ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres - Postma takes Finn control on day 3

by Robert Deaves on 24 Apr 2014

Finn fleet in action on day 3 of the ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres Thom Touw http://www.thomtouw.com

At the ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres, Pieter-Jan Postma (NED) took control of proceedings on the third day with two great victories to take a commanding lead at the top of the scoresheet at the half way stage. He holds an 18 point lead over Caleb Paine (USA) and 19 over third placed Thomas Le Breton (FRA).

After a short postponement due to lack of wind, the breeze kicked in as predicted and the fleet enjoyed two races in 12-16 knots.

In the first race of the day, the leaders favoured the right hand side with Postma rounding ahead of Deniss Karpak (EST) and Bjorn Allansson (SWE). Postma maintained his lead throughout to win from Karpak by 35 seconds, while Giorgio Poggi (ITA) moved up from fifth at the first mark to third at the finish, with Allansson fourth.

Race 6 was much tighter, but Postma still lead all the way round, again from the right on the first upwind. This time Josh Junior (NZL) followed him round the windward mark with Allansson close behind. The top three made a little gap downwind but on the second beat Thomas Le Breton (FRA) found his way up to third, with Ivan Kljkakoivc Gaspic (CRO) in fourth. These two exchanged places on the final downwind, while Postma took his third win of the regatta by just 10 seconds from Junior.

Pieter-Jan Posta in action in the Finn fleet on day 3 of the ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres © Thom Touw http://www.thomtouw.com

After a 4, 5, the ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne winner Allansson now moves into the top 10 for the first time this week. He said, 'Today we had a bit more wind, up to 16 knots and from 240 deg. I know I'm good in these conditions and two solid starts today really helped.'

'In the first race I managed to win the start at the starting vessel, and was then able to ride over all the way to the left with good speed and pressure, rounding first mark in third.'

'Before the second race I told PJ, that he had enough bullets and that I would win the race. I got a good start at the pin end, but PJ had a even better start and was able to tack in front of the entire fleet rather quickly. I was able to once again round the top mark in third which was great for me.'

Jake Lilley (AUS) has had an up and down week and today collected a 7, 21 to sit in 14th overall. Commenting on a big improvement since the last event in Palma he said, 'Palma was not the greatest for me. I was pretty sick and didn't sail very well. Since then, my coach (John Bertrand) and I have done a lot of analysis and hard work and made a lot of improvements in our game. The target for the year is the ISAF worlds and the Rio Test Event so we are just using Hyéres to learn as much as we can. Making the top 10 would be a bonus.'

There are just four more races in the opening series, which continues until Friday, before the medal race for the top 10 on Saturday.

Finn – Overall Results

Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race						Points
Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Net
1	NED	NED842	Pieter-Jan Postma	5	(9)	1	2	1	1	19.00	10.00
2	USA	USA6	Caleb Paine	7	3	3	10	5	(17)	45.00	28.00
3	FRA	FRA29	Thomas Le Breton	9	(15)	5	1	10	4	44.00	29.00
4	NZL	NZL24	Josh Junior	(60) BFD	4	9	7	8	2	90.00	30.00
5	CRO	CRO524	Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic	16	(20)	2	3	13	3	57.00	37.00
6	EST	EST2	Deniss Karpak	(14)	13	13	6	2	13	61.00	47.00
7	GRE	GRE77	Ioannis Mitakis	2	1	17	4	24	(60) BFD	108.00	48.00
8	ITA	ITA117	Giorgio Poggi	(60) DNF	16	4	18	3	7	108.00	48.00
9	SWE	SWE6	Björn Allansson	23	(33)	12	5	4	5	82.00	49.00
10	FRA	FRA112	Jonathan Lobert	1	28	7	8	(60) DSQ	6	110.00	50.00
11	SWE	SWE33	Max Salminen	6	(34)	8	9	16	11	84.00	50.00
12	CRO	CRO69	Milan Vujasinovi?	3	5	(22)	11	15	20	76.00	54.00
13	ITA	ITA123	Filippo Baldassari	19	2	10	14	(28)	14	87.00	59.00
14	AUS	AUS41	Jake Lilley	4	11	(60) UFD	17	7	21	120.00	60.00
15	BRA	BRA109	Jorge João Zarif	18	(26)	6	16	6	23	95.00	69.00
16	NOR	NOR1	Anders Pedersen	11	(31)	11	21	12	16	102.00	71.00
17	POL	POL1	Milosz Wojewski	8	10	(32)	19	26	12	107.00	75.00
18	SLO	SLO5	Gasper Vincec	12	23	(60) UFD	12	20	8	135.00	75.00
19	POL	POL17	Piotr Kula	17	6	(38)	28	17	10	116.00	78.00
20	ITA	ITA146	Michele Paoletti	21	(29)	14	13	11	24	112.00	83.00
21	POR	POR5	Frederico Melo	13	21	15	22	(60) BFD	19	150.00	90.00
22	NZL	NZL16	Andrew Murdoch	(60) BFD	27	24	15	19	9	154.00	94.00
23	BRA	BRA-1	Bruno Prada	10	7	26	30	22	(60) BFD	155.00	95.00
24	DEN	DEN4	Mads Bendix	24	18	(30)	24	14	15	125.00	95.00
25	RUS	RUS9	Eduard Skornyakov	20	14	23	(37)	18	29	141.00	104.00
26	ITA	ITA66	Enrico Voltolini	22	25	18	(36)	25	22	148.00	112.00
27	CRO	CRO7	Tudor Bilic	26	(42)	27	34	9	18	156.00	114.00
28	CRO	CRO1	Josip Olujic	15	8	33	26	(39)	37	158.00	119.00
29	AUS	AUS261	Oliver Tweddell	27	17	21	33	23	(35)	156.00	121.00
30	CRO	CRO52	Nenad Bugarin	34	30	20	20	(60) BFD	27	191.00	131.00
31	RUS	RUS1	Alexey Selivanov	(35)	24	29	23	30	25	166.00	131.00
32	POL	POL13	Michal Jodlowski	31	12	25	(60) BFD	27	39	194.00	134.00
33	EST	EST11	Lauri Väinsalu	28	38	(40)	25	21	30	182.00	142.00
34	RUS	RUS57	Egor Terpigorev	25	47	16	29	37	(60) BFD	214.00	154.00
35	FRA	FRA177	Fabian Pic	30	22	35	38	(42)	32	199.00	157.00
36	RUS	RUS8	Anatoliy Korshikov	29	43	28	27	35	(60) BFD	222.00	162.00
37	CZE	CZE1	Michael Maier	40	(41)	34	32	31	28	206.00	165.00
38	POL	POL16	Mikolaj Lahn	36	(40)	31	35	32	33	207.00	167.00
39	CRO	CRO6	Dan Lovrovic	(46)	19	39	41	38	36.6 RDG	219.60	173.60
40	DEN	DEN23	Martin Boidin	37	39	(41)	40	36	36	229.00	188.00
41	RUS	RUS6	Arkadiy Kistanov	32	35	19	44	(60) BFD	60 DSQ	250.00	190.00
42	USA	USA21	Gordon Lamphere	43	(49)	45	45	29	31	242.00	193.00
43	ITA	ITA 747	Simone Ferrarese	45	(48)	44	42	37 DPI	29 DPI	245.00	197.00
44	FRA	FRA89	Benjamin Montagut	33	45	37	39	45	(60) BFD	259.00	199.00
45	POL	POL111	Jakub Marciniak	39	36	36	31	(60) BFD	60 BFD	262.00	202.00
46	FRA	FRA114	Thomas Morel	38	37	(60) DNF	60 DNC	33	34	262.00	202.00
47	RUS	RUS11	Kirill Luzan	47	32	42	46	(49)	38	254.00	205.00
48	FRA	FRA99	Marc Allain Des Beauvais	44	(51)	43	43	40	41	262.00	211.00
49	EST	EST7	Harles Liiv	41	(50)	47	48	41	40	267.00	217.00
50	FRA	FRA75	Laurent HAY	42	46	(49)	47	43	42	269.00	220.00
51	USA	USA69	John F Dane	48	(52)	48	49	47	45	289.00	237.00
52	ITA	ITA191	Alessandro Cattaneo	49	44	51	(53)	50	49	296.00	243.00
53	ITA	ITA83	Matteo Savio	(60) DNC	60 DNC	46	51	44	43	304.00	244.00
54	VEN	VEN100	Johnny Bilbao	50	54	53 SCP	(55) SCP	46	44	302.00	247.00
55	SUI	SUI63	Thomas Gautschi	52	(56)	53	50	48	47	306.00	250.00
56	TUN	TUN1	Karim Esseghir	53	53	52	(56)	53	46	313.00	257.00
57	NED	NED100	Arend Van Der Sluis	51	(58)	54	55	51	48	317.00	259.00
58	FIN	FIN226	Jukka Partinen	54	55	(56)	54	52	51	322.00	266.00
59	USA	USA2	Charles Heimler	55	(57)	55	57	54	50	328.00	271.00