Three days into the 470 and 420 Junior European Championships in Nida, Italy's Lisa Vucetti and Vittorio Bonifacio are pulling away from the fleet.
The newly crowned 470 Junior World Champions won both races on Friday in near-perfect conditions, sunshine and a steady 10-16 knots, to extend their overall lead to 14 points. Teammates Livia Ciampinelli and Nicola Brunotti sit second, with French pair Lomane Valade and Julien Bunel, who started the day at the top of the standings, dropping to third.
Vucetti and Bonifacio have been close to flawless over the past two days. Their boat speed keeps them in contention even when they don't lead off the start, and their downwind sailing in particular has stood out.
The day's other talking point was the young Brazilian pairing of Said Royo and Gabriela Vassel, who raced at the front throughout, finishing second and fourth to climb to 12th overall.
Royo was candid about the learning curve the 470 presents. "It was a good day. We had two good results. The wind was pretty shifty, but we are still trying to fix some mistakes and learn more about this boat," he said. "The fleet is at a really high level, and the 470 is completely different from the 420. There are more systems and a bigger sail, but we are getting more comfortable every day."
Vassel acknowledged there is still work to do. "It's nice to be close to the top ten. We are now in 12th place, so we're happy with that. I think we still need to improve our downwind sailing, especially our pumping technique, but overall it was a good day."
Croatia's Ema Samaržija and Leon Scheidl are sitting eighth overall. A good pin-end start in race one had them leading early, before a left shift cost them places and they finished fourth. Race two was harder, a poor start forcing them to search for clear air, and while they recovered from around 15th to finish tenth, they felt it could have been better. "That's sailing," they said.
The Croatian pair have been sailing together in the 470 since 2023, having previously raced as 420 teammates. They competed in two Youth Sailing World Championships, finishing tenth in Oman and third in The Hague. One more season remains in the junior fleet, but their attention is already shifting to senior competition. Shortly after the Europeans they head to Japan for the Senior World Championship.
"The senior fleet is much stronger than the junior fleet," they said. "In junior racing we enjoy stronger winds because we feel more competitive. In the senior fleet, however, we actually prefer lighter winds. We are making progress, and we're happy with how things are going."
Their goal in Japan is to qualify for the Gold Fleet, then see what the conditions bring. "We've already had a very busy summer with two junior events and one senior event," they noted.
Racing resumes on Saturday with two races scheduled, first possible start at 10:00.
