L’ELAGAIN wins Finale in San Remo
(San Remo, Italy)- The Italian J/70 class continues to grow and gain an increasing number of converts from other one-design class sailors from across the Italian peninsula. In addition, more teams from middle and northern Europe are making the trek down across the continent to participate in some of the strongest one-design sailing fleets in the world; remarkably fifteen nations from across the Eurasian continent participated- Poland, Russia, Germany, Monaco, United Kingdom, Malta, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Ireland, Turkey, Finland, Sweden, Slovenia, and France. In addition, there were teams from the USA in North America and Argentina from South America.
For the 2019 edition of the Italian J/70 Cup, ninety-eight teams participated in the Overall Division and forty-four teams participated in the Corinthians Division (nearly 50% of the fleet). The four event series started in Scarlino, then went east to Marina Dorica Ancona, back north to Malcesine on Lago di Garda, then west to San Remo in the Italian Riviera. It was a nice way to end the season on the sunny Mediterranean in the fall, with good breezes and excellent sailing. The YC San Remo hosted the event and provided a warm welcome to the fifty-two teams that competed in the finale.
SAN REMO- Act IV
In the end, winning the San Remo event was a familiar team to Italian racers, Franco Solerio’s L’ELAGAIN Team of Giulio Desiderato, Manuel Giubellini, Nick Dal Ferro, and Simone Spina. However, the big surprise was the team that took the silver; Germany’s Markus Wieser skippered MISSION IMPOSSIBLE to an easy second place. In fact, his crew of Diego Negri, Victor Marino, and Wolfgang Kaefer nearly did pull off the “mission impossible” of winning the San Remo event as the first foreign team to do so! It all came down to their last race, posting a dismal 24th that became their discard race and, thus, losing the regatta by three points! Italian Alessandro Zampori’s DAS SAILING TEAM took the final step on the podium with crew of Andrea Felci, Enrico Fonda, Filippo Amonti, and Martino Tortarolo. Then, rounding out the top five were in Italian Mauro Roversi’s J-CURVE with crew of Carlo Fracassoli, Federica Salva, Michele Ivaldi, and Stefano Orlandi in the fourth spot, and Russian diva Valeriya Kovalenko’s ARTTUBE RUS1 with team of Denis Rozhkov, Fabio Gridelli, Igor Lisovenko, and Sergey Avdonin settling for 5th place. The Russians only missed the podium by four points, again due to their 8th place in the last race.
J/70 CUP Overall
As a result of the San Remo event, the final tabulations of the 28 race series, with 5 discards, showed a clear winner amongst the 98 entrants. Winning by a margin of 57 pts was Italian Alessandro Zampori’s DAS Sailing Team with 155 pts total; his crew consisted of Andrea Felci, Enrico Fonda, Filippo Amonti, and Martino Tortaroio. Second was another Italian team, Carlo Tomelleri’s ENJOY 1.0 with 213 pts total; sailing with crew of Alberto Taddei, Daniele de Luca, and Umberto de Luca. This year’s series produced yet another surprise podium finisher! The final race 8th in San Remo would surely come back to haunt her as finishing just 2 pts back was top Russian women skipper Valeriya Kovalenko on ARTTUBE RUS1; finishing with 215 pts! Nevertheless, after winning Monaco’s famous Primo Cup, Kovalenko has proven that she has not lost her touch once she has a strong team with her. Rounding out the top five was Luca Domenici’s NOTARO Sailing Team in fourth place, winning a tie-breaker at 231 pts on countback over another Italian team- Gianfranco Noe’s WHITEHAWK with crew of Emanuele Noe, Giuliano Chiandussi, Irene Giorgini, Maurizio Planine.
In addition to placing 5th in the Overall division, Noe’s WHITEHAWK team also collected more silverware as the winner of the 44-boat Corinthians Division. Behind them in second place was Alessio Zucchi’s WHY NOT SLAM with crew of Alessandro Maldina, Elisabetta Saccheggiani, Gabriele Arnulfo, and Amerigo Brandimarte and taking the bronze was Mauro Brescacin’s LA FEMME TERRIBLE with crew of Francesca Russo Cirillo, Paolo Tomsic, Matteo Omari, and Lorenzo Coslovich. For more Italian J/70 Cup sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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