40th J/24 World Championship in Riva del Garda, Italy - Day 2
by Julie & Christopher Howell 28 Aug 2018 21:39 BST
23-31 August 2018
The leaderboard tightened up Tuesday at the J/24 World Championship in Riva del Garda, Italy. Lake Garda again produced fantastic conditions as the 89 teams recorded two more races, bringing the total to five, including now one discard.
American Will Welles' Kaster maintained the top spot with 18 net points, but Hungarian Tomai Bala'zs' J.Bond 037 is just two points back in second place with 20, and Nobuyuki Imai's Siesta of Japan launched up to third with 21 points.
Both Welles and Bala'zs stumbled in the day's final race, but benefited from the throw-out.
2016 World Champion Daniel Frost's JJOne of Germany ruled the day, winning the first contest, and placing second in the next. Following Frost in Tuesday's opener were two Americans: Keith Whittemore's Furio and Travis Odenbach's Honeybadger.
Imai's Siesta also had a solid day, leading the fleet home in race five, ahead of Frost and fellow Japanese sailor Tomomi Hatakeyama's Gekko.
Eighty-nine teams from 14 countries (Australia, Brazil, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden and United States) are competing in the 40th edition of the Championship.
Racing continues through Friday from Fraglia Vela Riva del Garda.
Complete results may be found at www.j24worlds2018.it/results and photos are available on the J/24 Class Facebook page.
Overnight repairs report by Alexander Panzeri
There was much sadness yesterday over the big crash between JPN-5282 D’aria and ITA-99 J-Lag, but during the night and this morning, we found a miracle made in Italy: the Japanese boat already painted with gel-coat, only the pulpit on the bow still damaged, whilst the Italian boat was already glued with fibreglass and resin and gelcoat.
So both teams were able to sail in the first race!
Thanks BAFFO, the crew man from Jamaica ITA-212 Team for the miracle.