Finn Gold Cup at Vallensbæk, Denmark - Day 3

Racing on day three of the Finn Gold Cup © Richard Langdon / www.oceanimages.co.uk

Racing on day three of the Finn Gold Cup © Richard Langdon / www.oceanimages.co.uk

Dan Slater takes the lead

After day three in Vallensbaek there is a new leader at the Finn Gold Cup. Dan Slater (NZL) heads the leader board but on the same points as Zach Railey (USA). Ed Wright (GBR) moves up to third. Race wins on Wednesday went to Eduard Skornyakov (RUS) and Marin Misura (CRO).

Wednesday dawned as most days this week with blue skies and a light wind in place. By the time race five started it was a patchy 8-9 knots. For the first time in the series, the left side paid with a large shift under the clouds.

Bryan Boyd (USA) led from the left to lead round the top mark for the second time this week. He was followed by Eduard Skornyakov (RUS), Andrew Mills (GBR), Alejandro Muscat (ESP), Florian Raudaschl (AUT) and Jonas Høgh Christensen (DEN). Those on the right didn't look so good.

Boyd was unable to hold on to the lead. with Skornyakov taking over on the first run, which he held to the finish.

Mills sailed a great race into second. He said, “I didn't get a great start but played the shifts up the left hand side and actually rounded in third and managed to hang onto third at the bottom. The next beat it paid to go right, but perhaps not as much as people thought it would. I rounded second and kept there down the run to the finish.”

On the racing so far Mills said, “The right is paying mostly but a lot of people are thinking it is paying more than it actually is. If you can get the right shift towards the clouds then you're off. But there's been a few people sailing on headers trying to get to them. So far it's going all right for me and I've managed to be fairly consistent. The key will be to try and keep out of the big points for as long as possible. But there's a bit more wind forecast for tomorrow so hopefully it will settle things down a bit.”

Just a few boat lengths behind Mills, Slater had recovered to third in the race to take the overall lead of the regatta from Zach Railey (USA) who had finished 29th.

As the race finished the wind all but disappeared for an hour while the fleet waiting in the hot sunshine and blue skies, though a number of rain clouds could be seen tacking down the coast inland. When these passed by the wind filled in again and race six got underway in 10-12 knots, again with a practice start so the PRO could raise the black flag.

The first upwind was defined by a large shift half way up to the right and an increase in wind to 14-15 knots. Michael Maier (CZE) was furthest to the right and easily rounded the mark in the lead.

He said, “It was really busy by the committee boat so I started about 30 metres down from the boat. I tacked onto port, sailed about 200 metres and tacked, then did a long starboard and back again and tacked for the mark and rounded first. It was easy!”

Behind him were Marin Misura (CRO), Bjorn Allansson (SWE), Giorgio Poggi (ITA), Pieter Jan Postma (NED) and Wietze Zetzema (NED). Misura took the lead on the first downwind and held to the finish in the increasing wind, with the final run almost a reach in the changing conditions.

Second placed Jonathan Lobert (FRA) scored his best ever Gold Cup in race six. “On the first beat I stayed in the middle after starting at the committee boat then I lost a lot of guys after letting them go further to the right and rounded tenth, but then I touched it and had do do a turn. Then I got lucky on the second beat and caught a lot of boats by going right and getting a big shift. I was very quick downwind and gained a lot of distance but only two boats, so I am happy to finish second. It was great fun. Nice waves and good wind.”

Lobert, who has been sailing the Finn for three years, said “I like the class very much. There are two of us French guys training together for Weymouth, myself and Thomas [Le Breton] and we'll see who is best. We work as a team rather than being competitive, helping each other to try and be the best. This makes for a good atmosphere in the team.”

Third placed Allansson said, “I had a pretty good start by the committee boat and rounded the top mark in fourth. I gained two places on the first downwind. It was free pumping so it was pretty brutal. On he second beat I was leading for a while, but the group split into two, so I played the middle and rounded the mark second. The wind changed a bit more on the final downwind and I finished third which is a great result for me.

“I am really pleased with the second race today, but not that happy with my other results so far, but we still only half way through so it could still turn out OK.”

At 45, Maier is putting some of his experience back into the class coaching some Czech juniors. “We started last year with a little bit and continued this year in Palma because it is too cold to sail at home and we'll see how they get on at the World Juniors on Balaton next month. For me it's easy to be coaching them and sailing at the same time. I'm not really one for sitting in a motor boat. I think this will continue for the future and if I am still in one piece I will carry on sailing.”

One of these new sailors is Tomas Vika (CZE) who is currently sitting in 30th place, just four places behind the leading junior this week so far, Jorge Zarif (BRA) in 26th place.

The points at the top are close. Both Slater and Railey sit on 32 points with Wright on 39. All have posted at least one high score already, so any more could cost them dearly.

Two more races are scheduled each day at 11.00 until Friday, with the medal race and the final race for the rest on Saturday.

60 years of the Finn (report from Sailing Intelligence)

Tonight at Vallensbæk Sailing Club on the outskirts of Copenhagen, the 89 Finn Gold Cup sailors, who are mostly over 90kg and prop forward-sized, will be donning their dancing shoes for a knees-up to celebrate the 60th birthday of their beloved men’s heavyweight Olympic singlehander.

4.5m long with its cat-rig (mainsail only), the Finn was designed in 1949 by Swede Rickard Sarby ready for the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. It has held its place at the Games ever since. During this time some of the greatest names in sailing have earned their stripes in the class, from triple gold medallist in the Finn, Paul Elvstrøm, to America’s Cup legend Russell Coutts, to John Bertrand, skipper of Australia II, the first boat to prise the America’s Cup off the New York Yacht Club in 132 years, while recently the class has been dominated by another profound talent, British star Ben Ainslie.

At the Finn Gold Cup off Vallensbæk the most capped Finn sailor is Michael Maier of the Czech Republic. Today he is 45, but due to his giant size even then, Maier started his Finn career at the impressively young age of 14. “In one year I grew 35cms!” he claims. In 1980 he won his first Czech Finn Nationals and in 1986 he sailed his first Finn Gold Cup, the class’ World Championship.

Maier’s Olympic career got off to a tricky start. Prior to the Barcelona Games in 1992 he qualified the Czech Republic, but come the Games themselves the Czech Olympic authorities were forced to drop one athlete. “I got to the airport in Barcelona and then I was told ‘Michel you stay home’. I was very angry,” he recalls.

After this unfortunate incident Maier says he stopped sailing and instead bought a Mistral, the Olympic sailboard, and lost 21g to get competitive in this. However he was gradually enticed back to the Finn when a friend of his sponsored him with a boat. “He just said ‘look, your new boat is in Hamburg’. If you like it, take it or not'." recalls Maier. "So I took that and it was my first regatta in SPA and in the first three races I was 1, 3, 1. And I have continued until today.”

He subsequently finished 14th in Atlanta, but in Sydney in 2000 suffered two penalties and ended up 19th. He has since followed this up with a 15th and a 25th at the Athens and Beijing Games. Thanks to his wrestler-like frame, between Athens and Beijing he was recruited by Iain Percy and Luca Devoti to complete in the last America’s Cup as a grinder with their +39 team, mostly comprising friends from the Finn class.

So celebrating his 30 years in the class, what has changed over the years? “Now there is more physical preparation,” says Maier, who admits he feels his age in the class. “Before guys were stronger, but the equipment has changed and we have new materials. Sometimes downwind you think it is gymnastics, not sailing, and if it is free pumping some guys have double the speed of me.”

Techniques have also changed, thanks to the influx of Olympic sailors from the Laser class. Despite equipment changes and the boat getting lighter, the boat remains a handful particularly in strong winds. Maier remembers the Worlds in Cascais in 2007 when at times they experienced 35 knots down the runs. “If you didn’t capsize you won! Once I capsized (but I still had the mainsheet) and I ended up at the top of the mast!”

What hasn’t changed in the class is its comraderie, that may be down to the sailors all being big blokes, or the wide mix of countries and the culture of helping out those who are new to the class. As a result for example it is felt that Sydney Gold medallist Iain Percy may have moved on to the Star, but he will forever be a Finn sailor at heart.

Tonight’s celebrations are just a small prelude prior to the main 60th anniversary event for the Finn class. In August the 60th anniversary regatta will take place in Uppsala, organised by the Sweden Finn Assocation. Already 60 sailors from eight nations have pre-entered. Star of this regatta will be Finn No1, the boat used to convince the authorities to use the Finn for the first time at the Games in Helsinki. This is on loan from a local maritime museum.

Meanwhile Finn class historian and journalist Robert Deaves is preparing a 224 page book to celebrate the anniversary. This is to be published in September. “We have 60 sailors from years past to write a story about their time in the class. It includes all the famous sailors, from Elvstrøm through to Ainslie,” says Deaves.

Follow the race live, thanks to TracTrac at www.tractrac.com/fgc

Follow the event live on the Twitter feed and Finn Class Blog at finnclass.blogspot.com

Results after Day 3: