J/24 EUROPEAN TITLE WON BY LA SUPERBA

Brilliant Start To The Season For North Clients

Ignzio Bonanno’s La Superba of Italy, with crew Simone Scontrino, Vincenzo Vano, Francesco Picaro and Alfredo Branciforte, were in the hot seat after racing from the 7th -10th May at the Sailing Club of Patras in Greece. The North Sails powered team took home the J/24 European Champion title for the second time after previously winning in their home country in 2012. Logging consistently impressive scores no worse than a fourth, they were able to stay ashore for Friday’s final duel which determined the runner-up positions. Anthimos Nikolaidis’ Evniki of Greece secured the silver spot with the race win, finishing with 37 net points. Two fellow countrymen followed in third and fourth overall: Panagiotis Kampouridis’ JMania (43 points) and Alexandros Tagaropoulos’ Hellenic Police (46 points). German Stefan Karsunke’s Schwere Jungs completed the top five with 51 points. All top five boats within a fiercely competitive fleet of 30 J/24’s finished with full North Sails inventories.

Day one brought unpredictable conditions, ranging from 8 to 20 knots. On day two and three, the breeze became slightly less variable, ranging between 6 to 13 knots. Ignzio Bonanno of winning boat, La Superba, talks about how the sails responded to these conditions:

”We are a really fast boat, especially in lighter breeze. In Patras for the Europeans, we used the North Fat Head Mainsail, San Diego (SD) Genoa and FR-2 spinnaker. On day two and three, our speed was excellent; the boat pointed really well upwind and was nicely powered downwind. This was highlighted during race eight where we gained nine positions in one downwind leg due to our boat speed. We are really happy to take the European title after three days of great sailing and a well-planned race area. The next event for us is the Italian Nationals in Cervia in two weeks time.”

“We used the North Fat Head Mainsail, San Diego (SD) Genoa and FR-2 spinnaker. Our speed was excellent; the boat pointed really well upwind and was nicely powered downwind.”

Bonanno and the La Superba team from the Italian Navy race together regularly and are working to come to Miami, Florida for the 2019 World Championship in October.

For more information on J/24 Championship winning sails, visit our class page.