Finn Gold Cup 2009 – Day One in Denmark

by Robert Deaves on 7 Jul 2009
Finn Gold Cup Day One - Two testing races sailed off Vallensbaek Harbour near Copenhagen in Denmark were completed Monday with virtually all the favourites picking up a discard. Race wins went to Bryan Boyd (USA) and Dan Slater (NZL), though Rafal Szukiel (POL) was the most consistent and leads overnight.

Starting on time at 11.00, the first race had one general recall before getting away under black flag. The 6-8 knots wind was patchy at best and those who favoured the right side - near the land- generally came out best.

Race winner Bryan Boyd (USA) said, 'We could see there was a bit more pressure and a puff coming in from the right. It was super crowded at the committee boat but I knew I was just going to have to throw it in there and actually I didn't get a very good start but I managed to bail out quite quickly and just lived off of Giles' [Scott (GBR)] hip for long enough to get into the pressure.

From there it was just two or three shifts and every time the pressure moved in it was just a bit more to the right so I could use it to take me back across the group.'

Boyd had a narrow lead round the top mark from Thomas Le Breton (FRA), Caleb Paine (USA), Andrew Mills (GBR), Marin Misura (CRO) and Peer Moberg (NOR).

Boyd continued, 'The first downwind was nice for me. It's great when you get a little bit of breeze just in front of the group. The sea was not very chopped up and I had room to do my own thing.'

In fact the American sailed well clear of the fleet to win by over a minute. Moberg moved up to second place upwind and maintained that on the final downwind to the finish. Misura and Rafal Szukiel (POL) went further to the
right on the downwind and picked up some places to finish third and fourth.

Boyd summed up his race win, 'I've sailed a few of these and believe me it's good to take one down, especially the first race of the Gold Cup. It really sets the tone for the week so I'm psyched up and it's certainly going to be a great memory to take home.'

After another general recall, race two also got away under a black flag. With more cloud cover and some dark clouds coming down the race track, this race was to proven even trickier. At times the wind reached 10 knots, but was still very patchy.

Dan Slater explains, 'I got a pretty good start near the committee boat end and managed to tack clear and basically the whole fleet then went right. We were looking good when we first tacked and then it went left and we were looking pretty sick until it started to head a bit, so I decided it was time to put the money in the bank and get across. Some of the other guys kept going and fell out of the breeze and paid for it. In the first race it paid big dividends to go further right, so maybe it was a bit risky tacking but it panned out for me OK. '

Daniel Birgmark (SWE) led round the first mark followed by Christian Qvist (DEN), Slater, Timo Hagoort (NED), Alex Selivanov (RUS), Ed Wright (GBR) and Johal Nachhatar (IND).

By the gate Birgmark was still leading, though Slater split tacks for a while. 'I passed Daniel on the second beat and then he passed me again and then just before the top mark I passed him again. We were just a few boat lengths
apart. And again on the run he passed me and then I passed him.'

Several sailors got caught out because the wind at the top mark wasn't enough to raise the 'O' flag for free pumping, even though by the middle of the leg it had increased to 15 knots. 'The middle part of the run was hard to limit pumping but towards the end it wasn't a problem as we were just hanging on by then!'

Slater took the race win with Birgmark close behind. Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) recovered well to place third while Wright moved up to fourth on the final leg.

Birgmark, who has taken a break since the Olympics said, 'I have had a pretty long break from sailing after the Olympics so now I'm just focusing in getting back to the same level as last year. I am doing another campaign,
but I will try to do broaden my sailing knowledge by doing more keelboat sailing and match racing. I think that will help me to develop the Finn skills as well.'

On this regatta he said, 'It's good to see that there are so many Finn sailors challenging for the podium places this year. It will be an interesting Gold Cup. It's an open bay and I think we will have great sailing conditions. I'm also glad that there are many new younger sailors who begin to sail the Finn. It proves the Class is strong and competitive.'

Two of those new sailors had a good day today. In his first Gold Cup race, Caleb Paine (USA) placed 14th and sits in 39th overall, while 16 year old Jorge Zarif (BRA), placed 26th and 10th to sit in 13th overall.

Slater concluded, 'The conditions weren't great today, but the race committee did a great job. It was very shifty but there's nothing they can do about that. However the lengths of the races were perfect and it was well run. I can't complain about the hospitality either. It's pretty good to come in and get a free sandwich and a beer straight away.'

ISAF President Göran Petterson was also at the Finn Gold Cup today and presented the day's prizes to Bryan Boyd and Dan Slater.

Two more races are scheduled for Tuesday at 11.00

Finn Gold Cup 2009 Vallensbaek Sailing Club - Overall after two races

1st 11 POL 7 Rafal Szukiel 4.0 7.0 11.0 11.0
2nd 18 GBR 634 Andrew Mills 7.0 5.0 12.0 12.0
3rd 12 NOR 1 Peer Moberg 2.0 13.0 15.0 15.0
4th 6 USA 4 Zach Railey 10.0 6.0 16.0 16.0
5th 5 SWE 11 Daniel Birgmark 17.0 2.0 19.0 19.0
6th 16 GBR 41 Giles Scott 6.0 16.0 22.0 22.0
7th 44 FRA 115 Thomas Le Breton 5.0 18.0 23.0 23.0
8th 33 CRO 25 Marin Misura 3.0 21.0 24.0 24.0
9th 51 RUS 1 Alex Selivanov 15.0 11.0 26.0 26.0
10th 29 USA 1140 Bryan Boyd 1.0 30.0 31.0 31.0
11th 13 NZL 1 Dan Slater 33.0 1.0 34.0 34.0
12th 3 CRO 524 Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic 31.0 3.0 34.0 34.0
13th 59 BRA 109 Jorge Zarif 26.0 10.0 36.0 36.0
14th 19 POL 17 Piotr Kula 8.0 29.0 37.0 37.0
15th 42 EST 2 Deniss Karpak 9.0 28.0 37.0 37.0
16th 50 NED 787 Nanno Schuttrups 23.0 14.0 37.0 37.0
17th 4 SLO 5 Gasper Vincec 21.0 17.0 38.0 38.0
18th 14 RUS 9 Eduard Skornyakov 32.0 8.0 40.0 40.0
19th 1 ESP 100 Rafael Trujillo 22.0 19.0 41.0 41.0
20th 65 NED 839 Timo Hagoort 30.0 12.0 42.0 42.0
21st 15 ITA 117 Giorgio Poggi 19.0 26.0 45.0 45.0
22nd 7 FIN 218 Tapio Nirkko 12.0 34.0 46.0 46.0
23rd 27 ITA 101 Riccardo Cordovani 24.0 22.0 46.0 46.0
24th 10 GBR 111 Edward Wright 46.0 4.0 50.0 50.0
25th 22 AUT 3 Florian Raudaschl 27.0 23.0 50.0 50.0
26th 8 DEN 2 Jonas Høgh-Christensen 20.0 35.0 55.0 55.0
27th 37 NED 64 Wietze Zetzema 18.0 39.0 57.0 57.0
28th 52 DEN 46 Kaspar Andresen 39.0 24.0 63.0 63.0
29th 64 EST 11 Lauri Väinsalu 25.0 38.0 63.0 63.0
30th 21 FRA 112 Jonathan Lobert 57.0 9.0 66.0 66.0
31st 35 TUR 7 Akif Muslubas 11.0 55.0 66.0 66.0
32nd 20 GBR 88 Mark Andrews 16.0 52.0 68.0 68.0
33rd 2 NED 842 Pieter Jan Postma 13.0 56.0 69.0 69.0
34th 24 ESP 7 Alejandro Muscat 37.0 32.0 69.0 69.0
35th 23 SWE 6 Björn Allansson 29.0 42.0 71.0 71.0
36th 30 CZE 52 Tomas Vika 34.0 40.0 74.0 74.0
37th 56 RUS 707 Egor Larionov 48.0 27.0 75.0 75.0
38th 17 CZE 1 Michael Maier 28.0 47.0 75.0 75.0
39th 98 USA 619 Caleb Paine 14.0 64.0 78.0 78.0
40th 25 IND 11 Nachhatar Johal 64.0 15.0 79.0 79.0
41st 60 DEN 9 Thomas Mørup-Petersen 54.0 25.0 79.0 79.0
42nd 28 NED 41 Karel van Hellemond 49.0 33.0 82.0 82.0
43rd 79 NED 844 Gert van der Heijden 45.0 37.0 82.0 82.0
44th 78 UKR 21 Anton Sadchykov 40.0 44.0 84.0 84.0
45th 41 HUN 8 Márton Beliczay 35.0 54.0 89.0 89.0
46th 39 CZE 3 Rudolf Lidarik 44.0 50.0 94.0 94.0
47th 71 DEN 231 Kenneth Bøggild 76.0 20.0 96.0 96.0
48th 45 GBR 99 Henry Bagnall 5