2008 Finn Gold Cup at Sail Melbourne

2008 Finn Gold Cup at Sail Melbourne - Day 1

by Corinne McKenzie 23 Jan 2008 13:09 GMT

Racing on day one of the 2008 Finn Gold Cup at Sail Melbourne © Richard Langdon / www.oceanimages.co.uk

Slater claims the day

There was no sharing from Dan Slater (NZL) at the 2008 Finn Gold Cup in Melbourne. The New-Zealander won the day’s two races after patiently tailing the race leader and delivering the final blow on the last downwind leg to the finish.

The first race was sailed in moderate winds increasing from 7 to 10 knots. Light shifts made racing tricky and crowded mark rounding created enough turmoil to upset placings.

In the first race, Giorgio Poggi (ITA) who had finished 11th at the 2008 Sail Melbourne regatta last week, repeated his early form to lead the first race until the last down wind and crossed the line in third placed. The Italian lost two places on the last run to Slater and Harris Papadopoulos (CYP). Papadopoulos stepped into a Finn only 6 months ago, having his first race at the Olympic test event in China, last August. Since then, the ex-laser sailor has intensively trained with Emilios Papathanasiou and other top sailors in Greece and made great progress. The regatta started well for Indian Nitin Mongia (IND) who finished in 13th position after sailing smartly in light and shifty conditions.

The second race started with freshening breeze from 11 to 15 knots. Free pumping provided fun downwind sailing and a slight advantage to the favourites, well trained for this sailing style.

Matthias Bohn (GER) took a great start at the committee boat and played the shift to round the top mark ahead of Dan Slater (NZL), Gaston Pal (HUN) and Nick Burfoot (NZL). Bohn covered his opponents all race, but hurt his elbow on the last downwind. It was enough distraction for Dan Slater to close the gap and take his second bullet in front of Emilios Papathanasiou (GRE) and Peter-Jan Postma (NED). Matthias Bohn crossed the line in 9th position.

It wasn’t the conditions expected by the favourites. Some of them collected heavy scores that could jeopardise their overall placings if repeated. While Ben Ainslie caught up from average starts to 4 and 11th places, World Champion Rafael Trujillo never recovered from bad starts scoring 58 points on his first day. “Just one of these bad days!” commented his coach on the shore.

Dan Slater is leading the scoreboard in front of Emilios Papathanasiou (GRE) and Giorgio Poggi (ITA). In the Junior division, Giles Scott (GBR), placed 11th overall is dominating his opponents by an impressive margin.

One race is scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

Results after Day 1:

Pos	Sail No	Boat Name	Helm	R1	R2	Pts
1	NZL1	ASB	Dan Slater	1	1	2
2	GRE7	NA18	Aimilios Papathanasiou	2	6	8
3	ITA117	HARKEN	Giorgio Poggi	7	3	10
4	DEN2	HEMPEL-DONG	Jonas H Gh-christens	4	8	12
5	NED842	-	Pieter Jan Postma	3	11	14
6	NOR1	JEPP	Peer Moberg	10	5	15
7	SWE736	NA33	Johan Tillander	6	9	15
8	GBR3	RITA	Ben Ainslie	13	4	17
9	AUS221	DUGONG	Anthony Nossiter	15	10	25
10	GBR111	TECH ADVANT	Edward Wright	11	21	32
11	GBR41	NA11	Giles Scott	5	28	33
12	CAN41	CAN41	Chris Cook	19	15	34
13	ITA101	NA22	Riccardo Cordovani	18	18	36
14	CRO524	NA6	Ivan Kljakovic Ga P	12	26	38
15	AUT3	WOLF	Florian Raudaschl	22	17	39
16	CYP19	NA7	Haris Papadopoulos	43	2	45
17	RUS9	NA4	Eduard Skornyakov	33	12	45
18	FIN218	PORT OF HELSINKI	Tapio Nirkko	44	7	51
19	GBR88	TEVA	Mark Andrews	35	16	51
20	FRA73	PANTAENIUS	Guillaume Florent	31	20	51
21	SWE11	SKF	Daniel Birgmark	20	33	53
22	IRL5	DOLMEN STOCKBROKERS	Timothy Goodbody	29	25	54
23	UKR21	NA36	Oleksiy Borysov	21	34	55
24	GER174	NA16	Matthias Bohn	9	47	56
25	POL7	NA30	Rafal Szukiel	24	32	56
26	ESP100	MARAJA	Rafael Trujillo	16	42	58
27	FRA69	NA10	Jonathan Lobert	34	24	58
28	GBR625	NA13	Ed Greig	38	22	60
29	POL12	NA28	Waclaw Szukiel	45	19	64
30	NZL21	NA27	Nik Burfoot	17	48	65
31	CHN11	NIKE	Tianyu Ren	27	38	65
32	ITA925	NA24	Michele Paoletti	30	35	65
33	IND1	NA20	Nitin Mongia	53	13	66
34	SLO5	FINN	Gasper Vincec	14	54	68
35	FRA972	AQUARELLE	Ismael Bruno	26	44	70
36	CHN1	NIKE	Peng Zhang	40	30	70
37	CRO25	NA34	Marin Misura	58	14	72
38	CZE1	MAJCUS	Michael Maier	32	41	73
39	GBR634	NA14	Andrew Mills	8	66	74
40	CHN226	NIKE	Bo Liu	51	23	74
41	CZE9	PK OIL S.R.O.	Michal Hruby	47	31	78
42	POL17	NA29	Piotr Kula	37	43	80
43	NED41	NA26	Karel Van Hellemond	56	29	85
44	USA4	NA39	Zach Railey	39	46	85
45	RUS14	NA31	Dmitrii Tereshkin	46	39	85
46	POR5	NA3	Frederico Melo	23	65	88
47	GBR99	NA15	Henry Bagnall	50	40	90
48	HUN5	ANDREA	Tibor Pallay	66	27	93
49	ESP1	NA8	Diego Fructuoso	41	53	94
50	IND11	NA21	Nachhatar Johal	28	67	95
51	HUN6	NA19	Gaszton P L	25	72	97
52	TUR211	SENSEY	Ali Kemal T Fekci	42	57	99
53	TUR7	NA35	Akif Muslubas	54	49	103
54	EST7	NA9	Harles Liiv	52	52	104
55	AUS226	BILLS BOAT	Michael Williams	61	45	106
56	CHN7	NIKE	Lei Gong	55	51	106
57	GER771	NA17	Jan Kurfeld	71	36	107
58	UKR5	NA37	Andriy Gusenko	49	59	108
59	NED80	FLEURIE	Sander Willems	36	73	109
60	CRO11	NA1	Josip Olujic	73	37	110
61	USA9	NA40	Ian Cook	57	55	112
62	AUS223	SPRUCE GOOSE	James Paterson	48	69	117
63	BUL24	NA5	Mihail Kopanov	69	50	119
64	AUS241	XTSEA	Brendan Casey	63	56	119
65	CHN563	NIKE	Aiming Chen	59	62	121
66	VEN1	VEN1	Johnny Bilbao	60	61	121
67	AUS2	SHAKE AND BAKE	Rob Mcmillan	67	60	127
68	ITA40	FINN	Marko Kolic	65	63	128
69	NED29	NA25	Bas De Waal	72	58	130
70	AUS243	TBA	Warwick Hill	62	68	130
71	ITA70	NA23	Francesco Lubrano	68	71	139
72	AUS234	SQUID INK	Christopher Pratt	64	77	141
73	GER262	HEIMATLIEBE	Uwe Barthel	76	70	146
74	224	SORCERER	Geoffrey Francis	70	79	149
75	AUS3	AUS3	John Shallvey	75	74	149
76	ITA1	SONATA	Luca Devoti	88C	64	152
77	AUS8	MATCHBOX	Anthony Wood	74	78	152
78	AUS228	DARK SECRET	Dirk Seret	79	75	154
79	SVK11	NA32	Robert Poor	78	80	158
80	AUS203	NA12	Edward Thorburn	77	82	159
81	AUS233	LONGBOARD	Brian Reynolds	80	81	161
82	POR310	TUBA V	Rodrigo Quina	88C	76	164
83	235	THE DECK	John Condie	88C	88C	176
83	GBR1	SPUNKMEISTER	Sander Kooij	88C	88C	176
83	ITA941	SHAMBOLA	Paolo Cisbani	88C	88C	176
83	USA2012	NA38	Philip Toth	88C	88C	176
83	49	NA2	Egor Larionov	88C	88C	176