J24 Blog

Chris McLaughlin reports

The wind gods finally smiled on the J24 Italian National Championships in Cannigione, Sardinia. The anticipated Mistral breeze decided not to show up and competitors were gifted near perfect racing conditions for their final day.

 More…

[source: J24 Arzachena]

Arzachena – Cannigione, May 30, 2008. Andrea Casale is the new Italian J24 Champion. The victory came after seven highly technical races and six races that the 45 competitors had to surrender over almost two full days to the inclement weather. The seven races have been very important for the Club Nautico Arzachena which has been able to test it’s organizational machine ahead of Worlds, which will start on June 8 and involve as many as 76 crews from 18 countries.

Genovese Andrea Casale, 35 years old, employed by the Guardia di Finanza, after four previous Italian titles 2002-2003-2004-2006, has added another jewel to his crown, but the credit is shared by the entire “Fiamma Gialle” crew, consisting of: Fabio Montefusco, Enzo Di Capua, Ernesto Angeletti and Vittorio Rosso. Casale was without doubt the most consistent with three victories, three second places and one third place.
This allowed him to win the Italian title, besting Luigi Ravioli (J di F) and Francesco Cruciani (Alvatore).

In the fourth and final day the race committee got off three races: the first two were won by Ian Southworth on British Hedgehog while the third, the final race, was another bullet for Casale.

Among the Sardinian crews the top finisher is Mariolino Di Fraia Botta of the Naval League of Arzachena in ninth position overall, fifth for the Italian championship, followed Alberto Bini of Sardares Club Nautico of Arzachena.

The Gulf of Arzachena and all of the logistical and organizational infrastructure in Cannigione await the World Championship. Casale, Ravioli, Cruciani and 23 other Italian boats will move to the bigger stage and be challenged by the best J24 sailors in the world, most notably the current World title holder, the Brazilian Mauricio Santa Cruz.

Final standings are here.

[source: J24 Arzachena]

Andrea Casale, and the Fiamme Gialle, a step away from Italian J24 title

30 May:: Arzachena – Cannigione. Andrea Casale, on Fiamme Gialle, is a step away from the Italian title as only three races remain and Casale has a substantial advantage over Luigi Ravioli in J F and Francis Cruciani on Avoltore. Coming into racing today, Casale had won two of four contests and took a second and third in the remaining races, won instead by Ravioli and Sonny Gibson from Dana Point.

Of the Sardinian boats, the first is in ninth position with Mariolino Di Fraia (Botta straight) is in 5th position,  Aurelio Bini (Sardares) is in 15th,  and Mario with North East Orecchioni is 17th.

The Italian championship is being contested in the waters of the Gulf of Arzachena, with it’s base in Cannigione, which will also host the competitors in the 2008 J24 Worlds Cup being held here from 8 to June 13 with 76 boats from 18 countries.

Another day with three races schedule and an eary start time of 10am was set to take advantage of favourable weather conditions.

Certainly the weather has dominated these Italian championships, first a sirocco of over 48 knots prevented racing on the first day, and then bad weather limited racing on the thrid day on one race.

The race committee managed to get off one race beginning at 4pm, after the lightning and thunder had subsided, won by Andrea Casale. A second race was started amidst the protests of the racers, and eventually called off.

Chris McLaughlin reports

In a day of extremes, the J24 fleet at Cannigione was made to wait on shore for most of the day as thunder and lightning broke over the race track. Rain continued throughout the day and into the evening in very un-seasonal conditions.

The race committee waited until 4 pm to send the fleet out to the start, with the race officer rumoured to be trying to get a fourth race completed to give a series in advance of an anticipated Mistral Breeze on Friday.

On the way to the start, in heavy rain, the fleet changed from genoa sail, to jib and back to genoa over the course of 30 minutes.

Ian Southworth, sailing Inmarsat Hedgehog and starting to race after crew illness, led the fleet off the line and to the windward mark. Conditions were light, force 2-3 with 20 degree shifts. Southworth led the downwind leg and opted for the port mark to lead into the final approach to the second windward mark. It then became clear that the race officer had shifted the weather mark to the right, although there had been no sound signal at the leeward mark. All VHF transmission being in Italian…

Series leader, Andrea Casale , had a bad start but dug back from the teens towards the right hand side of the beat in the light shifting conditions, this paid off and at the second windward mark, Casale rounded with a fifty yard lead on Luigi Ravioli and Matias Pereira of Argentine who had aslo gone right. Southworth and Greg Wilcox battled for fourth place down the run to the finish, with the German just taking fourth on the pin end line bias.

At 18.40, the Race Officer switched on his navigation lights and attempted a second start. The fleet greeted this by whistling and banging their side decks in disapproval and promptly went over the line.

The race officer gave a General Recall but the Fleet continued beating to windward leaving him alone with his sound signals!

As the Fleet carried on home, the Race officer decided to abandon racing for the day.

This has been a difficult Championship to date and the venue seems unduly dominated by local and shifting conditions,

Comments Ian Southworth: ” It was great to be back on the water. Andrea Casale and his team are sailing very sharp and have great speed in their old boat. Their team mate, Luigi Ravioli is equally on pace, just as at Livorno a few weeks ago. It is going to be a very tough J24 World Championship”.

Nice venue.

[Map of J24 Italian Nationals and 2008 Worlds Venue]

[source: J24 Arzchena]

Andrea Casale dominates in the first three races of the Italian J24 Championship

Arzachena – Cannigione, May 28, 2008. Finally there was racing in the Italian J24 Championship. After the cancellation of racing on the first day due to a  sirocco wind reaching 48 knots, the second day was also in doubt, this time due to a lack of wind. The 45 boats in the race had to wait for over an hour and a half for the start signal that finally arrived at 12.30 with wind at just over ten knots.

Previous racing had preditected a struggle between four or five crews with surprises behind every mark.  The favorites going into the first day of racing were Andrea Casale (Fiamme Gialle), the Brazilian Daniel Glomb (Bravissimo), 2007 European champion Cruciani Francesco on Avoltore, 2007 Italian Champion Claudio Buiatti of J di Qaudri, and Luigi Ravioli in J di F. Glomb, not who is not Italian, is allowed to race in this open championship but obviously is ineligible for the national title. The likely champion will be the boat that is the most consistent.

At the end of the day the leader in the standings is “Fiamme Gialle,” with skipper Andrea Casale winner of the first race, third in the second and second in the third. In second place, the Englishman [Brazilian?] Glomb, then Cruciani, Buratti, New Zealander Whitemore  [Keith is from New Zealand now?], and Luca Ravioli, paying heavily for a sixteenth place in the first race.

A look at Sardinian competitors: the highest placing boat is Mariolino Di Fraia on Botta Drita in the eighth position while in the twelfth [Should be 13th] position is the boat from Arzachena, Sardares.

Chris McClaghlin reports from the J/24 Italian Nationals.

After two days of Scirroco winds clocking-in at over 40 mph, competitors awoke to the opening day of the J24 and no wind. Cannigione will host the J24 Class World Championship from June 5th and some competitors are using these Nationals to get an early look at the conditions.

The race committee managed three races in force 2 – 3 conditions today but the course area is surrounded by steep hills and an rocky outcrops. The result is a gust cell environment, driven by the thermals generated on the land mass. American, Keith Whitemore, summed up the day saying “You could see the gusts on the water, but they don’t come to you. You have to sail to them”.

Andrea Casale leads the fleet with a 1,3, 2 result line. Whittemore is currently 5th with a 13, 5, 4.