed by the Maltese crew of CALYPSO and the Swedish crew of HILDA. Closing out the top five were Douglas Struth and the British team on DSP RACING and the Italian crew of WHITE HAWK, with Gianfranco Noè at the helm.
Luiz Perez Canal commented on the regatta, “Thank you to the Race Committee and to all those who made this beautiful Championship possible. Our chemistry with this race field was excellent and this allowed us to race at our maximum, and remain in the top 15 of the fleet. In the end, we won the Corinthian title, a success that we pursued since day one and that fills us with joy. We can’t wait to get back here to race again.”
Behind ABRIL VERDE’s command performance, taking second was Sebastian Ripard’s Maltese crew on CALYPSO and third was Sweden’s Oscar Lundquist’s HILDA.
As for the Silver fleet, Stefano Nicolussi’s VIVACE was the winner of the series, followed by Carlo Tomelleri’s ENJOY 1.0 and third was the Spanish crew of PATAKIN.
The J/70 Italian Class is sponsored for the 2019 season by Henri Lloyd, Official Clothing Partner, and by Armare Ropes, Garmin, Key One, IMAC Technologies, Girmi, Serena Wines and Powerade.
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