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Barton Marine 2019 728x90

Max Salminen leads after snakes and ladders third day at Finn Gold Cup

by Robert Deaves on 7 Sep 2017
Max Salminen - 2017 Opel Finn Gold Cup Robert Deaves
Max Salminen, from Sweden, is the third leader in three days at the Opel Finn Gold Cup at Balatonföldvár on Lake Balaton. The ever-tricky wind caused a few more high scores, while a few of those at the top maintained their consistency. Ed Wright, from Britain, moves up to second with Nicholas Heiner, from The Netherlands, who won the first race of the day, in third. Piotr Kula won the second race.

Both races on Day 3 were started under black flag as the fleet seemed overly keen to get the racing underway. Race 5 was a left hand favoured course with most of the fleet heading out towards the eastern shoreline of Balaton to get the best wind. Heiner led round the top mark from Milan Vujasinovic, from Croatia, and Ioannis Mitakis, from Greece. Heiner pulled away downwind and was never really threatened to record his first win of the week in his first Finn Gold Cup.



However the battle behind him was pretty intense, with lots of place changes. In the end Jake Lilley, from Australia, came through for second ahead of the British pair of Henry Wetherell and Wright.



The wind was starting to drop as Race 6 was started, but Oscar was raised at the first top mark as the wind returned. Some heavy cloud came down the lake threatening rain, but the day remained dry.



Lilley continued his good form by leading round the top mark in Race 6 from Kula and new U23 World Champion, Oskari Muhonen, from Finland. The first downwind was kind to Kula who pulled ahead as the wind died again to around 6-7 knots. He maintained his lead to the finish, though was pushed hard on the second downwind by Muhonen and Lilley. Heiner came through in the last stages of the downwind to round the find, shortened, downwind mark inside Lilley to take third.



Heiner is now up to third, nine points off the lead.

“Slowly getting into the event and today was a really nice day. It was decently steady for Balaton. We’ve had three great day’s sailing so far, and not really what we expected from Balaton. But so far, so good.”

“I spent the first two days trying to get the feel of the leverage with the big fleet and today I got a bit more into that. In the end I think it’s just about winning your side and keeping an eye out for the other extremes and see how they go.”

“Today with the second race, it was quite tricky. The big cloud came over, so I just had a plan. It’s always a tricky one. Do you go for a side and get the leverage or do you start out of the middle and just play the fleet? And that changes race by race.”



“You always have a plan, but if you see something starting to happen then at least you need to have the possibility to come across and make something decent out of it.” In the second race, “Even two minutes on port trying to get back to the right, made a huge difference at the top mark.”

Kula stays in fifth place, discarding his 68th in the first race today.

“I didn’t do well out of the first black flag start today and messed up my race, but wiped my tears away and won the second race.”

In the second race, “I was expecting the left would pay better than the right, but the crowd on the pin was so big, I found a more empty spot on the line and tacked quickly and then I played the shifts and was second at the top.”

How did he turn a disastrous first race into a win in the second?

“I actually started preparing for the second race in the first one. At the second top mark in the first race I was thinking this is hopefully my worst race so the best I can do now is to focus and gather my thoughts and sail nice downwind to set my mind for the next race and this is what I did. I just focussed on myself, focussed on the waves, surfed nicely and basically on the finish line I swallowed this bitter pill and just focussed on the next one.”

Salminen had the third best day of anyone on the water and takes a four-point lead at the top.



“Another good day for me. I am happy to be up there in almost every race so far. That’s what I wanted to do. It’s not about winning races, just about dodging those bullets that can get really hairy in a fleet of 113 boats.”

“It’s hard to manage to risk out there especially when you don’t really know what you are going to get. So far the left has been paying, but on the second race today almost all the guys at the top came from the right, so it’s hard. I think speed is your only weapon that will always be there, so good speed and good starts for sure.”



Finn sailors have many challenges when racing in Gold Cup fleets, but Mikael Hyrylainen, from Finland, had a rather unique challenge today, trying to get a snake out of his boat between races. Loitering somewhere in the depths of his boat for the first race, his slithery friend, named Frank, made an appearance and it took Mikael some effort, balanced on the foredeck, to force the snake back to the cockpit, where he was duly dispatched back into the Balaton depths.

As the sailors came ashore lake became windless for the first time since the event opened. Racing is scheduled to continue at 10.00 Thursday, but some forecasts would indicate a delayed start is possible.



At the half way stage there is no clear leader. Finding the 2017 Finn World Champion could turn into one of the most interesting battles yet. There are plenty of snakes to slide down and ladders to climb.

Check out the links below to follow the racing on Twitter and Facebook. Most mark roundings and finishes are broadcast on Facebook Live through the Finn Class page.



Results after six races

1 SWE 33 Max Salminen 26
2 GBR 11 Ed Wright 30
3 NED 89 Nicholas Heiner 35
4 FRA 112 Jonathan Lobert 35
5 POL 17 Piotr Kula 43
6 HUN 40 Zsombor Berecz 47
7 ARG 48 Facundo Olezza 49
8 GRE 77 Ioannis Mitakis 49
9 CRO 69 Milan Vujasinovic 61
10 FIN 8 Oskari Muhonen 69

Overall

Sailed: 6, Discards: 1, To count: 5, Entries: 113, Scoring system: Appendix A
Rank BowNumber SailNo HelmName R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10 R11 Total Nett
1st 32 SWE-33 Max Salminen 9.0 4.0 (17.0) 1.0 6.0 6.0           43.0 26.0
2nd 4 GBR-11 Ed Wright 1.0 (58.0) 1.0 19.0 4.0 5.0           88.0 30.0
3rd 8 NED-89 Nicholas Heiner 20.0 9.0 2.0 (21.0) 1.0 3.0           56.0 35.0
4th 115 FRA-112 Jonathan Lobert 2.0 14.0 9.0 2.0 8.0 (60.0)           95.0 35.0
5th 9 POL-17 Piotr Kula 5.0 7.0 14.0 16.0 (68.0) 1.0           111.0 43.0
6th 10 HUN-40 Zsombor Berecz 3.0 6.0 12.0 (36.0) 10.0 16.0           83.0 47.0
7th 119 ARG-48 Facundo Olezza 28.0 2.0 4.0 3.0 (114.0 BFD) 12.0           163.0 49.0
8th 35 GRE-77 Ioannis Mitakis 15.0 10.0 3.0 10.0 11.0 (21.0)           70.0 49.0
9th 17 CRO-69 Milan Vujasinovic 31.0 8.0 (39.0) 4.0 5.0 13.0           100.0 61.0
10th 114 FIN-8 Oskari Muhonen 21.0 23.0 5.0 (40.0) 18.0 2.0           109.0 69.0
11th 6 NOR-1 Anders Pedersen (114.0 DSQ) 12.0 11.0 11.0 31.0 7.0           186.0 72.0
12th 16 GBR-71 Henry Wetherell 11.0 34.0 20.0 9.0 3.0 (45.0)           122.0 77.0
13th 12 AUS-261 Oliver Tweddell 6.0 (42.0) 25.0 6.0 12.0 31.0           122.0 80.0
14th 19 CZE-5 Ondrej Teply 8.0 13.0 34.0 7.0 (54.0) 20.0           136.0 82.0
15th 20 AUS-1 Jake Lilley 13.0 56.0 10.0 (114.0 DSQ) 2.0 4.0           199.0 85.0
16th 5 EST-2 Deniss Karpak 18.0 3.0 (30.0) 24.0 22.0 29.0           126.0 96.0
17th 48 GER-25 Max Kohlhoff 10.0 20.0 27.0 (114.0 BFD) 19.0 22.0           212.0 98.0
18th 7 FRA-17 Pic Fabian 14.0 (66.0) 21.0 34.0 15.0 15.0           165.0 99.0
19th 117 POL-16 Mikolaj Lahn 30.0 5.0 18.0 38.0 (70.0) 10.0           171.0 101.0
20th 1 GBR-91 Ben Cornish 16.0 30.0 8.0 12.0 (47.0) 36.0           149.0 102.0
21st 70 SUI-38 Nils Theuninck (45.0) 16.0 26.0 33.0 28.0 8.0           156.0 111.0
22nd 18 ESP-17 Pablo Guitián (35.0) 27.0 22.0 13.0 24.0 26.0           147.0 112.0
23rd 107 RUS-6 Arkadiy Kistanov 42.0 50.0 (114.0 UFD) 5.0 9.0 11.0           231.0 117.0
24th 2 BRA-109 Jorge Zarif (114.0 UFD) 11.0 6.0 42.0 33.0 25.0           231.0 117.0
25th 40 GER-259 Phillip Kasueske 34.0 21.0 (41.0) 23.0 16.0 27.0           162.0 121.0
26th 11 CRO-1 Josip Olujic 23.0 15.0 (40.0) 31.0 20.0 40.0           169.0 129.0
27th 13 CRO-52 Nenad Bugarin 4.0 1.0 7.0 (114.0 BFD) 7.0 114.0 RET           247.0 133.0
28th 68 USA-91 Luke Muller (48.0) 32.0 16.0 17.0 23.0 47.0           183.0 135.0
29th 62 SWE-11 Johannes Pettersson 36.0 (52.0) 15.0 15.0 50.0 24.0           192.0 140.0
30th 15 ESP-7 Alejandro Muscat 43.0 22.0 28.0 30.0 (49.0) 17.0           189.0 140.0
31st 94 ESP-235 Joan Cardona 26.0 (35.0) 31.0 29.2 RDGa 21.0 33.0           175.2 140.2
32nd 14 CAN-18 Tom Ramshaw 12.0 55.0 24.0 18.0 32.0 (114.0 BFD)           255.0 141.0
33rd 81 NOR-9 Lars Johan Brodtkorb 17.0 19.0 38.0 22.0 45.0 (54.0)           195.0 141.0
34th 33 ITA-59 Alessio Spadoni (46.0) 25.0 36.0 26.0 36.0 19.0           188.0 142.0
35th 108 RUS-57 Terpigorev Egor 29.0 (61.0) 42.0 14.0 37.0 23.0           206.0 145.0
36th 64 ITA-123 Filippo Baldassari 22.0 29.0 19.0 43.0 (61.0) 34.0           208.0 147.0
37th 28 ITA-66 Enrico Voltolini 7.0 44.0 37.0 (114.0 BFD) 56.0 14.0           272.0 158.0
38th 3 TUR-21 Alican Kaynar 19.0 54.0 43.0 (114.0 BFD) 27.0 18.0           275.0 161.0
39th 106 DEN-24 André Hojen Christiansen 38.0 24.0 (45.0) 44.0 30.0 28.0           209.0 164.0
40th 37 GBR-29 Peter McCoy 39.0 33.0 23.0 28.0 (60.0) 43.0           226.0 166.0
41st 101 AUS-32 Jock Calvert (47.0) 45.0 33.0 41.0 43.0 9.0           218.0 171.0
42nd 93 IRL-22 Fionn Lyden 32.0 36.0 32.0 50.0 34.0 (55.0)           239.0 184.0
43rd 118 RUS-1 Evgenii Deev 33.0 51.0 48.0 (114.0 BFD) 14.0 39.0           299.0 185.0
44th 42 GER-595 Simon Gorgels 44.0 (71.0) 35.0 51.0 25.0 32.0           258.0 187.0
45th 22 AUS-41 Lewis Brake 56.0 17.0 47.0 29.0 39.0 (76.0)           264.0 188.0
46th 113 FIN-225 Mikael Hyrylainen 25.0 (75.0) 29.0 37.0 65.0 41.0           272.0 197.0
47th 36 FIN-218 Tapio Nirkko (114.0 DSQ) 47.0 13.0 8.0 17.0 114.0 RET           313.0 199.0
48th 39 GBR-98 Cameron Tweedle 52.0 26.0 44.0 27.0 52.0 (73.0)           274.0 201.0
49th 26 IRL-6 Oisin Mcclelland 24.0 67.0 46.0 25.0 (72.0) 49.0           283.0 211.0
50th 82 FRA-9 Guillaume Boisard (51.0) 38.0 50.0 39.0 46.0 38.0           262.0 211.0
51st 88 FRA-2 Antoine Devineau 55.0 37.0 (68.0) 56.0 13.0 59.0           288.0 220.0
52nd 67 FRA-111 Valerian Lebrun 59.0 31.0 54.0 (61.0) 29.0 50.0           284.0 223.0
53rd 75 FRA-75 Lauret Hay 64.0 18.0 52.0 60.0 (79.0) 30.0           303.0 224.0
54th 47 GBR-96 Hector Simpson 41.0 39.0 49.0 46.0 51.0 (62.0)           288.0 226.0
55th 30 UKR-4 Andrii Gusenko 37.0 (114.0 UFD) 51.0 20.0 57.0 63.0           342.0 228.0
56th 78 EST-1 Taavi Valter Taveter 49.0 40.0 (60.0) 47.0 42.0 52.0           290.0 230.0
57th 23 NZL-64 Brendan McCarty 54.0 70.0 (71.0) 52.0 26.0 35.0           308.0 237.0
58th 52 CZE-1 Micael Maier (60.0) 49.0 56.0 48.0 35.0 53.0           301.0 241.0
59th 34 GBR-81 James Skulczuk (62.0) 43.0 62.0 54.0 48.0 37.0           306.0 244.0
60th 25 CAN-2 Kyle Martin (66.0) 41.0 55.0 53.0 58.0 44.0           317.0 251.0
61st 60 RUS-711 Dmitriy Petrov 27.0 63.0 70.0 35.0 (80.0) 58.0           333.0 253.0
62nd 95 TUR-35 Can Akdurak 50.0 28.0 74.0 49.0 (83.0) 71.0           355.0 272.0
63rd 29 POL-8 Lukasz Lesinski 53.0 46.0 59.0 58.0 (75.0) 69.0           360.0 285.0
64th 73 BRA-177 Andre Mirky 63.0 73.0 61.0 45.0 44.0 (74.0)           360.0 286.0
65th 91 ARG-1 Santiago Falasca 57.0 (82.0) 69.0 57.0 63.0 42.0           370.0 288.0
66th 71 ESP-57 Victor Gorostegui 40.0 (81.0) 53.0 32.0 114.0 DNE 56.0           376.0 295.0
67th 58 BER-9 Rockal Evans 61.0 68.0 58.0 66.0 (89.0) 48.0           390.0 301.0
68th 61 RUS-161 Aleksander Kulyukin 58.0 57.0 66.0 65.0 (73.0) 57.0           376.0 303.0
69th 105 AUS-2 Rob McMillan 65.0 64.0 (114.0 UFD) 55.0 38.0 92.0           428.0 314.0
70th 45 GBR-707 Callum Dixon 72.0 60.0 75.0 63.0 (87.0) 51.0           408.0 321.0
71st 102 HUN-911 Elemér Péter Haidekker (86.0) 84.0 67.0 77.0 53.0 46.0           413.0 327.0
72nd 79 SLO-99 Jan Orel 82.0 (85.0) 72.0 71.0 40.0 66.0           416.0 331.0
73rd 49 ESP-117 Carlos Ordónez Sánchez 79.0 48.0 (81.0) 68.0 76.0 68.0           420.0 339.0
74th 83 FRA-99 Marc Allain des Beauvais 76.0 79.0 (85.0) 85.0 41.0 61.0           427.0 342.0
75th 38 GBR-703 Markus Bettum 68.0 65.0 57.0 62.0 91.0 (93.0)           436.0 343.0
76th 100 UKR-8 Taras Havrysh 69.0 53.0 65.0 72.0 85.0 (114.0 BFD)           458.0 344.0
77th 112 FIN-99 Jesse Kylanpaa 81.0 (103.0) 63.0 70.0 66.0 67.0           450.0 347.0
78th 46 HUN-7 Antal Székely 75.0 59.0 73.0 69.0 (93.0) 75.0           444.0 351.0
79th 55 AUS-22 Joe McMillan 67.0 76.0 64.0 (114.0 DNF) 69.0 82.0           472.0 358.0
80th 80 SLO-11 Liam Orel 74.0 (114.0 DNC) 80.0 91.0 59.0 64.0           482.0 368.0
81st 43 GER-279 Nicolaus Schmidt 70.0 72.0 91.0 75.0 67.0 (103.0)           478.0 375.0
82nd 111 FIN-118 Waltteri Moisio 71.0 89.0 79.0 (114.0 BFD) 71.0 70.0           494.0 380.0
83rd 86 HUN-80 Domonkos Németh 93.0 (104.0) 86.0 67.0 55.0 89.0           494.0 390.0
84th 89 ESP-337 Miguel Cabrerizo (105.0) 87.0 82.0 83.0 62.0 77.0           496.0 391.0
85th 65 POL-73 Andrzej Romanowski 84.0 77.0 89.0 79.0 (107.0) 65.0           501.0 394.0
86th 51 IRI-1 Ahmad Ahmadi (101.0) 78.0 88.0 59.0 90.0 80.0           496.0 395.0
87th 72 HUN-907 Botond Berecz 95.0 69.0 83.0 76.0 77.0 (104.0)           504.0 400.0
88th 109 HUN-50 Ákos Lukáts 88.0 (94.0) 93.0 64.0 74.0 83.0           496.0 402.0
89th 77 CZE-80 Martin Jozif 78.0 (102.0) 77.0 80.0 86.0 81.0           504.0 402.0
90th 57 CZE-67 Jozef Jochovic 85.0 74.0 78.0 78.0 (99.0) 91.0           505.0 406.0
91st 69 HUN-56 Martin Tenke 94.0 (101.0) 84.0 74.0 95.0 72.0           520.0 419.0
92nd 21 AUS-69 John Alexander 87.0 62.0 92.0 (94.0) 92.0 88.0           515.0 421.0
93rd 59 CZE-75 Vladimir Skalicky 77.0 93.0 (98.0) 81.0 84.0 87.0           520.0 422.0
94th 85 HUN-75 Örs Németh 83.0 (88.0) 87.0 88.0 82.0 84.0           512.0 424.0
95th 110 GBR-26 Joe Stocker (104.0) 91.0 96.0 95.0 64.0 79.0           529.0 425.0
96th 66 HUN-5 Pallay Tibor 80.0 98.0 76.0 (114.0 BFD) 94.0 78.0           540.0 426.0
97th 84 UKR-10 Valentin Klymentyev (96.0) 83.0 94.0 84.0 81.0 86.0           524.0 428.0
98th 31 UKR-5 Oleksandr Gusenko 73.0 96.0 95.0 73.0 (104.0) 100.0           541.0 437.0
99th 103 HUN-11 Péter Haidekker 89.0 92.0 90.0 82.0 (100.0) 90.0           543.0 443.0
100th 98 HUN-41 Zoltán Bartos 98.0 86.0 97.0 97.0 (103.0) 85.0           566.0 463.0
101st 63 GER-231 Denny Jeschull 91.0 80.0 103.0 89.0 105.0 (114.0 BFD)           582.0 468.0
102nd 27 ESP-99 Gerardo Seeliger 97.0 90.0 (102.0) 93.0 101.0 97.0           580.0 478.0
103rd 104 HUN-30 Zsigmond Kántor (103.0) 99.0 99.0 90.0 96.0 101.0           588.0 485.0
104th 96 HUN-59 László Taubert 90.0 95.0 (104.0) 101.0 102.0 98.0           590.0 486.0
105th 76 HUN-8 Zsolt Mészáros 100.0 97.0 101.0 87.0 (109.0) 102.0           596.0 487.0
106th 53 HUN-6 Mihány Zoltán Demeczky 102.0 100.0 (106.0) 92.0 98.0 96.0           594.0 488.0
107th 116 SVK-21 Michal Hrivnák 107.0 (109.0) 107.0 98.0 78.0 99.0           598.0 489.0
108th 87 RUS-142 Polovinkin Yuri 92.0 (107.0) 100.0 96.0 97.0 106.0           598.0 491.0
109th 44 AUT-1 Moritz Spitzauer (108.0) 106.0 105.0 100.0 88.0 95.0           602.0 494.0
110th 54 HUN-2 Péter Sipos 99.0 (108.0) 108.0 86.0 108.0 94.0           603.0 495.0
111th 50 GBR-631 Richard Hart 106.0 105.0 (109.0) 99.0 106.0 105.0           630.0 521.0
112th 41 HUN-33 Zsuzsa Komm 109.0 (114.0 DNC) 110.0 102.0 114.0 DNC 107.0           656.0 542.0
113th 24 GRE-21 Antonis Tsotras (114.0 DNC) 114.0 DNC 114.0 DNC 114.0 DNC 114.0 DNC 114.0 DNC           684.0 570.0
North Sails Performance 2023 - FOOTERCyclops Marine 2023 November - FOOTERVaikobi 2024 FOOTER

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