The 38th Italian Open J/24 Championship finished after eight races in the waters of Garda Trentino. For Ignacio Bonanno, skipper of Italian Navy ITA 416 LA SUPERBA, this was their fifth Italian title in the J/24 Class (the previous ones were 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2017, in addition to the J/24 Europeans title. It was a gratifying win for Bonanno and his crew of Simone Scontrino, Vincenzo Vano, Francesco Picaro and Alfredo Branciforte. “We would like to thank the Italian Navy and, in particular the Sport and Sailing Office, for allowing us to be present at this Championship,” commented Bonanno. “We are very happy, especially, for having won for the first time the Italian J/24 Championship on a lake!” Second in the Open classification, as last year, was the American from Seattle, Washington—Keith Whittemore’s FURIO with crew of Kevin Downey, Brian Thomas, Mark Rogers and Shelley Milne. Third overall, and second Italian on the podium, was the crew of ARIA from Sardinia. The crew consisted of skipper Marco Frulio, Mattia Meloni, Fabrizio Masu, Grazia Maria Savona and GianVito Di Stefano. “We are very happy with this result, and we want to thank our Club,” commented Marco Frulio. “We are obviously used to other conditions and also, those found in these days on the Garda were not what we would have expected. We had to settle a bit and study the lake, the wind and the weather. In the end, we learned to interpret the new conditions, the wind shifts and to choose (unlike many crews, even local ones) the center of the lake, a choice that eventually proved to be a winner. We are really happy.” Bronze medal in the National ranking and fifth overall was NOTIFYME-PILGRIM owned by Lario Mauro Benfatto and helmed by Fabio Mazzoni (with crew of Lorenzo Airoldi, Alberto Benedetti and Pietro Kostner). “It was a great Championship, and I really enjoyed it,” commented Mauro Benfatto. “We had the opportunity to race with really good people, very good. Overall a very positive and fun Championship that made us stay on pace until the last race.” For more Italian J/24 Class information, visit Home J24.
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