Seventieth Finn Gold Cup at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron - Day 3
by Robert Deaves 17 Feb 14:55 GMT
12-19 February 2026
For the third day running, Norway's Anders Pedersen leads the Porsche Centre Brisbane 2026 Finn Gold Cup. He now has five wins from six races and holds a six-point lead over the ever-consistent Alessandro Marega, from Italy, with Australia's Anthony Nossiter a further nine points back in third.
Hosted by the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, in Brisbane, Australia, Tuesday marked the return of summer in Brisbane. Though many forecasts predicted a Groundhog Day, but with sunshine, it was a much nicer day than many expected with sunny skies, rising temperatures and hot 12-15 knots winds, despite the fleet launching into a stiff 20 knot breeze. After several days of rain and cold air, the sunshine state finally lived up to its name.
The day was charactered by huge wind shifts that left many front-runners fighting back from mid fleet. Ian McKillop from Australia was the runaway winner in race 5, leading all the way for a huge win after a big right shift. He won from Marega and Italy's Marko Kolic. Regatta leader Pedersen struggled to recover from mid fleet to 15th at the finish.
However, by the second race, Pedersen had the measure of the conditions, starting at the pin end and being one of the first to tack across to the right. He led at the top mark and extended away for a huge win. Marega finished with another second with New Zealand's Karl Purdie in third.
With six races now completed, the discard kicks in with Pedersen building a meagre six point lead. The chasing group though are very close with three other Olympians and two European champions in the top 10.
Ian McKillop said, "The first race today was a pretty good race,. Kind of things went my way, which was good. Whenever you get a race win, it always keeps you coming back. In the second race, the right didn't come in so well, and the left was pretty strong. So, it didn't happen twice in a row, unfortunately, but that's sailing."
Karl Purdie, "In the first race it was shifty. It was back and forth. The oscillations here, there's a long time between them, probably like 15 minutes. So, you just got to hang in there, and eventually it'll come back for you. You've just got to be patient. In the last race, there were some quite big gaps so I would probably say, in the lighter winds, it was less close, actually.
"But it was fun, you know, racing Rafa and Nocker and managing to pass them on the last downwind was pretty cool. And there's still four races to go, right? Anything can happen. And I'm sure it will."
On the venue, "This is like my fifth regatta here, and it's always Louise [Davis] who's been the race officer, and she's just awesome, you know, totally awesome. And the race management here and the facilities are second to none."
Racing continues on Wednesday with two more races scheduled, while the event concludes on Thursday.
Results after Day 3: (top ten, 6 races)
1 NOR1 Anders Østre Pedersen 5pts
2 ITA 1103 Alessandro Marega 11pts
3 AUS 221 Anthony Nossiter 20pts
4 ESP 100 Rafael Trujillo 25pts
5 AUS 11 Brendan Casey 34pts
6 AUS 2 Rob McMillan 38pts
7 FRA 111 Valerian Lebrun 40pts
8 NZL 111 Karl Purdie 42pts
9 AUS 37 James Bevis 42pts
10 AUS 26 Ian McKillop 56pts
Full results can be found here.