Italian J/70 Cup #2 in Malcesine - Lake Garda, Italy

Two Australian boats joined 38 J/70s from across Europe for the Italian J/70 Cup #2 held at Malcesine on Lake Garda in Northern Italy.

One of the great things about sailing a J70 is there is strong competition almost every weekend somewhere in the world , and this weekend was no exception.

Winter wasn’t quite finished on this spectacular lake which borders the Swiss Alps, and the weather was therefore changeable and a bit on the cold side, with storm activity present.

The two Australian boats acquitted themselves well.

Nutcracker got out of the blocks well and climbed into the top ten by the end of day 2, eventually finishing thirteenth.  Rob Davis and his team did an amazing job to get a brand new J70 out of the factory and be competitive from day one. 

Rob Davis' Nutcracker

Vamos took a while to get into the regatta but eventually placed sixth with a strong finish taking the boat of the day on the last day with a two, two finish.

Highlighting the international nature of J70 sailing, nine different countries were represented in the top ten with the host country Italy having two top ten results.  The leading boats in order came from Monaco, Turkey, Sweden, Spain, Great Britain and Australia.

Results: https://www.hubsail.it/classifica/24028

Vamos

Tim Ryan and crew of Rob Greenhalgh, Drew Barnes and Laura van Veen are preparing for the Mixed Worlds, a new event on the international J70 calendar.  Usual crew Jess Grimes will take over from Drew for this event which is aimed at promoting more female participation in the class at the top end.

The Australian class will have three entries at the event.