Thursday, August 29, 2013

J/122 AOI ME Wins Mittel Europa Criterium

J/122 off Italy sailing downwind (Trieste, Italy)- Piero Santi's J/122 AOI ME ("blue eyes" in Japanese) won its class in the Mittel Europa IRC Criterium in Trieste Italy in the end of July. Mr Santi had a tremendous perspective to offer to all J/Owners about his experience sailing his beloved J/122 in this epic race.  Said Piero:

"We won our class with a second place in the overall ranking.  The boat is powered by the fantastic Doyle sails designed in USA by Mark Ploch and perfectly made by Doyle Italy.  But our results are not the main reason why I'm sending you this message.

Racing against good boats and sailed by really high level crews, I really appreciated, another time, the 'sweet' pleasure of quality.

Sailing is a passion first of all, so it's really fantastic to know that someone is able to design and produce a boat and sails of such a quality.  We were always fast, upwind and downwind and everything on board worked well, every hardware is in the right place and with the right dimension.

Also sailing downwind at 14 kts of boat speed, you simply have a 'total control feeling', you know that the boat and sails will never betray you.  So, I simply want to thank you my friends for producing these fantastic objects.  Kind regards, Piero."  Here is a nice YouTube sailing video/ vignette of their experiences aboard the lovely AOI ME.   Sailing photo credits- Andrea Carloni/ Italy