Everything set at CN El Balís for Finn World Masters Championship
by Jaume Soler Alberti 18 May 2018 08:53 PDT
21-25 May 2018
Trofeu Cornudella 2018 © Laura Carrau / CN El Balís
Club Nàutic El Balís is ready and at full speed to host the Finn World Masters Championship, which races will go from Monday May 21st until Friday May 25th.
Registrations will be revised and measurements will take place today and tomorrow. Practices will be done on Sunday and the starting gun will sound on Monday, letting the 350 boats from 32 countries hit the water in the event's 2018 championship.
The exact number of registrations will be known during this weekend. Participants could break the event mark set in Torbole (Italy) with 355 in the 2016 championship. Up to today, 353 members are confirmed so the record could be broken.
Host club CN El Balís is located in Sant Andreu de Llavaneres, a town of the Maresme coast, 40 kilometers North of Barcelona. Its staff has been working on the Finn World Masters Championship for months and the facilities are completely ready to tremble with the biggest event in the club's 52-year history.
A Class that grows every year
The Finn class keeps growing every year and the Masters category is not an exception, thanks to a large fleet in Europe and a big increase in other parts of the world like Australia, Brazil, Chile, The United States and Canada.
The most powerful countries are Germany and The Netherlands, but the event at CN El Balís will be highlighted by the Spanish group, which already has 24 registered participants. This shows the big increase the Finn class has had in Spain in the last years.
The Finn fleet has been the key for the growth of the Masters category lately in Spain, with the Catalan fleet reaching 20 units. Catalonia was the pioneer region in the country, starting in the 1950's decade.
Participants are divided into five categories: Masters (40-49 years old), Grand Masters (50-59) with 141 participants and the Grand Grand Masters (60-69) with 97. It is important to highlight the record breaking numbers for the Legends category (70-79) with 48 and the admirable Super-Legends contingent (plus 80 years) with five participants.
Russian Krutskikh will defend his title
At CN El Balís, Russian Vladimir Krutskikh will defend his world championship title won in 2017 after defeating in a dramatic finish Rafa Trujillo from Cadiz, who finished second. Krutskikh, who also won in 2015, will have as toughest opponents Christoph Burger, Piet Eckert and Thierry Van Viersse among others.
Laurent Hay will defend gold at the Grand Masters. His main rivals will be six-time champion Michael Maier and Andre Budzien, who has won three times. Atlanta 1996 Olympic champion Paul McKenzie and 1988 world champion Thomas Schmid will also participate in this category.
One of the most interesting categories will be the Grand Grand Masters, where two former winners of the Finn Gold Cup will race for the first time. Joaquín Blanco won the European championship and the Finn Gold Cup in Palamos in 1977 after finishing fourth in the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games. José Luis Doreste won the Finn Gold Cup and the European championship in 1987, one year before striking gold in the 1988 Olympiad in Seoul. Both came back to the Finn Class last year. Rob Coutts, winner of the event in 2012, will also be amongst the favorites.
Henry Sprague, who won the world championship in 1974, will fight for his third title at the Legends category. He will have tough competitors this year, especially if light winds blow. Other key participants include three-time Legends winner Howard Sellars, who is back at the event, two-time champion Richard Hart and 2013 winner Friedrich Müller. The Legends get great fan support at the awards ceremony. By participating at an age that goes from 70 to 80 they inspire many people who race at the Finn class.
Time does not go by for the Super Legends. In the last two championships, the event only had one participant at this category, but this year five octogenarians will compete. They double the age of many of the event participants. Two previous winners, Pedro Jiménez-Meifren and Gerd Bohnsack, will be back at CN El Balís, but the biggest challenge will be assumed by Gus Miller, the oldest member of the fleet.
Seven stages, final event and Medal Race
All categories of the Finn World Masters Championship will compete as one fleet that will be divided in four groups distributed in two racing areas in front of the Maresme coast. Seven stages are programmed to take place at CN El Balís starting on Monday May 21st and finishing on Thursday May 24th. There will also be a final event and the Medal Race that will be held on Friday May 25th.