Italians dominate

Top three places held after day two of J24 Worlds

On the second day there were perfect racing conditions, with a northwesterly wind of 15 knots greeting the competitors.

During the races the wind shifted back and fourth for 30 degrees and the strength was between 12 and 21 knots, resulting in challenging conditions for the tacticians.

The first race saw the boat of Bob Turner (GBR4247) getting of to a perfect start and a perfect first leg. With several boatlengths lead he was the first to round the upwind mark. A lead that he never gave away and steadily grew bigger.

Behind Turner it were a bunch of Italian boats together with the Brazilian team of Maurizio Santa Cruz who were fighting for second. This battle was eventually won by the Brazilians.
With 4 boats in the top 20 the Dutch boats were feeling better on their homewaters. Albert Kooijman took a 9th place.

The second race Principal race officer Erik Vliegenthart had a hard time to get the boats started. One start was aborted because of a big wind shift; a second start was recalled. The third start was a good one. It was the left side of the water that was the best.

At the first weather mark the Dutch sailors were way-way back in the field. The boats that did good business were again the Italians.

Further in the back it was Kathy Lundeen sailing USA1965 who had a collision with Evert Kroll of NED24. It resulted in a big hole in the boat of Kroll, he is now trying to get his boat fixed for the next day.

Lorenzo Bressani, the European champion, was sailing very well in these conditions. Almost all the top-boats were sailing with their jibs. Exceptions were USA5078 of Wolfs/Horton and GER5266 of Leif Loose. Both were sailing with their genoas. After the first beat the wind lightened so almost everybody changed to their genoas.

At the finish it was Lorenzo Bressani who had taken a huge lead over Gabriele Benussi and Andrea Casale.

Race three looked to be a copy of race two. At the start the wind was blowing with 20 knots so the jibs were on. The boat of Albert Kooijman was getting better and better. At the first mark they were sixth but after a perfect downwind leg they were up to third place.

Meanwhile the wind was becoming lighter again so some of the bowman had to change the headsail (again). At the last windward mark it was Bressani, Benussi and Kooijman were in front. They were getting ready for the final battle for the win in race 4. Eventually it was Kooijman who took the gun out sailing Bressani and Benussi.

So after for races with four different winners we see the top three are all Italian crews.
Lorenzo Bressani and Gabriele Benussi both have 6 points followed by Andrea Casale with thirteen.

Top 10: (after one discard)

1. Lorenzo Bressani(ITA) 6.00
2. Gabriele Benussi(ITA) 6.00
3. Andrea Casale(ITA) 13.00
4. Mauricio Santa Cruz(BRA) 14.00
5. Horton/Wolfs(USA/CAN) 15.00
6. Yutaka Takagi(JPN) 22.00
7. Tomomi Hatakeyama(JPN) 24.00
8. Fabio Nocera(ITA) 26.00
9. Albert Kooijman(NED) 28.00
10. Leif Tom Loose(GER) 31.00