Gus Miller at the Finn World Masters: Day 1, no Wind

by Gus Miller 21 May 2018 21:38 PDT 22 May 2018

A senior member of the Finn class, and Super Legend, Gus Miller (USA) writes from the 2018 Finn World Masters at El Balis, Spain:

At 4 Am there are the lights of a dozen ships passing by. An occasional commuter train passes by just underneath the balcony where I can write and not disturb the sleeping Facundo.

No races yesterday; it was a day of visiting. 352 masters Finn sailors were held on shore for a while and then sent out in four waves. On the way out the sun appeared and I thought, “the sun is going to kill this breeze.” On each of the two courses the wind would fill in so all had a nice short sail but then it would not persist. After some hours, all were towed back to the marina.

At the weather briefing we were reminded that free pumping offwind is only allowed when the wind is above 12 knots as measured at the windward mark, not 10 as in the senior fleet. Another rule unique rule to the masters is that if a master sailor has to be rescued – capsize or other problem – but the result of the rescue does not advance the Finn’s position, the sailors is still racing and not a DNF (did not finish).

It is interesting how diverse this Finn fleet is. Through out the fleet there are connections to the highest levels of international industry, finance, government, education, entrepreneurship, science, sport and consulting. The Finn is an ice breaker for all the parties, meals, meetings and waits for wind where good conversations are a mixture of humor, stories, testing and serious explorations.

Had a chance to talk science with Ola Johannessen for a while. There is a situation where the study of the atmosphere and weather is well organized and the data from a huge infrastructure is shared easily. The situation in physical oceanography is not as well organized which is surprising because the ocean is such a great energy sink and critical to understanding weather. The situation is improving but one reason for the disparity is money; there is a large wealthy industry behind the weather infrastructure but that is not the case with physical oceanography.

In exploring the consequences of climate change with each other and wondering why so many don’t believe it, especially politicians who make the critical decisions, we agreed a basic reason is that these doubters just are not equipped to understand it. Then Ola’s wife Bente came up and the conversation turned to how they first met was when she called him wanting to sail a Finn. She wound up in an OK dinghy which capsized in cold water and he had to rescue her while her father on the opposite shore watched.

At the end of each day there is a beer party – and Finn parties are great fun. Anna’s job this time as a volunteer was to help serve beer. I went over to say hello and she looked up with a big smile and said, ”I’ve never been a bar maid before.”

At the end of this day a video cameraman and reporter came to take me away for an interview. It appears on the regatta website: Interview http://fwm2018.cnelbalis.com/en/default/races/race

Each evening John Alexander, his daughters Sasha and Natakia, Facundo Olezza and I go out to dinner together at one of the little local restaurants. It is like being on an ocean voyage together where age differences melt away, there is an admixture of family and crew and the conversations are really lively and enjoyable.