ISAF Sailing Worlds - The kind of form most sailors only dream about

by Robert Deaves on 18 Sep 2014

2014 ISAF Sailing World Championship, Santander - Finn Robert Deaves

The UK’s Giles Scott produced the kind of form on the third day of the 2014 ISAF World Championships in Santander that most sailors only dream about. He picked up three more bullets for a perfect score after four races to lead overall from Jonathan Lobert (FRA) and Ed Wright (GBR).

The fleet split remained the same as from the first two days, so the sailors have only been able to race against half the fleet so far. From Thursday, the fleet will be split into gold and silver fleets.

After two days of fitful, unstable, and too light winds, day three in Santander was completely different. An overnight storm has left behind some solid 15-25 knots winds that kept many classes ashore. For the Finns however it was just what they had been waiting for and they revelled in the big winds early on for three action packed, exciting races. There was a long delay however as the race committee couldn't get the committee boat anchor to hold.

The current once again caught out a few boats, and doing penalty turns in those conditions is not easy, as the photo gallery will show in graphic detail.

Giles Scott (GBR) was never really threatened in any race though Zsombor Berecz (HUN) did steal a large lead on the opposite side to Scott in race 3, a lead that soon evaporated as the race progressed. The European Champion wrapped up three race wins to claim his place at the top of the leaderboard at the end of the opening series.

He said, 'Early on it was pretty epic. But it was disappointing that the organisers can't get a committee boat that can hold station. It was very frustrating to be waiting around for two hours while there was a great wind in place. Especially as the last race turned a bit odd with the wind swinging through 180. The wind just kept going right all during the race.'

'The shift was very gradual, but it wasn't normal racing. But for me personally it was still a very good day so I am happy about that.'

2014 ISAF Sailing World Championship, Santander - Finn © Robert Deaves

Second placed Jonathan Lobert (FRA) recovered from a double capsize in the first race of the day to score 2, 4 and trail Scott by six points.

He said, 'In the first race I had a double capsize. I had a great start, but it was very shifty and very turbulent so it wasn't easy. I was top 10 at the first mark so that was okay. I made a mistake downwind. One big gust came and I was surprised and capsized by the lee. It took me a while to get the boat up and I capsized again at the downwind mark. So I was full of water and it was race over for me.'

2014 ISAF Sailing World Championship, Santander - Finn © Robert Deaves

'Then I tried to be in good shape for the next races. I got a second in the next race so that was good. I was also on the game in the next race. I was third at the downwind mark, and I lost a little bit upwind, but managed to come back to fourth, so pretty happy with that. But now I know that I cannot make any more mistakes.'

Ed Wright (GBR) was unable to sail the opening race after picking a black flag disqualification in Tuesday's abandoned race but channelled his energies into the remaining two races to pick up two race wins and sit in third overall.

2014 ISAF Sailing World Championship, Santander - Finn © Robert Deaves

Milan Vujaninovic (CRO) had a good day with a 2, 8, 8 but mulled over his missed chances. 'It was a good day for me but could have been a bit better. I made some good decisions on which side to go. I had good speed, especially in the stronger part of the day, which I was happy with, and I was just very patient. That's where I gained the most. In the first race today I was second. In the other two races I was top three at times, but I think many people could say this, but I am happy with all top ten places so far.'

Andrew Murdoch (NZL) had an up and down day with 5, 12, 25. He said, 'I had a reasonable good day. I could have done with a better one in the last race. The wind died out but I didn't have a particularly good first beat on that one anyway. I was kind of hoping the randomness would help me out in that one but it actually made it worse.'

2014 ISAF Sailing World Championship, Santander - Finn © Robert Deaves

'A fifth in the first race was good for me and I was just outside the top 10 in the second. But there were lots of places up and down during some of the races. I felt reasonably good speed wise and making some good tactical calls.'

While most boats favoured the left in the first two races, 'In the second race the right paid quite a lot. I think that how Zsombor had such a big lead. I was heading into the right with him and decided to pull the pin on that, unfortunately. And some guys who went hard right on the second beat came out well. I stayed on the left and we did OK out of it.'

'But it was good to actually get some racing in. We've had some long days on the water. It was another long one today, but at least we got three races in and I think everyone is pretty happy with that.'

2014 ISAF Sailing World Championship, Santander - Finn © Robert Deaves

Finn Overall Results

Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race				Points
Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	1	2	3	4	Total	Net
1	GBR	GBR 41	Giles Scott	(1)	1	1	1	4.00	3.00
2	FRA	FRA 112	Jonathan Lobert	3	(25)	2	4	34.00	9.00
3	GBR	GBR 11	Edward Wright	9	(40) DNF	1	1	51.00	11.00
4	NOR	NOR 1	Anders Pedersen	5	3	3	(14)	25.00	11.00
5	ITA	ITA 146	Michele Paoletti	(40) DSQ	2	3	9	54.00	14.00
6	CRO	CRO 524	Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic	5	3	(6)	6	20.00	14.00
7	AUS	AUS 41	Jake Lilley	6	(40) DNF	5	4	55.00	15.00
8	CRO	CRO 69	Milan Vujasinovi?	6	2	(8)	8	24.00	16.00
9	AUS	AUS 261	Oliver Tweddell	1	9	7	(22)	39.00	17.00
10	EST	EST 2	Deniss Karpak	2	(13)	12	3	30.00	17.00
11	DEN	DEN 2	Jonas Hogh-Christensen	2	7	9	(17)	35.00	18.00
12	FRA	FRA 29	Thomas Le Breton	(14)	10	5	5	34.00	20.00
13	SLO	SLO 573	Vasilij Zbogar	7	4	10	(16)	37.00	21.00
14	POR	POR 5	Frederico Melo	4	1	17	(24)	46.00	22.00
15	CAN	CAN 5	Gregory Douglas	16	(20)	4	2	42.00	22.00
16	FIN	FIN 218	Tapio Nirkko	(19)	14	2	7	42.00	23.00
17	NZL	NZL 24	Josh Junior	(12)	7	8	8	35.00	23.00
18	USA	USA 6	Caleb Paine	(18)	6	15	3	42.00	24.00
19	HUN	HUN 40	Zsombor Berecz	13	(17)	4	7	41.00	24.00
20	NZL	NZL 16	Andrew Murdoch	9	5	11	(24)	49.00	25.00
21	SWE	SWE 6	Björn Allansson	8	13	6	(20)	47.00	27.00
22	SWE	SWE 33	Max Salminen	10	(12)	7	10	39.00	27.00
23	CRO	CRO 1	Josip Olujic	3	(19)	13	12	47.00	28.00
24	ITA	ITA 123	Filippo Baldassari	8	(15)	15	5	43.00	28.00
25	ESP	ESP 8	Pablo Guitian Sarria	11	5	(14)	14	44.00	30.00
26	NED	NED 842	Pieter-Jan Postma	4	9	(40) UFD	18	71.00	31.00
27	GRE	GRE 77	Ioannis Mitakis	11	15	(24)	6	56.00	32.00
28	URU	URU 301	Alejandro Jose Foglia	(17)	8	12	12	49.00	32.00
29	SLO	SLO 5	Gasper Vincec	21	4	(27)	11	63.00	36.00
30	CRO	CRO 52	Nenad Bugarin	15	10	11	(31)	67.00	36.00
31	TUR	TUR 21	Alican Kaynar	13	(18)	10	15	56.00	38.00
32	RUS	RUS 57	Egor Terpigorev	21	16	(26)	2	65.00	39.00
33	BRA	BRA 109	Jorge João Zarif	15	(22)	14	11	62.00	40.00
34	CZE	CZE 1	Michael Maier	(22)	8	20	13	63.00	41.00
35	POL	POL 17	Piotr Kula	10	23	(25)	10	68.00	43.00
36	DEN	DEN 4	Mads Bendix	14	(22)	16	16	68.00	46.00
37	GBR	GBR 29	Peter McCoy	(19)	19	13	15	66.00	47.00
38	GER	GER 259	Phillip Kasueske	(24)	16	19	17	76.00	52.00
39	ESP	ESP 7	Alex Muscat	16	11	(29)	26	82.00	53.00
40	ITA	ITA 66	Enrico Voltolini	12	(26)	16	25	79.00	53.00
41	RUS	RUS 7	Anatoliy Korshikov	(27)	12	23	19	81.00	54.00
42	ITA	ITA 117	Giorgio Poggi	(25)	14	18	22	79.00	54.00
43	CAN	CAN 110	Martin Robitaille	(32)	24	22	9	87.00	55.00
44	POL	POL 1	Milosz Wojewski	17	21	18	(28)	84.00	56.00
45	GBR	GBR 91	Ben Cornish	24	20	(33)	13	90.00	57.00
46	FRA	FRA 177	Fabian Pic	18	(24)	21	18	81.00	57.00
47	EST	EST 11	Lauri Väinsalu	25	25	9	(32)	91.00	59.00
48	GBR	GBR 88	Mark Andrews	(28)	6	28	27	89.00	61.00
49	CZE	CZE 5	Ondrej Teply	7	(34)	31	23	95.00	61.00
50	RUS	RUS 1	Alexey Selivanov	(33)	17	24	20	94.00	61.00
51	RUS	RUS 6	Arkadiy Kistanov	22	21	21	(27)	91.00	64.00
52	CHN	CHN 1226	Lei Gong	20	(27)	22	25	94.00	67.00
53	POL	POL 13	Michal Jodlowski	31	11	(34)	26	102.00	68.00
54	UKR	UKR 5	Andriy Gusenko	26	(35)	19	23	103.00	68.00
55	DEN	DEN 31	Stig Steinfurth	(35)	23	17	31	106.00	71.00
56	ITA	ITA 747	Simone Ferrarese	20	30	(34)	21	105.00	71.00
57	CZE	CZE 85	Tomas Vika	(31)	29	25	19	104.00	73.00
58	RUS	RUS 9	Eduard Skornyakov	29	18	(32)	28	107.00	75.00
59	CHN	CHN 1225	He Chen	(34)	26	30	21	111.00	77.00
60	ESP	ESP 500	Jose Alejandro Aranzueque Tormo	27	28	23	(34)	112.00	78.00
61	GER	GER 252	Eike Tjark Martens	(37)	32	20	29	118.00	81.00
62	GBR	GBR 18	James Hadden	28	27	27	(33)	115.00	82.00
63	FIN	FIN 99	Jesse Kylänpää	(36)	28	26	33	123.00	87.00
64	IRL	IRL 4	Ross Hamilton	26	(33)	32	30	121.00	88.00
65	FRA	FRA 89	Benjamin Montagut	30	29	29	(35)	123.00	88.00
66	TUR	TUR 211	Alican Basegmez	(36)	31	28	30	125.00	89.00
67	GER	GER 713	Lars Haverland	23	35	(37)	36	131.00	94.00
68	ESP	ESP 112	Fernando Ros	(40) UFD	31	35	29	135.00	95.00
69	AUS	AUS 22	Joseph McMillan	29	32	(36)	34	131.00	95.00
70	POL	POL 16	Mikolaj Lahn	32	30	33	(37)	132.00	95.00
71	NED	NED 972	Tobias Kirschbaum	(33)	33	31	32	129.00	96.00
72	CRO	CRO 6	Dan Lovrovic	34	34	30	(40) UFD	138.00	98.00
73	ESP	ESP 24	Victor Gorostegui	23	36	(40) DNF	40 DNF	139.00	99.00
74	BUL	BUL 13	valentin nedyalkov	(38)	37	35	35	145.00	107.00
75	ESP	ESP 161	Miguel Fernandez Vasco	30	(40) DNF	40 DNF	40 DNF	150.00	110.00
76	USA	USA 69	John F Dane	35	(40) DNF	40 DNF	40 DNC	155.00	115.00
77	USA	USA 23	James Hunter	37	(40) DNF	40 DNF	40 DNC	157.00	117.00
78	TUN	TUN 1	Karim Esseghir	39	(40) RET	40 DNF	40 DNF	159.00	119.00