Budzien wins second Finn World Masters

by Robert Deaves, IFA on 16 May 2008
The final two qualification races have been sailed in the 229 boat Finn World Masters in Medemblik in general light to moderate conditions. Andre Budzien of Germany has done enough to take his second Finn World Masters with a day to spare.

Wednesday's race brought lighter winds with a few upsets, however after five races the discard had an equally large effect, bringing to the top many sailors who had picked up a high score in the first few races.

In the first heat, defending World Champion, Budzien continued to lead the scoreline, but tainted his copybook with a third place finish behind Thierry van Vierssen (NED) and Han Bergma (NED). In the second heat, Ilias Hatzipaulis (GRE) won in front of Gerko Visser (NED) and Eric Bakker (NED).

The Dutch home fleet are having a great regatta with no less than nine boats inside the top 20. Many have been training here for months in preparation for this regatta.

On Thursday, the wind started at around 15 knots but soon dropped to about 10 knots once the starts got underway, and at times during the races dropped to 4-5 knots. It was very tricky sailing at times.

Wide pressure differential across the course also caused a few upsets, but Budzien assured himself of his second consecutive title by placing second in his heat behind Hatzipaulis, who won his second race in a row. The other heat was won by Mihail Kopanov (BUL) in a race plagued by large wind shifts and patchy holes across the course.

The final race will be sailed tomorrow at 11.30, and although the winner is assured, everyone else in the top 10 is already discarding a high score, so the other medal places are wide open.

Finn Masters - Leading positions after 6 races, 1 discard:

1 GER 711 André Budzien, M 001 6,0 1 1 1 1 (3) 2
2 BUL 24 Mihail Kopanov, M 230 15,0 5 4 2 3 (33) 1
3 NED 100 Han Bergsma, M 193 15,0 (21) 3 2 5 2 3
4 GRE 1 Ilias Hatzipaulis, GM 194 22,0 10 2 8 (dns) 1 1
5 NED 29 Bas de Waal, M 189 30,0 3 9 10 4 (ocs) 4
6 NED 804 Cees Scheurwater, M 049 31,0 10 4 11 2 4 (dnc)
7 NED 747 Thierry van Vierssen, M 072 34,0 6 5 16 6 1 (dnf)
8 NED 780 Jan Willem Kok, M 186 39,0 8 6 3 2 20 (ocs)
9 GBR 2 Allen Burrell, M 007 43,0 (52) 1 1 9 28 4
10 NED 888 Luuk Kuijper, M 109 45,0 11 2 5 6 (30) 21
11 GBR 669 Adrian Brunton, M 003 50,0 (51) 7 15 1 25 2
12 FRA 99 Allain des Beauvais Marc, GM 227 50,0 16 16 6 5 (38) 7
13 USA 808 R. Phillip Ramming, GM 071 51,0 23 6 7 9 6 (58)
14 FRA 75 Laurant Hay, M 148 51,0 15 8 9 8 (ocs) 11
15 NED 703 Eric Bakker, M 111 53,0 12 7 13 (20) 3 18
16 DEN 196 Lars Hall, M 157 54,0 (61) 17 3 12 13 9
17 GBR 8 Tim Carver, M 196 54,0 (25) 11 4 14 18 7
18 NED 897 Ed van der Steene, M 217 56,0 2 (24) 11 16 14 13
19 USA 24 Conrad Brown, M 201 56,0 4 (17) 17 10 13 12
20 NED 62 Alex Breuseker, M 204 56,0 (40) 5 8 11 19 13