2022 J/70 Winners – Paul Ward/Charlie Cumbley/Elliot Willis/Matt Howard

J/70 Class

Six races over two days demands huge focus and determined teamwork, so no surprise to see five different winners across the thirty-nine boat J/70 fleet. Only the ultimate winner, Paul Ward (GBR) on ‘Eat Sleep J Repeat’, managed to win twice, and after discarding their 17^th place in race 4 counted an all top-three scorecard. 

Second overall was USA’s Daniel Goldberg’s ‘Bazinga’ and massive congratulations to Charles Thompson’s ‘Brutus III’, taking 3rd on a tiebreak to make it two British teams on the podium!

“We love this event, it is always great fun,” said Ward, who also won in 2020. “It is fantastic to win it again.

“We have a new team and it is really good to be out here and going well. We have some really good sailors on the boat and we just managed to get going really fast. Charlie was getting us going in the right direction and Matt and Elliot were keeping the boat going fast.”

On their strategy to success, Ward commented, “We all know what the things are you have to do well, it is just about executing. We got off the starts quite well, and then you have a bunch of options about what you need to do. We only made one mistake in terms of which way we went. Our upwind set-up felt really good, downwind speed felt good 

“It is perfect, this is a really well-run event. Everyone looks after us really well and just makes sure we have a good time. We will definitely be back next year.”

Marcos Soares of Brazil and his crew on ‘Capincanela’’ won the Corinthian category, finishing 14^th overall.

Final Top 5 Results

1. Paul Ward/Charlie Cumbley/Elliot Willis/Matt Howard (GBR 1127) – 10 pts

2. Daniel Goldberg/Lucas Calabrese/Tomas Hornos/Kristen Berry (USA 84) – 17 pts

3. Charles Thompson/Craig Burlton/Ben Saxton/Chris Grube (GBR 1123) – 21 pts

4. Ignacio Perez/Santiago Perez/Juan Ignacio Perez/Moritz Spitzauer (MEX 1323) – 32 pts

5. Robert Hughes/River Paquin/Stefano Ciampalini/Paul Goodison (USA 353) – 32 pts