(Kiel, Germany)- The second J/70 European Championship saw ninety-six
boats from fifteen nations sail eleven races over the four day series in
everything from stormy weather with epic planing conditions to sunny
days with benign, shifty breezes. Kiel YC hosted the regatta with
racing taking place in the choppy waters of the southern Baltic Sea
called the Schilksee. It was a very talent-laden fleet, with multiple
European and World Champions in over a dozen classes participating,
including the Deutscher Touring YC- winner of the 2015 Deutsche-Segel
Bundesliga. The surprise winner of the event was top Italian woman
skipper Claudia Rossi and her PETITE TERRIBLE crew of Matteo Mason,
Simone Spangaro and Michele Paoletti. Claudia sailed an amazing series,
she scored all top five finishes and, in fact, tossed a 5th place to
score just 29 pts net in ten races- a remarkable 2.9 average!
Day 1 Report
Because of the size of the fleet, the 96 teams were split into four
flights that would rotate after each race in order to race each other
with 48 teams on the starting line. After the first race day of racing,
several southern European teams were dominating the standings. Stefano
Roberti’s PICCININA from the YC Monaco J/70 fleet was at the top of the
leaderboard after posting a smoking-hot 2-1-1 scoreline. They were
followed by two Italian crews- Carlo Alberini’s CALVI NETWORK (1-2-2)
and Claudia Rossi’s PETITE TERRIBLE (1-4-2). The best German crew was
in tenth place- Sven-Erik Horsch team from Norddeutscher Regatta Verein
in Hamburg.
Carsten
Kemmling’s HELGA was third best German team on the day in 12th place.
They appeared to be satisfied with the first race day, “Our results were
respectable with a 5-15-5. But the Italians and the Monegasque are just
slightly faster. It is not much, but they obviously have found better
settings. We have been trying for three days to adjust the trim
accordingly, but the Italians just have had much more training. The day
has not been easy with the current and uncomfortable swells.”
Claudia Rossi was hoping to follow the same successful path in Kiel that
her father did two years earlier. In 2014, her father, Alberto, won the
ORC Worlds in the outer fjord with his boat ENFANT TERRIBLE.
Evidently, Claudia has the same competitive fire in her blood as her
Dad! In fact, Alberto himself flew to Kiel on Thursday to cheer on his
daughter.
Stefano Roberti was as surprised as anyone to be leading the regatta
after the first day. "This is way above our expectations. Last year, I
was 40th in the Europeans”, said Roberti. "I thought last year, that I
could keep sailing with friends, but I soon realized that this is not
possible in this class. So I brought aboard three very good sailors that
understand dinghies and sportboats- my crew is Enrico Fonda, Ludovic
Broquaire, and Filippo Lamantia. We loved the conditions today; they
were very similar to Monaco. The starts also worked well. I can say, it
has been a happy day for us!“
Day 2 Report
For the J/70 sailors, it was a late one on the race area on their second
day. In the light and shifty breezes, the race committee managed to
start two races, before the wind finally disappeared when they were
trying to start the third race. So PRO Thorsten Paech decided to send
the crews back to the dock.
The leaders of the fleet changed, with Rossi’s PETITE TERRIBLE taking
the lead with a 1-5 compared to Roberti’s PICCININA with a 4-6. For
many in the top ten, it was the fifth and last race of the day that saw
some dramatically bad races posted on the scoreboard.
“It was a day, where you would lose so much by making small mistakes.
All forty-seven teams in our group rounded the first mark very close
together, and then, if you happened to be on the wrong side on the
downwind, you lost a lot,” reported Roberti. "Since we are a rather
heavy team, we are very happy with our boat speed. But Claudia, with her
crew, is incredibly fast.“
Even for the new regatta leaders- Rossi’s PETITE TERRIBLE, not
everything went smoothly. In the first race, they were third at the
first mark, but they were held from making their gybe by their rivals
and lost a few places. “Fortunately, we could fight our way back up to
fourth place again. That was good for us, especially when we realized
that our opponents had started in the wrong group!”
Oliver Schwall, sailing BROTHERHOOD (founder of German Sailing League),
was coming to terms with the idea the teams from the Mediterranean had a
higher speed potential. "In the national sailing league we are sailing
with basic settings on the J/70, which we are not allowed to change. You
immediately notice that these other teams know how to set up their
boats better." Oliver was sailing with his brother Rene, Bo Teichmann
and Moritz Jaeger-Roschko (all members of Kieler YC).
At the end of racing on Day 2, the only German crew in the top ten was
the team of PIT FINIS with tactician Karol Jablonski on board (a DN
iceboat World Champion and Match-Racing World Champion).
Day 3 Report
The third day appeared to have an enormous effect on the points table.
In the first race for the Blue fleet over 30 boats were disqualified due
to an early start. And several crews were subsequently judged OCS in
other races. But, staying clear of trouble was Ms Rossi’s crew on
PETITE TERRIBLE, as she continued her winning ways with scores of 1-4-4
to become the unchallenged leader of the fleet.
No fewer than 38 disqualifications from OCS’s were reported in the list
of the 94 teams. Race director Nino Shmueli defended his tough approach,
“It was all according to the rules. We are sailing with huge stickers
on the bow in the J/70 fleet, so we could recognize all early starters.
Even if only one team had started right it would have stood as a race.”
Three races were sailed and so Shmueli was satisfied with the day,
remarking that “Despite the thunderstorms and the shifting winds, the
full program could be sailed. In the afternoon, the wind picked up a
lot. But, we brought back everyone ashore without damage.”
Of course, the emotions of the disqualified teams were a bit different.
“It was fully compliant with the rules, but morally questionable,” said
Christian Soyka- skipper of the VOICE OF ITZEHOE (a former 4-time X-99
Word Champion). They were pushed down to 19th place because of their
BFD disqualification. “In the yellow starting group, one start had been
cancelled. But, in the blue group, they kept it running. You have to
follow a precedent in this case,” remarked Soyka. “Our objective here
was to learn from the best J/70 teams in Europe. Today, we were wrong,
not good. We have never sailed in this wind and with these waves
before. Up until the sixth race we had all top ten finishes!”
The biggest leaderboard climbers on the day were Eduardo Lupi’s TORPYONE
from Italy (3-5-2) and Charlie Esse’s BABY J from the U.K. (4-9-3),
both sitting on the provisional podium at 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
Also, sailing “lights out” all day in hyper-kinetic mode was Brazilian
Mauricio Santa Cruz on MANDACHUVA (4-1-2) with the best record of the
day in the entire fleet to catapult them into 5th place overall.
Day 4 Finale
The regatta finished with a packed program of three races. And the
weather on the race course made it a perfect day, after difficult wind
conditions and a huge number of disqualifications had caused lots of
turbulence in the highly competitive class. By sailing a perfect series
of races on the final day, Roberti’s PICCININA counted three victories
to end up taking the silver while Gonzalo Araujo from Spain posted a
2-1-5 to vault into the bronze medal to finish off the podium. Rounding
out the top five were Lupi’s TORPYONE in fourth, suffering from having
to throw out a Black Flag in the last race, and in fifth was Santa
Cruz’s MANDACHUVA.
Claudia
Rossi’s PETITE TERRIBLE performance was a surprise for the top J/70
sailors and, also, for herself: "I had not expected to win when I came
here. We only had the boat since February. But, the crew had an
ambitious objective and made us fast!” The young sailor from Italy has
been racing for years at an Olympic level in Italy. Sailing seems to
come naturally for her and her family. She remarked that, “Kiel is a
very lucky sailing territory for our family! Now, I am looking forward
to going home, where my boyfriend is waiting, and we will have a huge
party!” Can anyone blame her? Party-on! :)
Even the second-placed Roberti, sailing under the Monegasque flag, was
outshining the sun in Kiel with his happiness, "I am happy with the
silver medal. I had never expected to do this well. On the third day, we
thought we had given away the chances at the overall title with a Black
Flag and moderate results. Nevertheless, we are happy to be here on
the podium! It’s an amazing fleet of very accomplished sailors! We
hope to participate in the J/70 Worlds in San Francisco and learn more!”
Roberti congratulated Claudia Rossi, "Their team just stayed cool,
hardly made any mistakes and sailed a very consistent series. I enjoyed
it here. To be part of this big event in Kiel was lots of fun. Being in
the middle of the young sailors from all the Olympic classes in Kiel
Week is wonderful, it makes you feel even younger!“
Watch this J/70 European Championship sailing video highlights here. For
more J/70 European Championship sailing information
1st Sailing Bundesliga
The
second place team was Segelkameradschaft “Wappen von Bremen” (SWB) that
consisted of Gordon Nickel, Thomas Dehler, Klaas Simon, and Morten
Nickel. There were just 2.6 points back from the NRV all-stars.
According to Morten Nickel, "We had hoped for a podium spot on the Kiel
Fjord. It was a big surprise for us to take second place!”
