Wet and Wild at J/70 World Champs

Torquay, Devon, UK (September 4, 2019) – Twenty knots of breeze piping in from the north created full-on battle conditions for the twenty nation fleet on Day Three of the Darwin Escapes 2019 J/70 World Championships. For the third consecutive day, the Open and Corinthian leaders have changed, with teams from nine nations occupying the top ten places.

There were thrills and spills as the wind speed reached close to the top end of the wind speed for the class but with flat warm water it was a day to remember for the J/70 fleet.

In the Open Class, Paul Ward (GBR) Eat,Sleep,J,Repeat scored a 1-4-15 to take the overall lead. Pichu Torcida (ESP) racing Noticia has climbed to second after scoring a 5-17-6. Joel Ronning (USA) racing Catapult, drops to third after scoring 14-14-10. Yesterday’s leader Alberto Rossi (ITA) racing Enfant Terrible, started the day well posting 9-8 but a 28 in the last race after broaching out drops Enfant Terrible to fourth.

In the Corinthian Class, King & Wilson Soak Racing (IRL) is the new leader after posting 2-34-9 today. Doug Struth (GBR) racing DSP drops to second place. Denis Cherevatenko (RUS) racing Joyfull retains third but is under pressure from a top performance today by Charles Thompson (GBR) racing Brutus. There were race wins today for Eat, Sleep, J, Repeat, Henry Brauer (USA) Rascal, and Carlo Alberini (ITA) Calvi Network.

Current leader, Paul Ward (GBR), skipper of Eat, Sleep, J, Repeat, said, “The conditions today were exactly like we expected for Tor Bay – shifty, difficult to sail, and hard to find the right way to go. We managed okay and had an absolute blast out there. Leading the championship is terrifying, there are some really good sailors and we have a long way to go, and we will see how it all rolls tomorrow.”

President of J/70 International Class, Ian Wilson (GBR) on Soak Racing, commented, “It is really difficult to track the boats in the Corinthian fleet because we are all out on one race course and we are racing against the pros and we can give them a really good run for their money but we do keep an eye out for our mates from Hamble, DSP, if we are in front of them, we know we are doing well.

“It was brilliant today, blowing 20 knots, wind all over the place, a great day out with boats hooning all over the place – just great fun. We are hoping for more of the same tomorrow, big breeze and great racing in Tor Bay.”

“We are very happy to be in Torquay but today we had a black cloud with the first race when we were just one second over the line before the start, and we were disqualified. We won the last race in the sunshine, so we were so happy. Today those conditions were good for us, we specialise in strong wind, I hope we will do better over the last five races”, said Carlo Alberini (ITA) from Calvi Network.

The Darwin Escapes 2019 J/70 World Championship continues Thursday, September 5 with three more high octane races scheduled. Racing at the 2019 J/70 World Championships is scheduled for September 2-6.

Event details – Entry list – Facebook

Results, Top 5, 9 races with 1 discard
1. Eat Sleep J Repeat, GBR1451, Paul Ward / Charlie Cumbley / Ruairidh Scott / Mario Trindade – 24 -11 -[32] -2 -5 -3 -1 -4 -15 ; 65
2. Noticia, ESP961, Jose Maria Torcida / Luiz Martin Cabiedes / Rayco Tabares / Pablo Santurde / Robin Imaz – 1 -[26] -23 -3 -11 -9 -5 -17 -6 ; 75
3. Catapult, USA180, Joel Ronning / Victor Diaz De Leon / Christopher Stocke / Patrick Wilson – 8 -7 -6 -[26] -15 -8 -14 -14 -10 ; 82
4. Enfant Terrible, ITA1256, Alberto Rossi / Alberto Bolzan / Stefano RIzzi / Branco Bircin / Bianca Crugnola – [42] -3 -20 -1 -16 -2 -9 -8 -27 ; 86
5. Rascal, USA25, Henry Brauer / Brian Kamilar / Karl Anderson / Orrin Starr – 3 -28 -[48] -17 -10 -11 -4 -1 -26 ; 100

Source: Louay Habib