ISAF Sailing World Cup Palma 2013 - Tight finish for Finn class

by Robert Deaves on 7 Apr 2013 ISAF Sailing World Cup Palma 2013 - Finn Class. Giles Scott (GBR) took a narrow one place victory over Pieter-Jan Postma (NED) in the double medal race finale to the Trofeo S.A.R. Princesa Sofía MAPFRE in Palma de Mallorca on Saturday. Race wins went to British team mates Andrew Mills (GBR) and Mark Andrews (GBR).

Two short medal races were sailed to trial a new scoring and race format for the week, which judging by feedback received so far, most of the sailors are not very comfortable with.

Postma took the first advantage beating Scott in the first medal race to narrow Scott's lead to just one point. It came down to a tense match race in the second heat to decide the winner. Scott deployed better tactics at the start of the final race to get the better of Dutchman.

'It was quite stressful with the double medal race. Matt had a little bit on trying to work out the maths to see if we could do the take-out in the pre-start. I think he got it alright and it came good.'

'We needed to get a decent result in the first race, and then see how the points were, and as it was I finished a place behind Postma so it came down to who beat who in the final race.'

'PJ and I then match raced at the start of the second race, I finally succeeded in forcing him into an uncomfortable position and took a safe advance over him. We had a little bit of an engagement in the pre-start which was good fun and fortunately I came off the better. He also made it a little bit easier for me half way round when he capsized.'

On the scoring format, 'It did work out all right for me but I don't really like it as I prefer consistency over the week and the varied conditions to be recognised in the results.'

'I am happy to see that the break I have taken has not affected my performances Now I can go back to America's cup racing feeling good about it and guilt free.'

Meanwhile Vasilij Zbogar (SLO) posted the best other scorings of the day to move up one place to take home the bronze, though with more than double the points of the two leaders.

Results:

1.) GBR 41 Giles Scott 17 (3, 3)
2.) NED 842 Pieter Jan Postma 22 (2, 5)
3.) SLO 573 Vasilij Zbogar 45 (5, 4)
4.) FRA 112 Jonathan Lobert 48 (4, 7)
5.) GBR 85 Andrew Mills 51 (7, 1)
6.) GBR 88 Mark Andrews 58 (1, 8)
7.) NZL 16 Andrew Murdoch 65 (8, 4)
8.) NZL 24 Josh Junior 70 (6, 9)
9.) AUS 1 Brendan Casey 79 (OCS, 6)
10.) POL 17 Piotr Kula 82 (9, ISAF Sailing World Cup Final Results