Finn Europeans, Ainslie Gold, Slater Silver

by Richard Gladwell on 15 Aug 2005 There was no racing on the last day of the European Finn Championships in Kalmar, Sweden. The wind did a no-show. This means the results of Day 5 became the final result, handing Dan Slater the silver.

With five race wins and a total score of eight points, 2004 Olympic Gold medallist, Ben Ainslie added another Finn trophy to his extensive collection.

Dan Slater proved to be a fast improver after less than six months in the Finn class, has finished second place ahead of some very talented and experienced sailors. The Finn class European championship is an open event allowing non-European sailors to be ranked in the overall results.

Slater is a former ISAF Youth Champion in the singlehanded class. He started a full-time sailing carreer after that win, spending a couple of years campaigning an 18ft skiff on the Grand Prix circuit, before moving to the 49er class, where he represented NZ in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

He then joined Team NZ for three years on the America's Cup Defence, before unsuccessfully attempting to gain a second Olympic representation in 2004 in the Laser. This year he put together an International 14 with his long-serving crew, Nathan Handley, finishing fourth in the Int 14 Worlds, in his first event regatta in the class. He switched to the Finn after that regatta, and has been campaigning in Europe and training in North America, for the past few months, and has been steadily improving each regatta.

After an impressive regatta record this season, including a win in Kiel Week, Gasper Vincec (SLO) is reaping the rewards for his hard work in the Finn over the last three years. The Slovenian takes the third place on the podium.

It was a close finish for fourth and fifth places with Marin Misura and Emilios Papathanasiou only one and two points behind Vincec in fourth and fifth place.

Finn records show that Ben’s outstanding performance have been matched in the past: Andre Nelis (BEL) won eight races out of 10 in the 1957 Europeans, in 1981 Lasse Hjortnaes (DEN) won all of the 5 races sailed. The Dane won again in 1983 with a total score of six points.

The Junior championship has been dominated by sailors new to the class. Ivan Kljokovic Gaspic from Split, Croatia is the Junior European Champion after just a few months in the boat. Zach Railey (USA) is in a similar situation making an impressive start in his first international event by taking second place.

The sailors will meet again in Moscow in three weeks for the Finn Gold Cup.

Source:www.kiwispy.com and www.eurofinn2005.org