ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres - Mixed bag for the Finns on day 4

by Robert Deaves on 25 Apr 2014

Pieter-Jan Posta in action in the Finn fleet on day 4 of the ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres Thom Touw http://www.thomtouw.com

On day four of the ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres, mixed fortunes and high scores played with the Finn fleet. Pieter-Jan Postma (NED) still holds a sizeable lead of 17 points from Thomas Le Breton (FRA), who won race 8, and Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) who moves up to third after two third place finishes. The first race of the day was won by Björn Allansson (SWE).

With the points marking the medal race cut extremely tight, Thursday was always going to be a crucial day on the water. For many it was make or break day, to either maintain their medal race place or stay within striking distance going into Friday’s final two opening series races. There was still a lot to race for, and with a number of boats already with high scores, it was important to maintain a clean sheet.

The Finns were scheduled for a later start today, so enjoyed the best of the wind conditions, as once again the wind increased during the day for another near perfect day’s sailing in Hyères, though again an early postponement delayed the start.

However very few managed that. Overall leader Pieter-Jan Postma (NED) scored 58 in the opening race after breaking his halyard, before recovering to sixth in the second. In spite of that he only lost one point off his lead. The best performance of the day was from Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) with two third places, and the reward for this was taking third overall for the double European Champion.

Milosz Wojewski (POL) was the early leader in race 7, a lead that he held until the final downwind, when Björn Allansson (SWE) came past to win by just seven seconds, with a fast approaching Kljakovic Gaspic just two seconds behind.

Gasper Vincec (SLO) finally found the front in race 8, leading round from Le Breton. Kljakovic Gaspic spent most of the race in third, though Anders Pedersen (NOR) led him through the gate. Le Breton found a way to the front on the final downwind to win his second race of the series, while Kljakovic Gaspic got into third on the final upwind.

Kljakovic Gaspic said, 'I had good feeling today. I made a good strategy in both races and in the end had great scores. Also I am happy with my speed but I need to get fitter to be able to push more and few more kilos would help as well.'

After a blistering start to the regatta, Ioannis Mitakis (GRE) has had an inconsistent few days, picking up a BFD in race 6 to drop to seventh overall. He managed to maintain seventh today with a 16, 4 to leave him 12 points within the medal race cut. Meanwhile London 2012 bronze medalist Jonathan Lobert (FRA) has dropped down the rankings. After picking up a disqualification in race 7, he had a poor first race today before dropping out of the second and now languishes in 22nd place.

Postma explained his breakage. 'Today was something different. I was around tenth or 12th at the top mark and then my halyard broke. I tried to fix it as I went downwind and I finished the race but I only had three boats behind me. Then I needed to fix it and it took us 15 minutes or so and I only had one more minute before the race so it was really close. A lot of people helped and in that last race I was sixth.

'The points are getting close. It will be exciting tomorrow, I like some action and the heat is on.'

2014 ISAF Sailing World Cup, Hyeres, France - Finn fleet © Thom Touw http://www.thomtouw.com

Race 7 winner Allansson had this to say, 'In the first race I had an OK start down by the pin, but had to fight hard for every metre. I managed the shifts well and improved all through the race. At the last top mark I rounded second after POL 1 [Wojewski], and just gave it my all on the last run. I was able, with max heart rate to take the lead and extend to the finish line. It was an awesome feeling.'

'In the second race the right hand side was paying, which it had not done in the first race. This meant that all of us that gone to the left had to fight hard to get back in the game, while the sailors that chosen the right hand side could capitalize on the shift to the right.'

Le Breton explained his strategy, 'Today it was important to be on the good shift, because we had only one big shift per upwind. I managed to be top five at the first mark and was quite fast downwind. I was second at the bottom and I finally caught Gasper [Vincec] on the last downwind.'

Vincec actually scored the second best performance of the day with a 6, 2. He has only just returned to the class after losing the 2012 trials to Vasilij Zbogar (SLO). He explained, 'I'm slowly coming back. We are not so focussed on the results but we are doing more attention on the small things. I was out for two years and it's very difficult to be in racing mode. Also I have changed all my materials and boat and mast so I still need to find top gear with it.'

'Today was pretty windy, 15 knots. I had two good start with good speed I was able to control the group. It was important that I could control my position from the start to the finish.'

There are just two more races in the opening series on Friday, before the medal race for the top 10 on Saturday. All boats are now being tracked and this can be watched live online here.

Finn – Overall Results

Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race								Points
Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Net
1	NED	NED842	Pieter-Jan Postma	5	9	1	2	1	1	(57)	6	82.00	25.00
2	FRA	FRA29	Thomas Le Breton	9	(15)	5	1	10	4	12	1	57.00	42.00
3	CRO	CRO524	Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic	16	(20)	2	3	13	3	3	3	63.00	43.00
4	USA	USA6	Caleb Paine	7	3	3	10	5	17	9	(18)	72.00	54.00
5	SWE	SWE6	Björn Allansson	23	(33)	12	5	4	5	1	8	91.00	58.00
6	NZL	NZL24	Josh Junior	(60) BFD	4	9	7	8	2	29	7	126.00	66.00
7	GRE	GRE77	Ioannis Mitakis	2	1	17	4	24	(60) BFD	16	4	128.00	68.00
8	EST	EST2	Deniss Karpak	14	13	13	6	2	13	7	(21)	89.00	68.00
9	CRO	CRO69	Milan Vujasinovi?	3	5	(22)	11	15	20	11	13	100.00	78.00
10	AUS	AUS41	Jake Lilley	4	11	(60) UFD	17	7	21	8	12	140.00	80.00
11	SWE	SWE33	Max Salminen	6	(34)	8	9	16	11	22	10	116.00	82.00
12	SLO	SLO5	Gasper Vincec	12	23	(60) UFD	12	20	8	6	2	143.00	83.00
13	BRA	BRA109	Jorge João Zarif	18	(26)	6	16	6	23	4	16	115.00	89.00
14	ITA	ITA117	Giorgio Poggi	(60) DNF	16	4	18	3	7	5	37	150.00	90.00
15	ITA	ITA123	Filippo Baldassari	19	2	10	14	(28)	14	14	23	124.00	96.00
16	NOR	NOR1	Anders Pedersen	11	(31)	11	21	12	16	21	5	128.00	97.00
17	POL	POL1	Milosz Wojewski	8	10	(32)	19	26	12	2	26	135.00	103.00
18	FRA	FRA112	Jonathan Lobert	1	28	7	8	(60) DSQ	6	24 RDG	30 RDG	164.00	104.00
19	POL	POL17	Piotr Kula	17	6	(38)	28	17	10	18	17	151.00	113.00
20	ITA	ITA146	Michele Paoletti	21	29	14	13	11	24	(60) DSQ	15	187.00	127.00
21	NZL	NZL16	Andrew Murdoch	(60) BFD	27	24	15	19	9	15	22	191.00	131.00
22	DEN	DEN4	Mads Bendix	24	18	(30)	24	14	15	20	25	170.00	140.00
23	AUS	AUS261	Oliver Tweddell	27	17	21	33	23	(35)	13	9	178.00	143.00
24	BRA	BRA-1	Bruno Prada	10	7	26	30	22	(60) BFD	24	31	210.00	150.00
25	RUS	RUS9	Eduard Skornyakov	20	14	23	(37)	18	29	19	28	188.00	151.00
26	CRO	CRO1	Josip Olujic	15	8	33	26	(39)	37	10	27	195.00	156.00
27	CRO	CRO7	Tudor Bilic	26	(42)	27	34	9	18	25	24	205.00	163.00
28	POR	POR5	Frederico Melo	13	21	15	22	(60) BFD	19	17	60 RET	227.00	167.00
29	ITA	ITA66	Enrico Voltolini	22	25	18	(36)	25	22	28	33	209.00	173.00
30	EST	EST11	Lauri Väinsalu	28	38	(40)	25	21	30	26	19	227.00	187.00
31	RUS	RUS57	Egor Terpigorev	25	47	16	29	37	(60) BFD	30	20	264.00	204.00
32	RUS	RUS1	Alexey Selivanov	35	24	29	23	30	25	38	(45)	249.00	204.00
33	POL	POL13	Michal Jodlowski	31	12	25	(60) BFD	27	39	45	32	271.00	211.00
34	CRO	CRO52	Nenad Bugarin	34	30	20	20	(60) BFD	27	44	38	273.00	213.00
35	FRA	FRA177	Fabian Pic	30	22	35	38	(42)	32	32	40	271.00	229.00
36	RUS	RUS8	Anatoliy Korshikov	29	43	28	27	35	(60) BFD	34	34	290.00	230.00
37	POL	POL16	Mikolaj Lahn	36	(40)	31	35	32	33	39	29	275.00	235.00
38	POL	POL111	Jakub Marciniak	39	36	36	31	(60) BFD	60 BFD	23	11	296.00	236.00
39	CZE	CZE1	Michael Maier	40	41	34	32	31	28	(43)	30	279.00	236.00
40	RUS	RUS6	Arkadiy Kistanov	32	35	19	44	(60) BFD	60 RET	42	14	306.00	246.00
41	CRO	CRO6	Dan Lovrovic	(46)	19	39	41	38	38.1 RDG	41	43	305.10	259.10
42	DEN	DEN23	Martin Boidin	37	39	41	40	36	36	(46)	35	310.00	264.00
43	ITA	ITA 747	Simone Ferrarese	45	(48)	44	42	37 DPI	29 DPI	27	41	313.00	265.00
44	USA	USA21	Gordon Lamphere	43	(49)	45	45	29	31	33	46	321.00	272.00
45	FRA	FRA89	Benjamin Montagut	33	45	37	39	45	(60) BFD	37	39	335.00	275.00
46	RUS	RUS11	Kirill Luzan	47	32	42	46	(49)	38	35	36	325.00	276.00
47	FRA	FRA114	Thomas Morel	38	37	(60) DNF	60 DNC	33	34	36	44	342.00	282.00
48	EST	EST7	Harles Liiv	41	(50)	47	48	41	40	40	48	355.00	305.00
49	FRA	FRA99	Marc Allain Des Beauvais	44	(51)	43	43	40	41	47	51	360.00	309.00
50	FRA	FRA75	Laurent HAY	42	46	(49)	47	43	42	48	42	359.00	310.00
51	USA	USA69	John F Dane	48	(52)	48	49	47	45	51	47	387.00	335.00
52	ITA	ITA191	Alessandro Cattaneo	49	44	51	(53)	50	49	50	49	395.00	342.00
53	ITA	ITA83	Matteo Savio	(60) DNC	60 DNC	46	51	44	43	49	50	403.00	343.00
54	VEN	VEN100	Johnny Bilbao	50	54	53 SCP	55 SCP	46	44	53	(60) DNF	415.00	355.00
55	SUI	SUI63	Thomas Gautschi	52	(56)	53	50	48	47	55	52	413.00	357.00
56	TUN	TUN1	Karim Esseghir	53	53	52	(56)	53	46	52	54	419.00	363.00
57	NED	NED100	Arend Van Der Sluis	51	58	54	55	51	48	56	(60) DNF	433.00	373.00
58	FIN	FIN226	Jukka Partinen	54	55	(56)	54	52	51	54	53	429.00	373.00
59	USA	USA2	Charles Heimler	55	57	55	57	54	50	58	(60) DNC	446.00	386.00