First race goes to Ainslie at Finn Europeans

by Robert Deaves, IFA on 6 May 2008
Ben Ainslie made his intentions quite clear, with a clean race win, after leading at every mark in the first race of the Finn European Championships being held in Scarlino, Italy. Britain's Ed Wright was also in the hunt, finishing in eighth place in the 89 boat fleet.

After a clear start near the favoured pin end Ainslie led round the first mark by 50 metres. He gradually extended his lead to win by nearly two minutes from Guillaume Florent of France and Daniel Birgmark of Sweden.

After a three hour delay to wait for the wind to arrive, the 2008 Finn Open and Junior Championship got underway in Scarlino, Italy with a single race in 6-8 knots of patchy breeze. Ben Ainslie made his intentions quite clear, with a clean race win, after leading at each and every mark. Piotr Kula of Poland was the best of the juniors finishing in 11th place.

Competitors arrived at the Club Nautico Scarlino this morning to find intermittent showers, and very little wind. However by 13.00 the rain had started to dry up and by 14.00 the sun was trying to break through the low cloud and a light breeze was starting to develop. The fleet was sent afloat at 14.15 for a single race at 15.30. A double windward/leeward course was set.

Conditions were quite trying for some with a flat sea and a light wind that tended to reward the middle left. On the first beat a large difference in pressure across the course left those on the right stranded and brought the left to the front.

However, right in the middle of the pressure in the middle left was Ainslie. After a clear start near the favoured pin end he led round the first mark by 50 metres from Guillaume Florent, Piotr Kula, Ismael Bruno of France and Jonas Høgh-Christensen of Denmark.

On the first downwind, the majority of the fleet favoured the right with little chance of any comebacks. Ainslie extended his lead to nearly a minute at the first leeward gate, and there was very little place changing behind him. During the second upwind, Ainslie played the middle ground again, taking little gains with each tack. At the top mark he had extended his lead to one minute 20 seconds.

Florent maintained his second place, but behind him Daniel Birgmark of Sweden had moved from around 20th at the first mark to 11th at the gate to third place at the second windward mark. Also making a sizable gain was Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) who went from ninth to fourth on the second upwind.

The last downwind produce few changes as by now the fleet was quite well spread out. Ainslie gradually extended his lead to win by nearly two minutes from Florent and Birgmark.

These three were followed across the finish in the dying wind by Kljakovic Gaspic, Høgh-Christensen and Italy's 1992 Olympic representative, Emanuele Vaccari, making a comeback for this regatta.

After the race, Vaccari, who finished 14th in the 1992 Olympic Regatta said, 'This was the kind of race where even the amateurs can have their say because of the light winds. It was great for me to come back into the world of international sailing and kick it off with this kind of a race. It truly made me happy and I'm ecstatic. I stopped sailing in 1996 and I think I can definitely say that I've had my moment of glory here, although I hope to keep on sailing this way.'

Ainslie commented, 'It was great to finally get a race after the light winds. It was actually a very difficult race with the breeze shifting about and a long one at that. I managed to pick the right side of the course and kept the lead throughout the race. Having been here for a few days, I know this is not the typical weather conditions for here, so we are hoping for a stronger breeze to return in the days to come.'

Last year's Junior European bronze medalist Piotr Kula had a great race rounding the first mark in third but finally dropping to 11th at the finish. The junior sailors here are expected to fight as hard for the Junior title as the seniors are for their event, and it is always encouraging to see juniors challenging for the front of the fleet. Second placed Junior today was Tomas Hrncal (CZE) in 29th and third placed was Viacheslav Sivenkov (RUS) in 30th.

Two races are scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, and the forecast is for the 10-15 knots breeze that welcomed the sailors to Scarlino and the Gulf of Follonica, Maremma to return. Many are hoping that it does.

Finn - Positions after race 1

1 GBR Ben Ainslie 1 pts
2 FRA Guillaume Florent 2
3 SWE Daniel Birgmark 3
4 CRO Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic 4
5 DEN Jonas Hogh-Christensen 5
6 ITA Emanuele Vaccari 6
7 SLO Gasper Vincec 7
8 FRA Ismael Bruno 8
9 GBR Ed Wright 9
10 NED Pieter-Jan Postma 10
11 POL Piotr Kula 11
12 ITA Giorgio Poggi 12
13 NED Dennis de Ruiter 13
14 ITA Marko Kolic 14
15 CAN Christopher Cook 15
16 POL Rafal Szukiel 16
17 HUN Gaszton Pal 17
18 CZE Rudolf Lidarik 18
19 ITA Roberto Bosetti 19
20 USA Conrad Brolon 20
21 FIN Tapio Nirkko 21
22 ITA Riccardo Cordovani 22
23 FRA Jonathan Lobert 23
24 NOR Peer Moberg 24
25 AUS Anthony Nossiter 25
26 UKR Andriy Gusenko 26
27 GBR Ed Greig 27
28 IRL Timothy Goodbody 28
29 CZE Tomas Hrncal 29
30 RUS Viacheslav Sivienkov 30
31 AUT Florian Raudaschl 31
32 GBR Mark Andrews 32
33 NZL Dan Slater 33
34 CZE Tomas Vika 34
35 NED Nanno Schuttrups 35
36 ESP Rafael Trujillo 36
37 HUN Geza Huszar 37
38 GER Jan Kurfeld 38
39 HUN Marton Beliczay 39
40 CYP Haris Papadopoulos 40
41 DEN Kenneth Boggild 41
42 ITA Francesco Lubrano 42
43 POL Maciej Pezala 43
44 ITA Marco Buglielli 44
45 NED Gert Van der Heijden 45
46 ITA Carlo Recchi 46
47 NED Karel Van Hellemond 47
48 GRE Alexandros Dragoutsis 48
49 CAN Matt Johnston 49
50 ITA Simone Mancini 50
51 SWE Bjorn Allansson 51
52 ESP1 Diego Fructuoso 52
53 CZE Michael Maier 53
54 CZE Jan CaJCIC 54
55 RUS Eduard Skornyakov 55
56 ITA Lorenzo Podestà 56
57 GER Sebastian Kaule 57
58 ITA Andrea Bianchi 58
59 POL Michal Strusinski 59
60 HUN Peter Haidekker 60
61 RUS Vasily Kravchenko 61
62 SRB Branislav Erac 62
63 TUR Ali kemal Tufekci 63
64 USA Zach Railey 64
65 POL Tomek Kosmicki 65
66 GRE Constantinos Gnafakis 66
67 GRE Davourlis Panagiutis 67
68 POR Frederico Melo 68
69 ITA Piero Romeo 69
70 SRB Srdjan Volarevic 70
71 RUS Dmirtry Tereshkin 71
72 ITA Mauro Merlini 72
73 BUL Mihail Kopanov 73
74 ITA Paolo Cisbani 74
75 CAN Abe Torchinsky 75
76 GRE Eirinaios Gnafakis 76
77 SRB Darko Burcul 77
84 RUS Alexey Selivanov 84
84 ITA Michele Tognozzi 84
84 GBR Andrew Mills 84
84 GRE Aimilios Papathanasiou 84
84 ITA Francesco Cinque 84
84 BRA Eduardo Couto 84