Finn gold cup worlds - Finns challenged in more light breeze

by canadian sailing team on 31 Aug 2013 'Today we sailed three of seven total races of the 2013 World Championships on one day in trying conditions. Greg Douglas came out of theGreg Douglas blocks like a house on fire, putting up a second place in Race five and moving himself into the battle for the Medal Race, unfortunately the remaining two races didn't go quite to script.

Dougie rocketed out of the gate in Race six and looked to be in a top 10th position leading out to the left side (which had paid handsomely in Race five), he followed the script leading back in from the left, unfortunately the boats that extended further to the left found a mystery shaft of breeze that carried approximate 15 of them into the lead, similarly another solid group appeared out of the deep right and that was pretty much all she wrote. Dougie battled but the middle of this fleet this year is thankless and ruthless in softer conditions. Race seven was a stumble off the line and just a plain and simple dog fight that the big dog simply could not recover in. Greg sits 20th with the final race scheduled for tomorrow, his target remains a race bullet and have that settle the scores.

Jeff Roney and Marty Robitaille had moments of brilliance, particularly Jeff, who is slowly developing some savvy in getting off the line and putting together solid first legs. Unfortunately the fleet has demonstrated an uncanny ability to disregard all rules and Jeff has been on the receiving end of numerous infractions. The learning curve continues for all the Canadian contingent, unfortunately we did not get to stretch our frames out thus far at this event to get a measure on our pace in conditions over 10 knots. None the less, benchmarks have been established and new targets need to be set.

Although not yet final, it appears that we will have the first non-British Gold Cup Champion since 2009, as Jorge Zarif of Brazil is in position to claim the crown assuming no protests overturn the current results. An outstanding performance by the 2013 Silver Cup Champion (Junior Worlds). More tomorrow as we wrap up our two week adventure in Tallin, Estonia.'

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