Sailors compete to master light winds on Day 1 at 2016 Finn Gold Cup

by Robert Deaves on 8 May 2016 Deniss Karpak (EST) is the early leader at the 60th Finn Gold Cup in Gaeta, Italy, after winning the opening race and then following that up with a third in the second. Giorgio Poggi (ITA) is second, while Peter-Jan Postma (NED) is third. The second race was dominated by Jonas Høgh-Christensen (DEN).

It was a hot and sunny day in Gaeta but the wind generally remained light. After a one hour postponement, the fleet was sent out for a start in 6-7 knots of breeze and it never got much above 10 knots all day.

Race one started under a black flag after a number of failed attempts. The right side proved heavily favoured with Matteo Savio (ITA) rounding from the right ahead of Fabian Pic (FRA) and Ulli Kurfeld (GER). Savio maintained his led until the start of the run when Karpak, who had made big gains on the second upwind, caught him and sailed past to take the win. Savio crossed in second with Pic in third.

Karpak said, “It was another beautiful day in Gaeta. It was an excellent day for me. I did great in both races, so I'm happy.”

On his plan. “My plan was just to go to the right. The sun was going right and the wind was going the same direction, and I managed to do that. I crossed to the middle of the first beat and the wind went more right, so instead of top three I was about 12th at the top mark. I caught up on the second beat. The second race was the same. When you are tactically good and fast, races are easy.”

On what the event means to him. “It is just for testing various things before going to Rio. It's the last major regatta for all of us before going to Rio. Today was almost the same weather we will get in Rio.”

The wind built sightly for race two but still no more than nine knots at the start. The fleet got away first time with the leaders starting at the pin and getting across to the right as soon as they could. Double world champion Høgh-Christensen got it right to lead all the way round. The first downwind was free pumping but the wind dropped and so did Oscar flag. The Dane built a huge lead on the first downwind, but Piotr Kula (POL) clawed it back on the second upwind to round a close second. Høgh-Christensen pulled away on the final downwind for the race win from Kula and Karpak.

Høgh-Christensen said, “It was a tough day in light winds. The first race was going well for me. I got a good start, crossed the fleet and I was working to the left of the fleet, and the wind shifted 5-10 degrees. I tacked on and that was a mistake, as it went further, and I rounded in 65th so that was pretty bad. But I caught back up quite a bit.”

“The second race was similar. I had a good start at the pin, crossed the fleet and went a bit further right and just managed to be first at the top mark. Then on the run I managed to pull out quite a bit and from there I could control the race all the way to the finish.”

“Actually, I thought I had a good day. I missed that one shift on the first race, but otherwise I thought I sailed a really good day.”

On his downwind speed, he said, “I think it was a combination of speed and pressure. There's no doubt I was fast downwind today but I put myself on the right side of the current and the pressure so that helped a lot. I think things are coming together. We have been working hard on getting back up to speed. We've changed a lot of things, actually we changed everything, and lately it has been going a lot better.”

On the week ahead. “Most of the top guys are here. It's 10 years since I first won a world championships, so maybe it's time I did it again!”

The defending champion Giles Scott (GBR) is down in 18th after choosing the wrong side of the first upwind to finish in 38th before having a better second race to cross fifth. He sits in 18th overall. In fact, many favourites picked up one or two high scores during the day.

Two more races are scheduled for Monday with light winds again forecast. Some of the races are being covered with live video on Facebook. Keep an eye on the Finn Class Facebook feed for updates about when we expect to broadcast.

Results:

Pl	B#	Sail #	Sailor	1	2	Tot
1	13	EST2	Deniss Karpak	1	3	4
2	12	ITA117	Giorgio Poggi	6	12	18
3	10	NED842	Pieter Jan Postma	4	17	21
4	32	FRA17	Fabian Pic	3	20	23
5	5	BRA109	Jorge Zarif	7	18	25
6	25	POL17	Piotr Kula	25	2	27
7	26	GER259	Phillip Kasueske	18	9	27
8	20	ESP7	Alejandro Muscat	13	15	28
9	3	DEN2	Jonas Hogh-Christensen	30	1	31
10	30	CZE5	Ondrej Teply	21	10	31
11	2	CRO524	Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic	23	11	34
12	8	GRE77	Ioannis Mitakis	29	7	36
13	29	CAN18	Tom Ramshaw	12	24	36
14	15	RUS57	Egor Terpigorev	14	23	37
15	45	ITA83	Matteo Savio	2	37	39
16	24	CRO52	Nenad Bugarin	35	4	39
17	22	ITA146	Michele Paoletti	28	13	41
18	6	GBR41	Giles Scott	38	5	43
19	21	ESP17	Pablo Guitian Sarria	8	35	43
20	18	RUS6	Arkadiy Kistanov	15	29	44
21	17	CRO1	Josip Olujic	17	27	44
22	35	GER25	Max Kohlhoff	5	41	46
23	14	GBR91	Ben Cornish	41	6	47
24	4	AUS261	Oliver Tweddell	22	26	48
25	19	CRO69	Milan Vujasinovic	37	16	53
26	66	ITA202	Giacomo Giovanelli	24	32	56
27	28	RUS2	Borisov Aleksei	27	30	57
28	1	AUS41	Jake Lilley	47	14	61
29	9	SWE6	Bjorn Allansson	54	8	62
30	69	GER772	Ulli Kurfeld	9	53	62
31	65	ITA94	Federico Colaninno	16	48	64
32	27	ITA123	Filippo Baldassari	46	19	65
33	44	POL13	Michal Jodlowski	43	22	65
34	7	GBR11	Ed Wright	40	25	65
35	81	ITA66	Enrico Voltolini	39	28	67
36	11	TUR21	Alican Kaynar	33	34	67
37	41	USA74	Henry Sprague	11	57	68
38	39	GER252	Eike Martens	10	59	69
39	34	CAN2	Kyle Martin	52	21	73
40	49	NZL64	Brendan McCarty	26	49	75
41	31	CZE1	Michael Maier	32	47	79
42	50	GER771	Jan Kurfeld	36	43	79
43	75	ITA234	Tommaso Ronconi	19	61	80
44	70	ITA70	Francesco Lubrano	20	63	83
45	77	ITA964	Roberto Strappati	31	52	83
46	37	FIN225	Mikael Hyrylainen	42	44	86
47	64	ITA5	Francesco Cinque	48	39	87
48	63	ITA2	Marco Buglielli	44	45	89
49	33	DEN24	Andre' Hogh Christiansen	60	33	93
50	78	SEY1	Allan Julie	56	38	94
51	52	ITA175	Alessandro Vongher	55	40	95
52	53	GRE21	Anotonis Tsotras	45	51	96
53	42	GER595	Simon Gorgels	61	36	97
54	46	IRL40	Oisin Mcclelland	67	31	98
55	57	ITA191	Alessandro Cattaneo	34	66	100
56	36	EST11	Lauri VŠinsalu	59	42	101
57	48	FRA93	Antoine Devineau	49	54	103
58	43	ESP717	Victor Gorostegui Arce	51	55	106
59	67	HUN911	Elemer Peter Haidekker	50	62	112
60	38	GBR29	Peter McCoy	58	56	114
61	80	ITA147	Simone Ferrarese	69	46	115
62	58	SLO99	Jan Orel	53	64	117
63	23	CAN110	Martin Robitaille	68	50	118
64	79	ITA11	Paolo Cisbani	57	71	128
65	71	FIN226	Jukka Partinen	63	65	128
66	68	HUN127	Peter Pal Haidekker	71	58	129
67	76	FIN227	Ronnie Roos	62	68	130
68	54	GRE4	Panagiotis Kotsovos	65	67	132
69	61	SWE9	David Berg	64	69	133
70	73	ITA97	Lorenzo Podesta'	74\DSQ	60	134
71	62	CAN3	Ian Bostock	66	72	138
72	51	USA32	Charles Heimler	70	70	140
73	72	ITA6	Enrico Passoni	74\DNC	74\DNC	148