World Sailing Cup Palma 2013 - Giles Scott aims to right some wrongs

by Rob Kothe and the Sail-World Team on 31 Mar 2013 Going back to 2011-2012 there was a serious battle for GBR Finn Class Olympic selection. Ben Ainslie just managed to edge out Giles Scott and the rest is history.

Winding the clock forward to the 2013 Trofeo S.A.R. Princesa Sofia MAPFRE – it’s the European dawning of the new quadrennial which will complete at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic sailing regatta 2016.

Ben Ainslie, now Sir Ben Ainslie, has retired from Olympic class sailing and Giles Scott is deadly serious about taking Finn class Gold.

Sail-World interviewed him in the Finn boat park today: `The Finn fleet, it’s fair to say, has been dominated by Brits since 2000. We had Iain Percy win then Ben win, then Ben win and then Ben win again. It has been very Brit dominant and I think that is why we have ended up with such a big fleet within that.’

Scott was plainly shattered to lose 2012 GBR Olympic Finn class selection. He won the Europeans, won the Perth 2011 Worlds, but lost Olympic selection because he came second at Sail for Gold to Ainslie.

‘Having lost the Finn selection, in 2012 I only did a few events because I was off doing the AC 45 stuff so I just did the nationals in Falmouth before the Worlds and Sail for Gold and won them both.

‘So in this next quadrennial there are, for me, some wrongs to correct.

‘I am only doing two events this year, because of AC45 involvement and then I will get back into the Finn hard after the America´s Cup is done. But right now it is nice to come back and do some Finn racing.

‘Especially over the last four years the fleet has probably gone both fitter and heavier, definitely more athletic. That athleticism allows you work harder downwind and obviously the weight upwind helps.

‘At the minute I am heavy because I have been doing Cup stuff so I am about 100kg at the moment. The Finn fleet ranges from low 90s to 108 probably.

‘Looking forward to 2016… I imagine we will all be around 94/95kg, there will a natural dip with the light winds in Rio.
‘And there is there is new young blood and I am sure they will pick it up very quickly as well.

‘It will be very interesting if the six times Laser World Champion and 2012 London Olympics Gold medalist Tom Slingsby in there in the Finn class mix as well, he has murmured the possibility to me.

Interesting times ahead, just two guest appearances for Scott in the 2013 season but then some series fights ahead in the Mens single handed heavy weight class.