Finn Europeans open up

by Courtesy ISAF on 15 May 2004 ‘It was puffy, shifty,…a patient man’s day’, Richard CLARKE, taking second place, summarized yesterday’s shifty Finn Europeans race by these simple words; but the race, in La Rochelle, France, was far from simple.

Starting with 15 knots, the wind was going all over the place. Boats at each end of the line were sailing on different tack. ‘It was hard to know who was leading on the first beat’ explained Guillaume Florent, who 11th today.

First at the top mark, Nenad VIALI from Croatia enjoyed ‘half an hour of glory’, before dropping to fourth position at the end of the reaches.
He was followed by Soren HOLM, Rafael TRUJILLO, Richard CLARKE, Andrew SIMPSON, Zhang XIANGFENG and Dean BARKER. Soren HOLM, who, like the Croatian, had lost some ground on the reaches, claimed first place at the end of the second beat in front of Richard CLARKE and Andrew SIMPSON.

The wind by then had dropped to 10 knots and the race committee had changed the Oscar flag (free pumping downwind) for Romeo, reverting to the usual Racing Rule 42.

The jury was again in action and penalized four sailors, including Ben AINSLIE and Mateusz KUSZNIEREWICZ, for the second time, forcing the regatta leader to retire from the race. ‘This is so stupid, I saw the C flag for the change of course at the top mark but I didn’t see the R flag. I was concentrated so hard on the shifts and Sebastien just behind me.

It is a real pity, I was coming eighth and this will make it harder to win the regatta.’ declared a disappointed Kusznierewicz.

Richard CLARKE led the fleet around the last leeward mark with Andrew SIMPSON just behind. The last beat proved tricky. Simpson took the option on the right while Clarke sailed more conservatively in the centre.

More pressure on the right lifted Andrew SIMPSON to the finish. Clarke was second in front of Soren HOLM and Rafael TRUJILLO. If the previous day was ‘kiwi day’ yesterday was declared ‘Croatian day’ with Nenad VIALI, Karlo KURET and Marin MISURA taking fifth, sixth and seventh places.

After six races (and one discard), Mateusz is still in the lead with 16 points over Ben AINSLIE and 18 points over Sebastien Godefroid. Florent Guillaume is in fourth place in front of Dean BARKER.

Australia’s Anthony ‘Nocka’ Nossiter is in 16th place overall, improving on his slow start to the Europeans.

In the battle for Olympic qualification, the top five Nations are: Austria (Florent RAUDASCHL), Argentina (Alejandro COLLA), Russia (Vladimir KRUTSKIKH), Italy (Michele MARCHESINI) and Hungary (Balazs HAJDU).

With three more races scheduled, anything can happen. Two races are scheduled for today (GMT), with a start at 1 PM.

Results:

1 KUSZNIEREWICZ Mateusz 10

2 AINSLIE Ben 26

3 GODEFROID Sébastien 28


16 NOSSITER Anthony 117.00


Full results are available on the event website:

www.srr-sailing.com/divers/pagesiteeuropefinn.htm