FINNFARE November 2008 by Robert Deaves

NOVEMBER 2008

Gold - Ben Ainslie • Silver - Zach Railey • Bronze - Guillaume Florent

Devoti Sailing

n n i F i t o v e D a n i r e d a e l e h t w o l l o F Dealer for Holland: Hit Masts Holland Represented by: Jan van der Horst Email: vanderhorst@wxs.nl Web: www.hit-masts.nl

Dealer for England: Suntouched Sailboats Represented by: Rodney Cobb Email: rodney@suntouched.co.uk Web: www.suntouched.co.uk

Devoti Sailing s.r.o. Prikop 27/2a 602 00 Brno Czech Republic Tel/fax: +420 546 210 285 Mobile: +420 602 160 562 Skype: devoti.sailing.s.r.o Office opening hours: 8am to 4pm CET Email: info@devotosailing.cz Web: www.devotisailing.com

FINNFARE NOVEMBER 2008

Photo: François Richard

Opening shot: Second Olympic Finn Gold for Ben Ainslie The only one of the absolute favourites to win a medal, Ben Ainslie had almost secured the gold medal before the medal race, but then had to wait another day before receiving his fourth Olympic medal and his third consecutive gold medal – two of them in the Finn class. Widely expected to win, the gold was never really in doubt. After the disappointment of watching a sure win in race one evaporate in the closing stages, he answered back in typical Ainslie style and took the lead after race five, which he maintained until the thrilling medal races.

Zach Railey was leading the regatta after day two and was the only sailor to count all single digit scores going into the medal race. After Ainslie took the overall lead, Railey kept his head to stay in second overall. A tactical decision to sail Guillaume Florent down the fleet in race eight left him with a comfortable points margin going into the medal race. However, nobody wanted to be in his boots knowing that Ainslie had his number, but the strong wind in the ‘medal race that did happen’ allowed him to sail his own race to secure the medal.

As one of the few sailors in the regatta to have not to have sailed in Qingdao prior to the Olympics and having only returned to the class earlier this year, Florent was rated as an ouside chance of a medal, mainly based on his good peformance at this year’s Europeans, where he also finished third. Going into the medal race, silver was a long way off, but Florent rounded the top mark in second to finally finish fourth and won the bronze from his nearest rival Daniel Birgmark because of his better medal race result, as both sailors had the same final points.

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Photo: François Richard

Bronze – Guillaume Florent (FRA)

Photo: Getty Images

Silver – Zach Railey (USA)

Photo: Getty Images

Gold – Ben Ainslie (GBR)

FINNFARE is the official publication of the International Finn Association

Circulation FINNFARE is a non-profit publication that is distributed free of charge to all IFA members and to interested parties connected to the International Finn Class around the world. For extra copies, or if you have addresses of people who you think should be receiving FINNFARE, please contact the IFA Office. Contributions Articles, race results, photographs and reports from countries are always welcome. Please include FINNFARE in your National Association for mailing newsletters, bulletins, press releases and race reports. Advertisements All advertisement enquiries should also be addressed to the Editor. Technical details and rates are available on request and on the IFA website www.finnclas.org Email Please email photos as high resolution jpeg files. High resolution photos for the cover always needed. Most Mac compatible formats accepted.

Executive Committee of IFA 2008-09

President of Honour Gerardo Seeliger Anabel Segura 7, 28108 Arroyo de la Vega Alcobenda, Spain Mob: +34 609 20 10 20 Tel: +34 91 661 61 33 Email: gerardo@vueltamundo4x4.com President Dr Balazs Hajdu Furj u 25, H-1124 Budapest, Hungary Mob: +36 30 332 7415 Fax: +36 1 319 1680 Email: balazs.hajdu@t-online.hu Skype: bhajdu001 Vice-President – Sailing Daniel Birgmark Föreningsgatan 16E 411 27 Göteborg, Sweden Email: birgmark@hotmail.com

Vice-President – Development Zach Railey Tel: +1 727 439 5505 (cell) Email: zachrailey2008@hotmail.com Skype: zachrailey2008

Vice-President – Masters’ Fleet Fons van Gent Moerbeilaan 19 6086 EC Neer, The Netherlands Tel: +31 475 592048 Fax: +31 475 510112 Email: fonsvangent@home.nl Skype: fonsvangent www.finnworldmaster.com

Executive Director Corinne McKenzie 39 Rue du Portal d’Amont 66370 Pezilla la Riviere, France Mob: +33 670 10 18 13 Tel/fax: +33 4 68 92 60 46 Email: corinne.mckenzie@orange.fr Skype: corinnerollandmckenzie

Chairman Technical Committee Richard Hart 26 Lower Spinney, Warsash, Southampton, Hants SO3 9NL, England Tel: +44 1489 575327 Fax: +44 1489 576908 Email: Richard@Hart331.fsnet.co.uk Skype: rhahart

FINNFARE Editor Robert Deaves, 124 Heatherhayes, Ipswich. IP2 9SG, England Mob: +44 (0)7932 047046 Email: robertdeaves@yahoo.co.uk Cover photos: Main photo: Ben Ainslie flies the Union Jack after winning his second Olympic Gold in the Finn. Insets: Top - Medal Ceremony; Middle: Zach Railey; bottom: Guillaume Florent. Photos: Getty Images and François Richard Next issue: April 2009 Back issues: These are available from the editor at GBP 0.50 each plus postage. Back issues stocks begin October 1997.

IFA WEB SITE www.finnclass.org FINNatics and FINNLOG: FINNatics is currenly out of print. Some of the original FINNLOGs (from 1986) are still available for GBP 5 plus p&p from the IFA office.

Honorary Treasurer Tim Carver Tel: +44 7798 927971 Email: tim@timcarver.com Skype: carvert

Chief Measurer Jüri Saraskin Lossi 1A, Tallinn, EE0026, Estonia Tel: (W) +372 6726 777 (H) +372 6726 222 Mobile: + 372 501 1321 Fax: +372 6726 778 Email: perimex@online.ee

Chairman Marketing Committee Robert Deaves 124 Heatherhayes, Ipswich. IP2 9SG England Mob: +44 (0)7932 047046 Email: robertdeaves@yahoo.co.uk Skype: robert.deaves

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Photo: François Richard

Finn news High performance Long term FINNFARE advertiser High Performance Wetsuits of Auckland, New Zealand is celebrating 20 years of manufacturing hiking pants with a new website, new products and a special offer. The company was originally established in 1988 by New Zealand dinghy sailor John Dowsett, the original inventor of hiking pants. In 2008 the company has changed hands with David Broadhead taking the reins. See the Waverunna ad on the opposite page for more details. David would like to talk to old HPW customers about their impressions of the product and to discuss some new ideas. He can be contacted via the website. ISAF World Cup The first ISAF Sailing World Cup is set to launch at the end of 2008 bringing a new annual series of sailing to the international sports calendar. The World Cup will be open to the sailing events chosen for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Competitions. The first event will be Sail

Melbourne in its new slot in Deccember, followed by Rolex Miami OCR, Trofeo Princesa Sofia MAPFRE, Semaine Olympique Hyeres, Delta Lloyd Regattas, Kieler Woche and ending at the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta at the 2012 Olympic sailing venue, Weymouth. All change at the Pata boatyard Suntouched and Pata Boats have decided to restructure their long term partnership. As a result Pata boats, masts and other Finn equipment will now be exclusively manufactured and distributed by Pata Boats Hungary. The company hopes to minimise any inconvenience that may be caused to its customers. Other news is that Pata Boats has extended its production to Brazil with the help of the IFA. Also, the company is donating a Pata B4 Finn and mast to the winner of the 2009 Junior Finn Worlds for one year. See the company’s website and the advertisement on the inside back cover of this issue of FINNFARE for more information.

60th Anniversary Finn Book

2009 will mark the 60th Anniversary since the Finn was designed by Rickard Sarby back in 1949 and plans are already being made to celebrate this occasion in style. A special book is already under way to commemorate 60 years of Finn sailing. This will be a professionally produced glossy publication highlighting each year of the history of the Finn photographically. Over the years, the class has been home to some truly great sailors and some truly memorable moments. It is planned for the book to capture the essence of the class to provide a pictorial history along with interesting stories, results and quotes. To enable this book to be completed and to make it as thorough as it should be, a lot of help is needed by the editor in collecting photographs, especially from the very early days of the class. If you have any photos that you would like to

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contribute to this book please either send them to the editor or scan them at 300 dpi and send on CD or by email. All contributions will be credited. It is hoped the book will be ready for the Gold Cup in Copenhagen and order details should be available by the spring 2009 issue of FINNFARE. It is expected there will be a limited print run so early ordering is recommended to avoid disappointment. Online ordering will be available and discounts will be available to National Finn Associations ordering in bulk. Please send all contributions (or leads) to: Robert Deaves, 124 Heatherhayes, Ipswich, IP2 9SG, England, or email to robertdeaves@yahoo.co.uk

President’s letter Dear Friends, fellow Finn sailors

The Olympic Games are over and the international Finn community is getting ready for another Olympic quadrennium. This is indirectly also valid for the large numbers of club level junior and senior sailors as well as for our great Masters fleet. 2008 marks also the end of my first 4 years as IFA president. Looking back I feel proud to having the opportunity to lead this traditional, human but at the same time extremely modern and state-of-theart sailboat class. At the same time I shall thank you sailors for showing fair play on water and fraternity on land. Please also let me thank the IFA Executive Committee, especially our Executive Director for their leadership and continuous support over the past years. Thanks to you sailors and our association we have produced some significant results in a couple of fields of our activities. Thanks to the excellent boat, our manufacturers and equipment rules we have seen growing national fleets in almost all parts of the world. The Finn Masters fleet has been exceptionally competitive and large in numbers whilst we have also managed to expand the Finn international Development Support (FIDES) programme resulting in Cyprus, India and Venezuela participating in the Beijing Olympics. I seriously believe that our momentum is going to continue in 2009 and wish you fair winds and a successful new year. Best regards Dr. Balazs Hajdu HUN-1 IFA President

2008 Olympic Regatta – Qingdao, China As the story of the 2008 Olympic regatta in the Finn class unfolded, it soon became clear that Ben Ainslie was headed for his fourth Olympic medal, his third gold and his second consecutive Finn class gold. But for a change in the wind on the final leg in race one, he would have secured gold with a day to spare. As it turned out, those lost nine places in those frustrating 10 minutes delivered an absorbing medal race showdown that few could have predicted, not once but twice, and in vastly different conditions. The regatta centre was described, by all those who took the time to describe it, as the greatest they had ever seen. Everything was five star, from the accommodation to the launching facilities, and from the initial welcome to the goodbyes.

Day one – race one The early leader was Jonas HøghChristensen followed by Giorgio Poggi and Rafal Szukiel. Ainslie rounded in fifth and had the best of the downwind to lead through the gate from Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic. Meanwhile, Høgh-Christensen lost 17 places. Ainslie extended on the second upwind and had a useful 100 metre gap on the final leg when everything started to go wrong. Half way down the leg the wind went very light and then puffed in from the left. Emilios Papathanasiou went from eighth to first while Zach Railey moved from 15th to second and Szukiel from 14th to third. Ainslie’s lead evaporated in the slow motion finish and he ended up 10th.

next downwind while Birgmark recovered to second. On the final upwind leg, Birgmark made a small gain to cross the finish line one second ahead of Railey, with Trujillo four seconds back in third. Ainslie maintained fourth place throughout the entire race.

Day one – race two The second race started in more or less the same wind with the right side clearly favoured again. Poggi again sailed a blistering first upwind to round the top mark just ahead of Szukiel and Tapio Nirkko. Ainslie rounded in a comfortable seventh place and again demolished everyone downwind to lead round the bottom gate. On the second upwind, Railey moved up to second while Rafael Trujillo climbed to fourth. This time Ainslie managed to maintain his lead on the final downwind to win race two by just 12 seconds.

the lead in the final three-quarters of the run to finish six seconds ahead of Railey while Florent moved up from 14th at the top mark to third at the finish.

Day two – race four Eduardo Couto led round the first mark and the first lap. Guillaume Florent rounded second with Haris Papadopolous in third. Ainslie was in fourth and Railey rounded eighth. Railey then sailed a perfect second upwind leg to move into the lead just ahead of Couto and Dan Slater. The final downwind to the finish was dramatic. In a reversal of fortunes, Ainslie found the best wind to take

On the water the racing was competitive but ‘gentlemanly’. As is usual in the Olympics, many of the pre-regatta favourites failed to perform. Some of the absolute favourites didn’t even make the medal race. Such were the expected conditions in Qingdao. Everyone expected them. Few expected they themselves would suffer more than others. However, the weather defied all the pundits. Only one day was completely lost through no wind, though most races were sailed in under 8 knots of wind and presented some challenging strategic options to the fleet of 26 Finns. In the end, one man made history yet again, just as everyone had expected. He perhaps made it look too easy, but even Ainslie succumbed to the variable conditions on two occasions. The sailors Of all the 26 Finn sailors who went to Qingdao, only 12 had already tasted the Olympic arena. However 16 had won races at major championships, 18 had placed top ten in major regattas, and 11 had picked up a medal in the past four years either at the Finn Gold Cup, European Championship or Qingdao regattas. In addition, all except three of the top 20 in the world rankings were in Qingdao. It was expected to be one of the toughest Olympic Finn competitions of all time.

Day two – race three Building on his overnight celebrity status for being in second place, Railey lead round the top mark in race three and maintained it on the first downwind while Trujillo moved up to second. Trujillo took the lead on the

Day three – race five Starting in about 10 knots, Couto maintained his first mark lead on the first downwind, rounding just ahead of Peng Zhang. Gasper Vincec made the best gains moving from 9th to third. On the final upwind, Couto extended his lead to 26 seconds with Vincec moving up to second, while coming up fast behind him was Ainslie. Ainslie continued his charge on the final downwind to the finish overhauling both Vincec and then Couto to take his third race win of the series so far and to move into the overall lead for the first time. Almost a photo finish, the first three boats finished in the space of one second.

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FINAL RESULTS – OLYMPIC COMPETITION FINN CLASS 2008 Pos NOC 1 GBR 2 USA 3 FRA 4 SWE 5 CAN 6 DEN 7 SLO 8 CRO 9 ESP 10 POL 11 ITA 12 NZL 13 BRA 14 NED 15 GRE 16 AUS 17 RUS 18 FIN 19 NOR 20 TUR 21 IRL 22 CYP 23 IND 24 CHN 25 CZE 26 VEN

Crew Ben Ainslie Zach Railey Guillaume Florent Daniel Birgmark Christopher Cook Jonas Hoegh-Christensen Gasper Vincec Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic Rafa Trujillo Villar Rafal Szukiel Giorgio Poggi Dan Slater Eduardo Couto Pieter-Jan Postma Emilios Papathanasiou Anthony Nossiter Eduard Skornyakov Tapio Nirkko Peer Moberg Ali Kemal Tufekci Timothy Goodbody Haris Papadopoulos Nachhatar Singh Johal Peng Zhang Michael Maier Johnny Bilbao

1 2 3 4 5 (10) 1 4 1 1 2 5 2 2 7 5 8 20 3 4 14 (17) 1 6 12 8 3 7 10 (23) 16 6 12 16 (25) 9 11 6 5 3 7 10 10 8 (16) 12 4 3 14 20 3 2 19 12 10 17 7 14 (21) 6 (21) 19 18 4 9 6 16 DNF 7 2 19 15 16 (22) 15 1 DNF 5 DNE 18 11 (22) 8 17 13 (24) 20 17 13 8 18 9 9 9 19 23 DSQ 11 19 22 20 (21) 13 18 14 (22) 13 15 15 17 13 18 21 11 24 4 (24) 23 24 11 25 23 24 20 5 15 14 22 (25) 21 (26) 12 25 23 26

6 10 8 6 3 5 4 (13) 9 20 14 12 7 17 2 15 21 18 (22) 1 19 16 11 24 (26) 23 25

7 8 MR Total 2 2 2 23 7 (19) 12 45 4 (21) 8 58 3 5 14 58 15 3 16 67 5 7 4 70 8 10 20 72 1 13 18 76 OCS 1 6 80 (22) 12 10 82 9 9 74 13 6 76 14 OCS 89 10 16 93 DNE 8 101 11 20 101 12 14 102 16 22 102 DSQ 4 107 6 17 107 21 15 112 17 OCS 115 18 24 128 23 11 131 19 23 137 20 18 149

© 2008 IOC. Official Results powered by Atos Origin. Timing and results management by Omega. Day three – race six Race six got underway in 7 knots. Pieter-Jan Postma led round the first mark just ahead of Nirkko and Cook. Moberg rounded in fourth place. By the leeward gate, Moberg was up to second and stayed there until the final downwind when he sneaked past Postma to take the race by just four seconds. Birgmark took third place after remaining in the top seven throughout. Some small chink was found in Ainslie’s armour as he could only manage to finish tenth in the race, just two places and two seconds behind his main rival Railey. Day four was a lay day Day five – race seven For the first time on the Finn course, there was initially a significant delay in getting the first race underway because of too little wind, and then a cancellation of the second race as conditions deteriorated even further. Eduard Skornyakov made the best of the

first upwind to lead round the top mark followed by Kljakovic Gaspic and Papathanasiou. Kljakovic Gaspic took the lead at the bottom of the downwind with Ainslie jumping from seventh at the top mark to second at the gate. However Kljakovic Gaspic rounded clear of other boats and extended his lead to just over two minutes by the finish to take the race win. Ainslie held on to second, just ahead of Birgmark. By the end of the race, the wind had decreased to 4 knots. On day six there was no racing because of lack of wind Day seven – race eight Again lack of wind caused a delay in the start and only one race was sailed. Although Trujillo won this race, a second place for Ainslie extended his lead at the top to 12 points. Ainslie led round the first mark for the first time in the series and extended his lead to 30 seconds by the leeward gate. Cook was second followed by Slater and Trujillo. Slater and Trujillo traded positions on the downwind and then on the final upwind leg, Trujillo took advantage of a large right hand shift. He overhauled the Brit to win the race and just make the cut for the medal race, to Poggi’s cost. Behind them, Railey was taking advantage of what would certainly be his discard to take his main threat Florent back through the fleet and increase the points gap going into the medal race. Day eight – medal race take one Railey was the only sailor who could take the gold medal from Ainslie going into the medal race. The battle for silver was mainly between Railey, Birgmark and Florent. The battle for bronze was wide open. The race was twice postponed in the closing seconds before the start gun, but the third

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Perfect Finn sailing conditions enabled the sailors to finally enjoy the downwind with Florent and Hoegh-Christensen gaining slightly on Ainslie, while Railey moved up one to sixth. Most of the fleet favoured the left hand side of the final upwind leg with Ainslie extending. There were few changes on the final leg. Railey was still holding onto silver while Florent was comfortably in the bronze. The only real drama was Florent dropping to fourth and Birgmark moving up to seventh right at the finish. In terms of points this meant that Florent took the bronze medal off Birgmark on the result on the medal race, both sailors finishing on 58 points. time the fleet got away in 7 knots of breeze. The big question everyone was asking before the race was would Railey bear the full brunt of Ainslie’s tactics. By the time the third start got underway, Railey had taken the battle to Ainslie and managed to escape a number of times but still Ainslie was able to execute his plan to perfection. At the first mark both boats trailed the fleet by some minutes. The gold looked like it was Ainslie’s. However the breeze was dropping and a little later racing was shelved for the day. Day nine – medal race take two It was all change. Raining hard and with winds in excess of 20 knots the medal race that happened provided a complete contrast to the rest of the regatta. Though the Ynglings got their race in first, the Finns were sent back to shore as the weather and visibility rapidly deteriorated. The frustration

of the sailors, matched by the frustration of journalists and viewers worldwide, was almost palpable. But the weather improved and the AP finally came down again at 15.45 local time for a fifth attempt at a start. Ainslie waited until the last moment before attacking and slid under Railey with about 30 seconds to go. Railey tacked off and started in last place, but in clear air. After a few tacks being exchanged out of the start, Ainslie was ahead but clearly keeping Railey in his sights. Favouring the right hand side of the course Ainslie rounded the top mark ahead, with Florent rounding in second from the left. Positions at the first mark were: GBR, FRA, DEN, CAN, ESP, SLO, USA, SWE, POL and CRO. Railey was still in silver and Florent had moved up to bronze.

If anyone needs a masterclass in how to demoralise the opposition, then Ben Ainslie is the perfect tutor, having won the gold medal in extremely tricky conditions by 22 points. In four out of the nine races sailed, he turned a middle or low top ten result into a race winning position on the downwind legs. In the first race he was unlucky, dropping from first to tenth in the closing stages, but his counting scoreline of four race wins, two seconds, a fourth and a 10th is a graphic indication of why he was the favourite to take the gold medal again. For many more reports including day by day quotes, daily photo galleries, interviews and much more go to www.finnclass.org.

Gear used at Olympic regatta (Compiled by Jüri Saraskin)

Nation Hull Mast 1 Mast 2 Sail 1 Sail 2 AUS Devoti HIT HIT North North BRA Devoti HIT Wilke Victory North CAN Devoti Wilke Wilke North North CHN Devoti Wilke Wilke North North CRO Devoti Wilke Pata Victory Victory CYP Devoti Wilke Wilke Victory WB CZE Devoti HIT Pata North North DEN Devoti Wilke Wilke North North ESP Devoti HIT HIT North North FIN Devoti Wilke Wilke WB WB FRA Devoti (03) HIT HIT North North GBR Devoti (02) Wilke Wilke North UK North UK GRE Devoti (03) Pata Pata North Victory IND Devoti Wilke North North IRL Devoti Wilke Wilke North North ITA Devoti HIT Wilke North North NED Devoti Wilke Wilke North Victory NOR Devoti Wilke Wilke North WB NZL Devoti Wilke Southern North NZ North NZ Spars POL Devoti (03) Wilke Wilke North Victory RUS Devoti Wilke HIT North North SLO Devoti HIT HIT North North SWE Devoti Wilke Wilke WB WB TUR Devoti HIT Victory North USA Devoti Wilke Wilke North North VEN Devoti Pata North North

Rudder (s) Devoti Devoti Devoti Devoti Devoti Devoti, Wilke Devoti, Wilke Devoti Devoti Devoti Devoti Devoti Bloodaxe Devoti Devoti Devoti Devoti Devoti NZL Devoti Devoti Devoti Devoti, Wilke Devoti Devoti Devoti

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Ben Ainslie What was going through your head after the first race turned from a sure win into a 10th?

From the sailing we had done I knew the conditions were going to be tough and that at some stage there would be disappointments, I guess I just didn’t expect it to come that quickly. All the Games I have done I have had a bad start so this was no different. What was your coach saying to keep you focussed in the medal race with delay after delay? Jez and I have a really good relationship. He was really just reminding me of what was happening with the tide and the wind forecasts as well as being good company.

Zach Railey

Was there a time when you thought you’d lose a medal completely? It was hard to tell. I think that given the level of competition and the conditions we were racing in the whole week the medal was not a guarantee until it was all over. I think that what was on my mind most was to do the best I could in each race and allow the results to fall where they went.

When you got sent in from the medal race on Sunday in the squall was there a thought in your head ‘this isn’t going to happen?’ Yes. I couldn’t believe it when we were sent home. When they called us back out I have never run to my boat so quickly, I just couldn’t wait to get the race over with. Why do you think so many favourites had really off regattas? The Olympics does that, it happens every time. I think we saw this more in China because of the difficult conditions. When will we see you in a Finn again? I don’t know. Right now my obligations are to my sponsors and to Team Origin. Once we know where and when the next America’s Cup will be then I can make a plan for 2012. What did you do after the racing ended? Well every day I would go back down to support the sailors still racing and another Brit would win a medal. It was awesome to be a part of such a successful team.

How did you deal with that mentally? I really just tried to stay calm and not allow my emotions to effect my decision making. There were times when things did not go as planned and I just made sure I tried to make the best out of each situation. How much help was your coach in keeping you relaxed? Kenneth has always played a huge role in my mental preparation and focus. We go in with a goal at each event and he keeps me level headed and focused on what our goals are for each race and each day. He tells me what I need to hear and I trust him which is very important. Did you have words with Ben overnight and what was said? Ben and I spoke almost everyday. Going into the last day we understood what each

What class do you hope to sail in 2012? Either the Finn or the Star. What are your immediate sailing plans? Ijust competed in the Maxi World Championships with Neville Chricton on Alfa Romeo the super Maxi. I’m doing the Bermuda Gold Cup in October with the Origin match racing team and I guess the focus will now switch to match racing for a bit. Did the Olympics live up to your expectations? It was really how I expected it to be. The conditions were really very hard and the Chinese did an amazing job in running the Games and being so hospitable to all the foreign teams and sailors. Sum up your Olympic experience. It was a very demanding, yet rewarding experience.

others goals were. I think there was a mutual respect between us, that each of us had to execute what we thought was necessary to achieve those goals. Going into the event, did you realistically expect to come away with a medal? Yes. I think that the fleet had about 10 guys who could have been on the podium and I really thought that I was in that group of 10 sailors. I am also very honest in knowing that if the regatta started again tomorrow I could just as easily have finished 8th. I had a great week and that was what it was going to take from any of the sailors that had podium aspirations. I am happy that my week happened to fall during the Olympics. What does this mean in terms of the home fleet in the US? I think that the fleet is energized not only by

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Guillaume Florent

Last year we were told you’d stopped sailing Finns and then you reappeared in Melbourne. Why did you start your campaign for 2008 so late in the day? I expected another America’s Cup cycle to start but nothing happened. After some talks, my federation and sponsor Pantaenius agreed to support me for another Olympic campaign since that was the most interesting challenge at the time. What has been the response in France? Amazing.

Going in to the regatta, did you realistically expect to come away with a medal? I lost a lot of weight between the Europeans and the Games but I did not know if that was going to be sufficient to be competitive in Qingdao. I knew I had a chance since the place was tricky but I thought my preparation in Qingdao had been too short so I came with the goal to do my best. What was your plan going into the medal race? Get the medal! Seriously, to hit a corner since there were too many (very good) sailors fighting for the bronze to win it sailing a conservative race. I was lucky to have the conditions I like for the medal race too. What about the racing in general? Pretty much better conditions than what was expected. Do you think not sailing in the test regattas helped or hindered you? I do not know.

What did you do the week after the medal race? Party. Stay with the team to support them. Go to Beijing and then back home. What are your immediate sailing plans? I am currently trying to find an answer to this question. Did the Olympics live up to your expectations? They definitely exceeded my expectations since I could enjoy a medal ceremony for the first time in three attempts. Also, our team was very united and there was always the right word at the right time. Will we see you in a Finn again soon? Maybe next year but nothing is sure. Sum up your Olympic experience. Did all that really happen? Or was it just a dream?

Medalists have their say Soon after the end of the Olympic regatta, FINNFARE caught up with each of the three medallists and asked them to reflect on their time in China. Here’s what they said...

the result but just in participation. I am hoping that this will showcase the boat a bit more in the USA and get more people involved in the class, especially youth sailors. What are your immediate sailing plans? I have taken a bit of a break and have been working on some business stuff outside of sailing for the last few weeks. I am hoping to look into some bigger boat series racing and also will start my 2012 Olympic Campaign at the USA Nationals this October. I am currently working on sponsors and other support areas to help with the 2012 Campaign. What did you do the week after the medal race? I went into Beijing and enjoyed the Olympics and watched the other sports that were still competing, which was really a lot of fun. I

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also went out and had some fun and enjoyed celebrating the event with my friends of whom many are my competitors, so that was a lot of fun. Once I got home I enjoyed some time with my family and friends in the USA and then started to concentrate on the future. Were you pleased to be able to sail the medal race again even though if the positions had stayed the same in the abandoned race you’d still get the silver? Yes, I was really pleased because I was able to learn a lot from that experience and think that I am a better sailor from those situations. Even though those races were very stressful and tactical, it was the most fun I have had sailing. Being able to put myself in that situation was a lifelong dream and before each race Kenneth told me to go and enjoy the experience and I really did do just that.

Did the Olympics live up to your expectations? It did live up to my expectations and so much more. My attitude going into the event was to enjoy it and take it all in because it was what I have dreamed about doing since I have been very young. Many past Olympians told me to go out and take in the experience of being there and I think that having that attitude helped my result. I knew that whether or not I stood on the podium and reached my goal for 2008 of winning a medal, I was going to leave the Olympics with a positive feeling and a drive to come back in 2012. Sum up your Olympic experience. Unforgettable.

Finn sailing from across the world

They also have a new website which is: www.finnclassargentina.blogspot.com which describes the events and the developments of the class.

Mid-year Championships 6-7 September 2008 A fleet of five South Australians and three Victorians competed in the inaugural Finn Class Mid Year Championships hosted by the Adelaide Sailing Club. Despite trying conditions, the sailing was extremely close with Aaron Heritage and James Paterson each claiming a victory in races 1 and 2 and Warwick Hill claiming victories in the remaining two races of the day. Day two was always going to be interesting. The conditions again proved to be difficult. As rarely seems to be the case these days, the top three places went down to the final race of the regatta; with Hill leading Paterson by a solitary point.

DENMARK

Danish Championship 2008 Roskilde Sejlklub, 8-10 August The Danish Championship returned to Roskilde after 10 years. Everything looked good with 43 entries, but the organisers had forgotten to arrange good weather to say the least. It was raining, lots of wind, and also cold for the season. This mixture gave quite a lot of crew and boat fatigue, and several boats pulled out of the race on the second day. However, we have a new Champion, and that is not normal in Denmark, were we are known to use the same Champions again and again when we need somebody to hang a medal on.

7 DEN 231 8 SWE 739 9 DEN 218 10 DEN 6 11 DEN 3 12 DEN 248 13 GER 150 14 NED 11 15 DEN 22 16 DEN 19 17 DEN 201 18 DEN 1 19 DEN 5 20 DEN 224 21 DEN 140 22 DEN 258 23 NED 860

Kenneth Bøgild Olof Lundqvist Bo Teglers Lars Hall Jørgen Svendsen Ole Vorm Günter O. Hoffmann Henk De Jager Søren Svare Johnny Aagesen Nikolai Ratzlaff Frank Hansen Søren Oster Henrik Thomsen Michael Bæk Christian Qvist Loek Kruyer

50 64 71 73 79 91 99 113 115 130 132 137 147 150 154 155 170

However with Paterson winning the final race, both he and Warwick finished on equal points and with an equal number of 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. However, with Peterson’s win in the last race, victory and the inaugural Mid Year Championship trophy (a magnificent trophy kindly donated by Paul Brooks) was his.

AUSTRALIA

ARGENTINA

Julian Gazaria wrote to FINNFARE from Argentina. Currently there is a very active fleet in Argentina but only 8 boats. In August they raced the Marcelo Tufarolo Campeón del XXVIII Gran Prix Luis A Cerrato. Eight races were scheduled but only six were sailed because of lack of wind. Marcelo Tufarolo dominated the event winning five races. Results were: 1 Marcelo Tufarolo, 2 Julian Gazari, 3 Ricardo Reyes (Master), 4 Antonio Carosella (Master), 5 Martin Beraou.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

223 243 204 234 228 244 203 211

James Paterson Warwick Hill Aaron Heritage Mark Roberts Dirk Seret Andrew Pollard Darren Hocking Neville Wild

14 14 29 30 40 43 58 60

27 ITA 96 Alessandro Turchetto 187 28 ITA 43 Pietro Piram 191 29 SWE 713 David Berg 213 30 DEN 177 Malte Pedersen 216 31 GER 209 Steffen Fölsing 217 32 DEN 17 Lars Juel Christensen 225 33 DEN 246 Hasting Molich 225 34 DEN 172 Ole Blichfeldt Madsen 226 35 DEN 174 Jan Verner Nielsen 231 36 DEN 229 Jan Rasmussen 250 37 GER 26 Willi Meister 250 38 DEN 190 Torben Sandø 251 39 NED 781 Boudewijn Fehres 260 40 DEN 20 Jens Bloch 268 41 DEN 205 Mogens Petersson 275 42 DEN 210 Finn Andersen 291 43 DEN 178 Ane Zielinski 293 Næstved Finn Cup 2008 Næstved Sejlklub, 6 September Næstved was next on the 6th of September, and they really know how to arrange weather. The first race with 6 to 7 meters, and thereafter 1 meter less for each race. Perfect for keeping the whole fleet on the water. This race was sailed for third year in a row, and the two first ones blew away, so this is a good sign as Næstved will host the Nationals next summer.

Bjørn Allansson from Sweden won the International Danish Championship, and Kaspar Andersen became the Danish Champion.

This was the first qualifier for next years worlds which will be held in Denmark. Thomas took a first with Jørgen, Kenneth and Kaspar somewhat behind.

1 2 3 4 5 6

SWE 6 NED 41 DEN 46 DEN 9 NED 29 DEN 208

Björn Allansson 17 Karel van Hellemond 17 Kaspar Andresen 25 Thomas Mørup-Petersen 29 Bas de Waal 29 Jørgen Lindhardtsen 46

24 NED18 25 DEN 226 26 SWE 740

Johan van Straalen 171 Birger Sund Nielsen 173 Sverker Härd 183

DEN 9 DEN 208 DEN 231 DEN 46 DEN 3 DEN 11

Thomas Mørup-Petersen 8 Jørgen Lindhardtsen 15 Kenneth Bøggild 19 Kaspar Andresen 21 Jørgen Svendsen 21 Gunter Arndt 33

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Johnny Aagesen 41 Nikolai Ratzlaff 45 Hasting Molich 50 Søren Svare 51 Svend V. Andersen 56 Kim Siestø 59 Richard Berg-Larsen 65 Birger Sund-Nielsen 71 Kristoffer Svarrer 76 Jan Verner Nielsen 77 Peter Nielsen 88 Jens Bloch 92 Ole Blichfeldt Madsen 92 Ane Zielinski 95 Torben Sandø 101 Henrik Christoffersen 112 Søren Oster Thygesen 115 Lars Hall 115

Ofelia Cup Snekkersten Skotterup Sejlklub The Ofelia Cup in Snekkersten was sailed the following weekend as the second qualifier. We had made a mistake on the dates as this regatta was sailed on the same day as an OK Dinghy Qualifier, and some sailors had to choose between the races. Ofelia Cup had very strong wind and current, with several capsized boats. However, Thomas won again, with Kaspar a close second, and that should more or less wrap it up for those two. Kenneth is the national secretary, so he will not take a place away from anybody even though he is up there. The last two qualifiers are Kastrup Cup in the Spring plus the Holland regatta. 1 DEN 9 2 DEN 46 3 DEN 3 4 DEN 2 5 DEN 6 6 DEN 258 7 DEN 43 8 DEN 19 9 DEN 249 10 DEN 226 11 DEN 15 12 DEN 172 13 DEN 190 14 DEN 201 15 DEN 246 16 DEN 174 17 DEN 21 18 DEN 5 18 DEN 22 18 DEN 178 18 DEN 229

Thomas Mørup-Petersen 7 Kasper Andersen 11 Jørgen Svendsen 11 Michael Staal 20 Lars Hall 20 Christian Qvist 33 Kim Siestø 35 Johnny Aagesen 37 Svend Vogt 43 Birger Sund 49 Lars Erting 56 Ole Blichfeldt 63 Torben Sandø 64 Nikolai Ratstaff 68 Hasting Molich 73 Jan Verner 79 Peter Nielsen 89 Søren Oster 105 Søren Svare 105 Ane Zielinski 105 Jan Rasmussen 105

FINNFARE NOVEMBER 2008

FRANCE

7 DEN 19 8 DEN 201 9 DEN 246 10 DEN 22 11 DEN 249 12 DEN 43 13 DEN 18 14 DEN 226 15 NED 63 16 DEN 174 17 DEN 21 18 DEN 20 19 DEN 172 20 DEN 178 21 DEN 190 22 DEN 255 23 DEN 5 24 DEN 6

French National Championship 2008 Saint Pierre Quiberon Brittany, 13-17th July Report by John Heyes 54 Finns travelled to the beautiful Baie de Quiberon for the French National Championship, including 14 visitors from the UK. A high-pressure system provided sun and light airs for almost all the four days of racing with some very shifty and unpredictable winds. Jonathan Lobert made clear his intentions by taking first place in both of Monday’s opening races in a variable 6-8 knots southwesterly. France’s light airs expert, Laurent Hay claimed second in race one but slipped to seventh in the second as many lost ground in the sudden and localised shifts. The race officer did well to squeeze in a third race that day, starting at 6pm. Neil Robinson, won the race from Allen Burrell and Hay in third, pushing Lobert back to fourth. 1 Jonathan Lobert 2 Laurent Hay 3 Henry Bagnall 4 Allen Burrell 5 Robinson Neil 6 Marc Allain D. Beauvais 7 John Heyes 8 Adrian Brunton 9 Stephane Alexis 10 Jean Paul Gaston

Tuesday dawned hot and sunny with the now customary wait for the breeze to arrive at 1pm. David Potter read it right to win from Adrian Brunton and Marc Allain Des Beauvais who had worked hard at his pre-race weather strategy. In the second race another GBR sail number was first around the windward mark as John Heyes led for most of the race before finally being overhauled by Lobert who just managed to gain the inside overlap at the last mark as the wind built to 12 knots. Races 6 to 8 again produced numerous general recalls as the race committee struggled to find a period when the wind was stable enough to lay an unbiased line. With a major pin end bias, Henry Bagnall the previous years champion nailed the start to lead at the windward mark and was never headed. The consistent Lobert, runner up in the French Olympic trials followed in second ahead of Vincent Lesage in third.

1-1-4-4-1-2-2-1-5-2 14 2-7-3-13-6-4-4-2-2-8 30 3-2-15-5-8-1-3-8-12-1 31 7-3-2-6-4-9-1-3-21-5 31 5-11-1-14-21-27-6-6-1-4 48 4-5-5-3-7-13-5-dsq-13-6 48 6-38-7-9-2-11-16-4-10-9 58 18-18-8-2-3-7-7-11-4-bfd 60 10-4-24-7-12-5-8-ocs-7-20 73 8-17-23-8-9-10-9-9-11-10 74

11 Pierre Mondeteguy 12 David Potter 13 Christophe Jean 14 Pascal Tetard 15 Benjamin Montagut 16 Philippe Lobert 17 Alan Tucker 18 Remy Arnaud 19 Vincent Lesage 20 Bertrand Meheut 21 Howard Sellars 22 ChristopheDeseilligny 23 John Mackie 24 Gilles Henaff 25 Daniel Chedeville 26 John Torrance 27 Jean Paul Groussard 28 Graeme Macdonald 29 Joel Godefroy 30 Matthew Walker 31 Renaud De St Mars 32 Patrick Moore

79 81 104 107 108 121 124 130 139 143 150 154 163 167 171 187 187 189 190 212 212 212

33 Henry De Maublanc 34 Jean Marc Albert 35 Mike Till 36 Henri Roumaillac 37 Philippe Le Frapper 38 Didier Poissant 39 Eric Bognar 40 Jacques Raguet 41 Anthony Walker 42 Marc Herail 43 Alexandre Lesage 44 Yann Le Paul 45 Philippe Lamballe 46 Francois Limare 47 Romain Labbe 48 Jean Liguet 49 Bruno Rossignol 50 Bernard Michal 51 Philippe Bacon 52 Yves Beaulande 53 Michel Carsoule 54 Jacques Lalanne

continued >>

215 228 267 267 269 274 277 278 288 310 323 328 328 329 341 358 361 361 374 391 402 425

FINNFARE NOVEMBER 2008

>> continued from page 13

Then Burrell took race 7 from Lobert and cemented it with a third in the final race of the day to lie second overnight ahead of Bagnall and Hay. In the first race on the final day, Robinson, Hay, Adrian Brunton and Heyes were first around the mark with a sizeable lead on the rest and all came from the pin end with those on the right anticipating the sea breeze left frustrated. Even Lobert had been tempted off to the right and despite his great downwind speed could only pull up to fifth. Robinson sailed well and managed to hold the lead despite the big shifts and localised pressure differences that were impossible to avoid at times.

GERMANY

German Championship 2008 Reichenau 10-14 September

Matthias Bohn writes: The German Championship this year was sailed in great conditions and on Lake Constance there were 90 boats from eight nations at the start. Unfortunately no Olympic starters were present. So the favorites were the junior European champion Jan Kurfeld from Wismar and the winner of the Olympic national ticket Matthias Bohn from Rostock. Nevertheless Christoph Christen and Bernd Moser got the best start on the Tuesday in very little wind. However on the second day the wind arrived and four races were sailed in about 14 knots. Bohn and Kurfeld sailed a great series and ended up level. Behind them another young talent 20-year-old Sebastian Kaule from Schwerin took three third places. The deciding day was Saturday. Kurfeld sailed the best of the day with a 1st and 2nd while Bohn placed five and six. Therefore Jan had an eight points lead before the Medal Race on Sunday. Sebastian Kaule remained in third place. The final race was raced in light winds with hundreds of people following the race from the shore. At the end Jan Kurfeld won in front of Matthias Bohn and Sebastian Kaule. This was a great result for Germany. The Finn Foundation Team Germany celebrated with first and third places. Moreover another junior Anian Schreiber placed sixth. Hope grows which one we can send in 2012 to finally again have a German sailor at the Olympic Games in London. FINNFARE NOVEMBER 2008

With the championship now in the bag for Lobert, the final race in the long awaited stronger sea breeze produced some tough battles for the other podium places with boats from 2nd to 9th all very close on points and with much to play for. With Bagnall, Burrell and Hay all within a point it was winner take all for the silver position. Hay tailed Burrell closely in the pre-start with the British boat forced to tack and head off to the un-favoured committee boat end to start. Burrell soon burned off the French ex-Olympian as the breeze freshened to around 14 knots but could do little to catch the leaders who again came in from the left hand side of the course. Bagnall, having won the battle for the pin sailed away with a big lead to round first, followed by 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

GER 771 GER 174 GER 717 GER 22 GER 108 GER 21 GER 165 SUI 5 AUT 11 GER 8

Jan Kurfeld 4 Matthias Bohn [29] Sebastian Kaule 3 Martin Mitterer [20] Sebastian Munck [19] Anian Schreiber [22] Dirk Meid 10 Christoph Christen 1 Bernd Moser 2 Jürgen Eiermann 9

11 GER 3 12 GER 217 13 GER 39 14 GER 500 15 GER 772 16 GER 188 17 GER 179 18 GER 35 19 GER 111 20 GER 27 21 GER 150 22 GER 146 23 GER 262 24 GER 240 25 GER 7 26 SUI 11 27 GER 202 28 GER 31 29 GER 82 30 GER 19 31 GER 2068 32 GER 56 33 FRA 55 34 GER 157 35 SWE 65 36 GER 57 37 ITA 43 38 GER 300 39 GER 175 40 GER 155 41 GER 84 42 HUN 212 43 GER 55 44 GER 119 45 GER 12 46 GER 114 47 FRA 800 48 FRA 865 49 GER 244 50 GER 89 51 GER 222

Walter Mai 251 Carsten Niehusen 254 Karl-Heinz Erich 269 Philipe Fischer 273 Ulli Kurfeld 278 Michael Klügel 283 Helmut Loemker 287 Hans-Günther Ehlers 289 Rainer Haaks 293 Matthias Wolff 294 Günter Hoffmann 300 Friedrich Müller 325 Uwe Barthel 331 Jürgen Paffrath 338 Reiner Heinings 338 Hans Fatzer 344 Rolf Elsaesser 347 Horst Wühn 350 Alfons Huber 354 Andreas Bollongino 356 Jürgen Greis 371 Eckhard Klages 390 Arnaud Baudin 392 Frank Dinnebier 400 Anders Nordin 407 Heinz Wendel 410 Pietro Piram 412 Eggo Zopfs 413 Michael Möckel 418 Gast Edwin 419 Michael Hüllenkremer 428 Richard Hirschler 429 Herbert Sondermann 434 Peter Bronke 437 David Guminski 444 Jacek Kalinski 451 Yves Zoccola 455 Joseph Rochet 455 Felix Paffrath 456 Günter Kellermann 458 Ulf-Peter Pestel 460

Potter, Robinson and Heyes. Lobert and Burrell soon pulled through downwind and with Hay in a photo finish with Heyes and amazing veteran Pierre Mondeteguy on the line no one knew their final positions until the results came out ashore. In the end, Laurent Hay somehow won the photo to edge out Bagnall and Burrell by a single point and Robinson’s race win put him above Marc Allain des Beauvais with both on 48 points. It was a great week’s racing in a beautiful venue and with next years event planned for La Rochelle even more visitors will nodoubt be putting it in their diaries.

3 1 [12] 2 15 9 [16] 6 11 10

1 2 3 4 7 6 5 14 13 18

[OCS] 1 4 2 3 3 1 8 2 5 7 6 9 10 11 11 5 15 6 9

52 GER 42 53 GER 34 54 GER 92 55 GER 16 56 GER 32 57 GER 477 58 SUI 70 59 GER 852 60 GER 911 61 GER 811 62 GER 109 63 GER 63 64 GER 130 65 GER 432 66 GER 131 67 GER 186 68 GER 69 69 GER 161 70 GER 26 71 FRA 6 72 GER 118 73 GER 102 74 GER 154 75 GER 30 76 LUX 35 78 GER 99 79 GER 249 80 GER 134 81 SUI 64 82 GER 144 83 GER 666 84 GER 187 85 GER 168 86 FRA 37 87 HUN 128 88 HUN 16 89 CZE 21 90 CZE 1 91 AUT 293

2 1 6 5 12 2 15 14 7 8 5 13 14 9 [29] 19 20 [39] [24] 11

1 2 3 5 7 8 4 6 9 DNS

14 24 32 54 58 62 65 74 84 84

Jürgen Kraft 461 Dieter Borges 472 Detlev Guminski 475 Uwe Hand 475 Felix Spring 479 Harald Leissner 492 Andreas Fuerer 493 Rüdiger Stelzel 497 Patrick Frind 499 Michael Knoll 501 Manfred Tomaszewski 5 07 Michael Pandler 513 Alfred Blum 516 Michael Köstner 520 Horst Schlick 531 Detlef Blaschkowski 539 Thomas Huber 540 Ralf Kratz 554 Willi Meister 560 Francois Limare 562 Oliver Bronke 566 Siegfried Boehl 566 Roland Wenz 570 Ralf Heim 578 Jean-Paul Goedert 578 Ulrich Rudolph 581 Georg Feurer 604 Stefan Magirus 611 Hans-Ruedi Osterwalder 639 Jens Ott 639 Volker Wingsch 643 Werner Orth 649 Jack Larsen 652 Alain Guillou 697 Peter Haidekker 727 Gyorgy Vas 727 Jan Cajcik 727 Michael Maier 727 Florian Urban 727

Photo: Sport the Library, 2008

GREAT BRITAIN

2008 Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy The 2008 Junior World Champion Giles Scott won the Sail for Gold Regatta at the 2012 Olympic venue in style by winning six of the nine qualifying races as well as the medal race itself. Other race wins went to Ed Wright and Andrew Mills. 1 GBR 41 2 GBR 634 3 GBR 88 4 GBR 99 5 GER 24 6 SWE 6 7 GBR 631 8 GBR 595 9 GBR 111 10 GBR 68

Giles SCOTT 12.0 Andrew MILLS 33.0 Mark ANDREWS 35.0 Henry BAGNALL 47.0 Thomas REGER 55.0 Björn ALLANSSON 57.0 Richard HART 77.0 Edward THORBURN 83.0 Edward WRIGHT 45.0 John MACKIE 97.0

HUNGARY

Hungarian Championship 2008 Tihany, 1-6 July By Marton Beliczay The 52nd Hungarian Finn Championship took place in Tihany with 43 participants, including 11 juniors and 4 friends from Serbia as well as Gasper Vincec from Slovenia. The championship was combined with all Olympic classes, but the Finn Class was allocated a separate venue, race area and organizing committee. The first start was scheduled for 12:00, but unfortunately all the wind disappeared as the fleet got out to the starting area. After 2 hours of waiting the organisers decided to postpone ashore, but no wind came The second day continued where the first day was ended. Just after midday some wind came from the south, so the fleet went out to the starting area, which was quite close to the race area of the Finn Europeans last year. There was a force 2-3 wind blowing with quite big, but periodic shifts. The first start favoured the pin end, so those who could came out there could get a nice lead, but nothing was decided until the finish on the upwind-downwind course with two

British National Championship 2008 Thorpe Bay YC 30 Finns gathered for this years’ National Championship, sponsored by JM Finn & Co. and were greeted by sunshine and a 6 knot breeze for Friday’s first race. Giles Scott (left) soon mastered the fitful breeze, beating against the tide to secure the first win after Jonathan Lobert had led for most of the race before making an error at the bottom leeward gate and had to unwind himself. Thankfully the breeze built throughout the second race, peaking at a steady 10-12 knots. This time Lobert made no mistake and lead Scott around the course by quite a margin. Saturday dawned dry but with a strong 18-20 knot southerly breeze that was only going to build with the incoming tide along with the famous short chop. Starting at the committee boat, Scott led from the start with a very impressive display of downwind sailing. Andrew Mills also seemed to like the breezier stuff, passing Lobert to claim second. Just behind, John Tremlett was having a tough battle with UK Masters Champion Allen Burrell. Burrell just lost out in the final race when Adrian Brunton got between him and Tremlett who finished the day one point ahead in 5th overall. Sunday morning arrived with a howling 25 knot wind that rapidly built through the morning, killing any chance of sailing. Every entrant went away with a prize, thanks to the generosity of class supporters North Sails, laps. The first race was won by Balazs Hajdu with Gaszton Pál close to him 2nd and Márton Beliczay 3rd. The wind for the second and third race of the day was very similar, although in race 3 the wind became a bit shiftier. The second race was won by Gaszton followed by Márton and George Vas. Balazs had his discard in this race, but he won the third race with Géza Huszár second and Gaszton third. Next day, we woke to heavy winds from the north-west, and due to a lake authority safety regulation (which meanwhile has been put out of effect) there was no racing all day; only some brave ones went out for some training. On the fourth day, the storm signal was turned off, so we went out in a force 3-4 from the north-west, which was even shiftier than from the south and we had some nice waves. Race 4 was working well for Géza, with Balázs second and Gaszton third. For the fifth race the wind got stronger blowing around force 5 with gusts up to 6 and the organisers raised the O flag for free pumping. The equation was nearly the same and Tibor Pallay won with Balazs second and Marton

Hi-Tech shoes, DEM Foils who generously donated a rudder blade and Yachts & Yachting which supplied the trophies. Giles Scott retained his title by just one point from Jonathan Lobert from Nantes. Third overall and winner of the final race was the ever improving Andrew Mills. 1 GBR 41 2 FRA 69 3 GBR 634 4 GBR 88 5 GBR 642 6 GBR 2 7 GBR 669 8 GBR 672 9 GBR 635 10 FRA 99 11 GBR 33 12 GBR 625 13 GBR 19 14 GBR 20 15 GBR 77 16 GBR 61 17 GBR 631 18 GBR 553 19 GBR 68 20 GBR 1 21 GBR 636 22 GBR 573 23 GBR 54 24 GBR 595 25 GBR 24 26 GBR 664 27 GBR 493 28 GBR 611 29 GBR 679 30 GBR 612

Giles Scott 6 Jonathan Lobert 7 Andrew Mills 10 Mark Andrews 13 John Tremlett 22 Allen Burrell 23 Adrian Brunton 27 David Potter 38 Simon Percival 42 Marc Allain D. Beauvais 44 Graham Page 50 Martin Binnendijk 56 Simon Hoult 57 Andy Denison 57 Howard Sellars 58 John Heyes 58 Richard Hart 59 Greg Shaw 63 John Mackie 64 Sander kooji 70 Merrick Gill 71 Simon Pettit 72 Keith Fedi 75 Edward Thorburn 79 Rory Barnes 80 John Torrance 87 Mark Petty Mayor 93 Tony Lock 96 Neil Robinson 98 Lawrence Maudsley 100

third after a big gain on the last downwind. For the sixth race the organisers decided to set a triangular course and after 2 laps they decided to shorten the race, because the wind got stronger and the course would have been too long for a third lap. The race was comfortably won by Balazs, with Ákos Lukats second and Gaszton third. We didn’t know it then, that this was the end of the regatta, because on the last day the wind was not enough to have a race, so the series was concluded with six races over two days. Results 1 Balazs Hajdu 2 Gaszton Pal 3 Marton Beliczay 4 Tibor Pallay 5 Peter Lovas 6 Antal Szekely

7 12 23 25 26 27

Antal Szekely also won the masters title ahead of Péter Haidekker and Lajos Varga. A tough fight was going on between the juniors, where the top three had equal points (108) and with tie broken in favor of Gabor Büki, he became the champion, with Richard Hirschler of Lake Neusiedl second and Egon Kain Pay’r third.

FINNFARE NOVEMBER 2008

ITALY

Italian Finn Masters 32 Italian Masters gathered in July in Caldaro Lake for the third edition of the Italian Finn Master Championship, perfectly organised by the local sailing Club, where a big Finn fleet is always very active.

Italian Championship 2008 Venezia, June The Italian Open Championship was held in Venezia at the beginning of June. The site of the championship was chosen by the Italian Federation because of the light winds, in order to have possibly similar conditions to that expected in Qingdao at the Olympics.

And Venezia maintained its reputation, with 4 days of light winds which however allowed all the 8 scheduled races to be sailed. The fight for the Italian title was apparently restricted to Giorgio Poggi and Riccardo Cordovani, with Marko Kolic as a possible surprise. Riccardo was very consistent in the first three days and was always at the top of the leaderboard, while Giorgio had a couple of bad placings in his score.

The last day of racing anyway both Riccardo and Giorgio had a bad day: Riccardo had a OCS in the first race, while Giorgio had a second yellow flag and had to retire. Giorgio chose not to start in the last race, leaving Riccardo almost sure of the title. It was anyway the Italian secretary Marco Buglielli, very at ease in his favoured light conditions, who had another good race and almost managed to grab the title from Riccardo,

FINNFARE NOVEMBER 2008

finishing on equal points. Riccardo anyway well deserved his first Italian title, after a long series of podium places. Marco Buglielli was more than happy with his second place and Marko Kolic was third as in 2006. Fourth place went to the 18 years old Carlo Recchi from Garda lake, and fifth to the veteran Roberto Bosetti.

1 ITA 101 2 ITA 2 3 ITA 40 4 ITA 97 5 ITA 82 6 ITA 117 7 ITA 84 8 ITA 37 9 ITA 89 10 ITA 111

Five races were sailed during the first two days of the event, while the last day the wind unfortunately didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t show up. It would have been a great fight, as the first three were all within 5 points. The final victory went to the local Martin Atzwanger, who won by only one point from Francesco Faggiani from Trieste. Third place went to Florian Demetz, followed by Pierluigi Pinzan (winner of the Grand Master trophy), Andrea Sandini and Heini Unterhauser (first Great Grand Masters). The hospitality in Caldaro was as usual perfect and everybody had fun and enjoyed the wonderful surroundings.

Riccardo Cordovani 19 Marco Buglielli 19 Marko Kolic 22 Carlo Recchi 38 Roberto Bosetti 46 Giorgio Poggi 55 Pierluigi Pinzan 60 Paolo Visona 61 Florian Demetz 71 Bruno Catalan 71

COPPA ITALIA 2008 In 2008 the Coppa Italia Finn improved again. This series is growing year by year, and is now formed by 8 events in the weekends between March and October in different locations around Italy. At the moment of writing 23 races have been sailed and there are still two events to complete the series, in Torbole and Malcesine. More than 95 Italian Finn sailors have participated till now and the pool of supporting sponsors is also growing. The sponsors this year are: North Sails Italia, HiTech Sailing, Bertacca Sail Equipment, Grappa Bertagnolli, Devoti Sailing, Essemarine, Harken, Tomasoni, Nordstudio and Residence Caâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; del Lago.

1 ITA 80 2 ITA 4 3 ITA 89 4 ITA 84 5 ITA 99 6 ITA 1 7 ITA 60 8 ITA 103 9 ITA 96 10 ITA 17

Atzwanger Martin Faggiani Francesco Demetz Florian Pinzan Pierluigi Sandini Andrea Unterhauser Heini De Sangro Riccardo Merlini Mauro Turchetto Alessandro Kusstatscher Martin

8 9 13 19 21 22 22 23 26 34

Photo credits: Marina Prinzivalli, Tosca Zambra and Antonio Costantini.

The leaderboard is currently dominated by Riccardo Cordovani, who has more than 70 points over the second placed Simone Mancini. Third placed is Francesco Lubrano, followed by Marco Buglielli, Carlo Recchi and Mauro Merlini.

1 NED 64 2 NED 29 3 NED 80 4 NED 69 5 NED 45 6 NED 66 7 NED 100 8 NED 849 9 NED 8 10 NED 67

1 80 2 780 3 888 4 30 5 27 6 895 7 849 8 748 9 896 10 781

Wietze Zetzema Bas de Waal Sander Willems Jelte Baerends Dennis de Ruiter Ewout Meijer Han Bergsma Arjen de Bruin Rodrick Casander Rutger Rozemuller

7 13 14 16 17 17 22 23 33 41

Vrijbuiter Weekend 2008 by Wouter Molenaar

On the site of the Vrijbuiter it promised to be a nice event with good weather and a promising number of competitors. Four races were sailed with 24 starters and each one was won by Karel van Hellemond. Saturday brought a sunny force. Although Ewout Meijer tried fiercely he ended second. Saturday afternoon produced a hard beat (both sides of two islands) a group of six boats but Karel and Nanno raced away from the other leading group with Karel winning in the end over Nanno. Time for a cool beer and some discussion about the races. On Sunday morning the wind was 3 and expected to build to 5/6. Nanno and Karel again led the races. Another long course on was selected Sunday afternoon but different to keep every one focused. In summary, long courses and surprising shifts. Of course there were personal dramas but they wouldn’t have missed it for the world! 1 41 2 787 3 11 4 777 5 66 6 77 7 2 8 43 9 47 10 897

Karel van Hellemond Nanno Schuttrups Henk de Jager Albert Kroon Ewout Meijer Jan-Jaap Lamme Wouter Molenaar Jack van Hellemond Auke Woerdeman Ed van der Steene

FINNFARE NOVEMBER 2008

4 9 19 23 24 27 27 35 36 39

Sander E Willems Jan Willem Kok Luuk Kuijper Hero Mulder Paul Kamphorst J. van der Meulen Arjan de Bruin Fons van Gent Ad Hermus Boudewijn Fehrer

5 8 12 13 17 26 28 29 34 42

Dutch Finn Masters en Randmeerrace 22 - 24 Augustus 2008, by Eddie Huisman The annual Randmeerrace and Dutch Masters was again sailed at the Flevostrand of Harderwijk. Due to construction activities the organisation was based at the beach nearby. So it was called the Dutch Beach Masters, with 48 entries also competitors from Germany. Seven races were sailed in all wind conditions. Karel van Hellemond was most consistent and won the last three races. Han Bergsma was the successor of last year’s winner Bas de Waal, and became Dutch Master Champion 2008. Rookie Timo Hagoort performed very well with a third overall.

1 NED 41 2 NED 100 3 NED 839 4 NED 45 5 NED 54 6 GER 150 7 NED 29 8 NED 2 9 GER 165 10 NED 81

Karel van Hellemond Han Bergsma Timo Hagoort Dennis de Ruiter Joos Bos Günter O. Hoffmann Bas de Waal Wouter Molenaar Dirk Meid Gerko Visser

17 22 34 37 51 52 53 55 59 63

THE NETHERLANDS

Finalle 2008 by Rutger Rozemuller Everyone was received with a warm welcome by Jan and Trees Zetzema, but with only 27 boats on the line, a little disappointing for such a nice event. The first start was in a Force 2 shifty and gusty. So one had to sit in his boat while his opponent 20 metres away had to hike hard to stay up. Wietze Zeetzema had three race wins out of five races to secure the event. Sander Willems was convinced of a victory in the second race but eventually lost it. On Sunday the wind was better and more consistent with a nice duel between Dennis and Bas, the latter ending up second overall.

Benelux Championship, 16-17 August by Peter Verseveldt 17 Finns gathered at Scharedijke at my first event in the Finn. On shore advice was given and the mast is set. The first start in light wind, shows that I have to work on my boat speed and handling, but every start is difficult. Sander Willems and Luuk Kuiper lead the race, with Sander winning the shortened race. The second start was again in little wind and again it was shortened. Luuk Kuiper won this time. The third race was postponed till Sunday. Then the wind was a constant 4. Jan Willem Kok won this race. Sander second and Luuk third. In race 4, Sander won again with Jan Willem second and Hero Mulder third. In the last race Sander had the series already and took a long tack on port, finding a fine lift and left everyone behind. Jan Willem again second and Paul third.

Dutch Open Medemblik by Cees Scheurwater With Pieter-Jan Postma winning the Open Dutch with 8 wins in a row, no one has more right to the title at this moment. Given these facts the event was about places 2 to 37. Wietze Zetzema ending second overall just before Karel van Hellemond. Hero Mulder sailed a full series, which doesn’t happen often. Luuk Kuiper had too much time for a new mast, doubt about the numbers and colour of the groove. He missed the right tacks taking Bas de Waal back with him in a bad series. The competitors from Harderwijk were in the top ten with Han Bergsma, followed by Dennis de Ruiter. Gert van der Heijden drew attention as first reserve for the Volvo-ocean race. Arwin Karsemeijer was very fast on the beat, lucky for us he doesn’t always take the right tack. 1 NED 842 2 NED 64 3 NED 41 4 GBR 99 5 NED 787 6 NED 100 7 NED 45 8 NED 839 9 NED 904 10 NED 80 11 NED 888 12 NED 1 13 NED 30 14 NED 25 15 NED 29 16 NED 844 17 NED 81 18 NED 66 19 NED 780 20 NED 27 21 NED 18 22 NED 69 23 NED 50 24 NED 747 25 NED 55 26 NED 10 27 NED 54 28 NED 8 29 NED 722 30 NED 11 31 NED 6 32 NED 748 33 NED 765 34 NED 72 35 NED 788 36 NED 835 37 NED 58

Pieter Jan Postma 7 Wietze Zetzema 23 Karel van Hellemond 30 Henry Bagnall 34 Nanno Schuttrups 44 Han Bergsma 51 Dennis de Ruiter 57 Timo Hagoort 59 Cees Scheurwater 67 Sander Willems 78 Luuk Kuijper 84 Simon Tienpont 87 Hero Mulder 88 Arwin Karssemeijer 96 Bas De Waal 102 Gert van der Heijden 105 Gerko Visser 122 Ewout Meijer 124 Jan Willem Kok 129 Paul Kamphorst 133 Johan van Straalen 135 Jelte Baerends 135 Jan Zetzema 148 Thierry van Vierssen 157 Eddy Huisman 160 Nanne Boot 165 Joos Bos 172 Rodrick Casander 177 Siebe Ekels 178 Henk de Jager 185 Rob Huisman 187 Fons van Gent 191 Jacco Sweep 194 Lacus-jan Groenhout 197 Peter Verseveldt 214 Jaap Goede 244 Pieter de Gooijer 247

Borysov takes Open Russian National Finn Championship September 13-19, 2008 By Vasiliy Kravchenko Photos by Masha Novoselova

RUSSIA

This now traditional regatta attracted 44 Finnsters from 12 regions of Russia as well as guests from Ukraine, and included 11 Juniors and 19 Masters. Such famous Russian Finn sailors as Oleg Khoperski, Viktor Potapov, Victor Kozlov and other strong Finnsters of previous times kindly joined us and have shown their master class to other sportsmen during the tough struggle for this year’s Russian Masters Cup. OPEN RUSSIAN CHAMPIONSHIP 2008 - FINAL RESULTS

1 UKR 1 Aleksej Borysov 2 73 Maxim Semerhanov 3 Konstantin Besputin 4 707 Sergej Komissarov 5 114 Dmitrij Tereshkin 6 9 Eduard Skornyakov 7 8 Evgenij Chernov 8 49 Egor Larionov 9 55 Aleksej Selivanov 10 57 Egor Terpigorev

2 1 5 (7) 6 3 9 4 4 13 1 2 (dsq) 5 24 14 10 10 12 6

Moscow Sailing School kindly provided modern boats and masts for most of participants, so nobody felt behind by speed, and it was the real competition of sailors. During the five racing days the Racing Committee managed to carry out 11 races and one Masters race. The weather rewarded the sportsmen by good and various wind conditions from very light up to 8-10 knots. So the competitors could check themselves in different circumstances with many shifts and tough wind pattern in the lake conditions. Fortunately, there was no rain through whole regatta but it was a little bit cold (6-10°C).

3 4 2 1 8 5 (13) 6 4 19 1 3 10 13 (29) (30) (19) (20) 9 (18)

2 (28) 4 1 6 5 8 3 (23) (22) 10 2 3 9 1 7 11 4 5 17

1 10 (ocs) 1 3 7 1 1 6 (15) 2 6 5 (dnf) (14) 8 2 2 (dsq) 9 6 4 4 4 4 12 (dnf) (dnc) 32 1 13 15 11 (27) 10 5 7 26 3 5 11 16 15 7 8 14 18 3 12 (19)

he skipped races 8 and 9, and was harshly treated by nearest young competitors during the next race, and lost his chances of winning the regatta. Finally Olexiy Borysov took the championship, followed by Maxim Semerkhanov by just one point. Third in the championship was a strong junior from Chelyabinsk – Konstantin Besputin. He won the Russian Junior Championship 2008, followed by Sergey Komissarov (Bronze at Silver Cup 2007) and Egor Larionov. 2008 has been great for Russian Finnsters since the Moscow Finn Association has established Open Russian Masters Cup this year. Mikhail Apukhtin, who has won many prizes in international regattas in the Finn and was Russian Champion in 1992 and 1993, became the first winner of the Open Russian Masters Cup. First place in Grand-Masters was Sergey Zabotin, while Victor Potapov (Bronze in 1972 Olympic Games) won in Grand-Grand-Masters grade.

The regatta was dominated by Eduard Skornyakov (above), Ukrainian Olexiy Borisov (right) and one of Russian strongest Laser sailors – Maxim Semerkhanov (far right).

In order to let Masters to compete without any hesitation to agitate young sailors fighting for a place in the national team, a special separate Masters race was arranged, where young sportsmen were not allowed to participate. This race was won by Felix Denikaev from the Moscow Finn Association.

Skornyakov made a good start in the regatta and was a leader after the first races, but

In general the championship was organised at a high level with strong jury, measurement

27 28 46 51 62 64 89 92 92 96

control by a certified international Finn measurer and even with total doping control, which was applied to masters as well. Everything was done for participants and guests to feel the unique atmosphere of a Finn community: everybody have received a booklet with history of Finn class in the World and in Russia, there were organised special seminars, devoted to World Masters 2008, Europeans 2008 and Olympic Games. All active and famous Finnsters were awarded by special prizes with their names on them. Finally the championship has shown a real strong and good competition and has become a very good promotional event for Finn class in Russia as well. We do hope to continue this good tradition and invite everybody to join the Open Russian next year! Regatta website www.finnclass.ru / Moscow Finn Association www.moscow-finnclass.ru

FINNFARE NOVEMBER 2008

11 17 12 4 13 77 14 91 15 21 16 7 17 41 18 5 19 496 20 770 21 18 22 UKR 21 23 UKR 2 24 6 25 3 26 22 27 701 28 28 29 411 30 771 31 33 32 11 33 1111 34 2 35 31 36 117 37 777 38 95 39 71 40 48 41 16 42 74 43 58 44 14

Vasiliy Kravchenko Mihail Apuhtin Igor Horoshilov Vyacheslav Sivenkov Vladimir Butenko Vitalij Rozhkov Feliks Denikaev Sergej Zabotin Nikolaj Laktionov Sergej Shherbakov Viktor Potapov Anton Sadchikov Il’ya Efremov Arkadij Kistanov Aleksej Borovyak Viktor Maksimov Evgenij Kuhtenkov Viktor Kozlov Aleksandr Ban’ko Andrej Poltanov Igor Rozhkov Valentin Danilov A Martem’yanov Vadim Mehanikov Igor Frolov Aleksandr Kravchenko Anton Shhegel’skij Vladimir Udarcev Leonid Klyajman Roman Kotlyarov Evgenij Ivanov Jurij Avdeev Aleksandr Shutovskij Oleg Khoperski

100 103 105 130 133 143 143 154 159 162 162 171 172 174 174 179 180 186 215 221 243 266 272 274 286 295 298 319 324 333 356 357 366 405

Toilet Bowl 2008 The 40th annual edition of the Toilet Bowl Regatta at Cazenovias Willow Bank Yacht Club commenced at 10:00, on Saturday, August 16. The price of gas and other regattas in the Northeast contributed to a somewhat more muted enrolment, this year, but 19 stalwarts competed.

North American Championship Lake Champlain Yacht Club 1 USA 81 Darrell Peck (below) 3 5

21 33 36 37 48 51 52

USA

Adam Nicholson John Miller Ian Bostock Federico Meira Gus Miller Steve Burrell Art Diefendorf

Light to medium and shifty winds on Saturday limited the group to only four races. Ian Cook took the day with two bullets and two deuces over last year’s front runners Chuck Rudinsky and Kirk Reynolds. Local sailor Federico Meira sailed a perfect third race to gain a first.

Saturday night provided the usual festivities, replete with beer, lies, grilled tenderloin, great hors d’oevres, salads, veggies, desserts, more beer and more lies. Much credit was owed to the Finn wives who made certain no one went hungry, and, as always, to Steve Burrell who manned the grill. The usually taciturn Art Diefendorf gave a brief talk on the history of the Thunder Mug, recalling winners and notables in the past that included several National, North American and Olympic medal winners. Sunday morning brought better, if not less shifty, air allowing for an additional three good races, which allowed Cook to solidify his grip on first. Rudinsky, 2nd, edged Reynolds, 3rd, (as he did last year).

Rear Commodore Rich Hartt took home the Master’s medal; John Miller won Grand Master; Federico Meira, Great Grand Master; and Gus Miller took home the Legend medal (appropriately adorned with a black ribbon). Special medals were awarded to the Race Committee for many years of service, and to Vice Commodore Alix Shaw, who gamely raced a Finn for the first time, and who was the only woman Finnster on the course. 1 9 2 40 3 1063

FINNFARE NOVEMBER 2008

4 7 5 1157 6 3 7 1026 8 1095 9 1146 10 111

Ian Cook Chuck Rudinsky Kirk Reynolds

9 16 18

2 USA 98 3 CAN 141 4 CAN 5 CAN 115 6 USA 55 7 AUS 14 8 DEN 2 9 CAN 1 10 USA 7 11 USA 1140 12 USA 14 13 USA 30 14 USA 9 15 USA 2 16 USA 40 17 CAN 1157 18 USA 29 19 USA 150 20 USA 1146 21 CAN 7 22 USA 140 23 CAN 1115 24 USA 48 25 USA 60 26 CAN 3

Dave Powlison 10 1 11 Matt Johnson 4 7 11 Chris Cook 1 11 12 Derek Mess 7 6 13 Andrew Casey 2 12 14 Brendan Casey 11 3 14 Mike Milner 6 9 15 John Romanko 14 2 16 Bill Upthegrove 9 10 19 Bryan Boyd 5 18 23 Andy Pimental 16 8 24 Forrest Gay 24 4 28 Ian Cook 15 13 28 Ken Luczynski 8 21 29 Chuck Rudinsky 13 19 32 John Miller 12 22 34 Josh Matteson 22 14 36 Lou Nady 23 15 38 Steve Burrell 25 16 41 Adam Nicholson 17 24 41 RJ Cooper 18 23 41 Josh Revkin 21 20 41 Jim Hunter 26 17 43 Ian Woodworth 19 27 46 Ian Bostock 20 27 47

2008 Finn Eastern Championship Lake Champlain Yacht Club 1 USA 81 Darrell Peck 2 USA 55 Andrew Casey 3 USA 9 Ian Cook 4 USA 1140 Bryan Boyd 5 CAN 115 Derek Mess 6 USA 2 Ken Luczynski 7 CAN 7 Adam Nicholson 8 USA 98 Dave Powlison 9 CAN 1157 John Miller 10 USA 150 Lou Nady 11 1171 Bill Upthegrove 12 USA 111 Jim Hunter 13 USA 1146 Steve Burrell 14 USA 975 Gus Miller 15 40 Chuck Rudzinsky 16 USA 60 Ian Woodworth

18 23 26 30 40 48 61 63 67 70 72 100 100 101 110 121

Photos: Ray Cudney

When do the changes come into force? We have asked for November 17th, the day after the ISAF Conference ends. The idea is to let people get sorted before the Christmas Regattas in the Southern Hemisphere, and to give everybody as much time as possible in the Northern Hemisphere.

From the technical side As the FINNFARE press deadline goes past, the Rule Changes required by our AGM have not yet been passed by ISAF. They have concerns that the changes need all the boats to be re-weighed and re-swung, and that we are desperately short of qualified measurers equipped to do the work. Richard Hart reports. ISAF are working on a way around the problem. When the situation is resolved, we will let everybody know immediately. What are the practical changes submitted? • Allowing (one only of) the simpler sort of Digital Compass. The magnetic compass is weighed with the hull, but not the digital compass: it is light and easily removed (by you or by the ungodly). • Allowing a weight reduction of 3kg. The compass change will account for 1 – 1.4kg, the rest can come from the correctors. The changes must come under proper supervision of a measurer, and be recorded on the Certificate. • The Rules won’t require a bailer any more, or a paddle (to my dismay!) • If you don’t have a halyard lock near the top of the mast, then there must be a stop to prevent the sail going too high (a blob of Resin in the track).

What if I can’t get to a Measurer to re-swing my boat? We are hoping that ISAF will allow us to remove and reposition the correctors by calculations. If this is allowed, we will need to know exactly what weight has been removed with the compass, correctors etc AND from where! Please wait to see whether ISAF will approve the procedure. You will still need to see a measurer and re-weigh, if you want to take lead out. Please don’t just heave out 1.6kg of lead without proper authorisation! The Class has made changes like these before, when we decided to swing the Hulls together with the Centreboard, and when we reduced the weight by 5kg some years ago. In those times, few boats were on the Radius of Gyration limit, and the task was easier. This time, nearly all boats are on the minimum. We have a class where the boats have normally come measured (and optimised) from the builder. ISAF are worried that, the change will result in us having many boats that are lightened without being properly checked. If we end up with a lot of boats that are wrong (even in the paperwork), it will destroy the good reputation that we have earned over the last twenty years or so in such matters. We are all conscious of the need to get re-selected as Olympic Equipment in 2012 for 2016, so please do your bit to show that we are a responsible, mature class: make sure your boat is right and make sure the paperwork and certification marks are right.

Editorial – looking forward

Well another four years is over and many dreams have been realised or broken. But the future beckons and the class can look forward to an exciting period ahead with several interesting regattas venues over the coming years, an ongoing development programme both regionally and internationally and a far reaching marketing plan that will see the Finn promoted as the only reasonable choice for the discerning heavyweight athlete. In 2009 the Finn Gold Cup returns to Denmark for the first time since 1959, when Paul Elvstrøm won the second of his two Gold

14-16/11/2008 28-30/12/2008 5-9/12/2008 13-16/12/2008 17-22/12/2008 9-11/1/2009 25-31/1/2009 5-8/2/2009 13-15/2/2009 17-20/2/2009 4-8/3/2009 22-27/3/2009 4-10/4/2009 4-10/4/2009 18-24/4/2009 5-9/5/2009 8-10/5/2009 8-10/5/2009 27-31/5/2009 30/5-5/6/2009 20-29/6/2009

Cups. The Europeans travels to a new country for the Finn class, Bulgaria, with the championship being sailed at Varna on the Black Sea. And the Masters will be looking to beat the 229 boats at this year’s event by heading south to Maubisson in south-western France, while the Juniors are heading back to Balaton with a major prize at stake. It’s also the Finn’s 60th anniversary too, so it’s going to be a great year for the class with lots going on. See you out there.

Major Finn regattas 2008-2009

Cup Opatija Croatia Go for Gold Regatta Australia Canarian Sailing Olympic Week Spain Sydney International Regatta Australia Christmas Race Spain Corbeta Patagon Argentina Rolex Miami OCR USA Sail Auckland New Zealand Finn Midwinter Championship USA Semaine Internationale Cannes France Split Olympic Sailing Week Croatia Athens Eurolymp Week Greece HRH Princess Sofia Trophy Spain Trofeo SAR Princesa Sofia MAPFRE Spain Semaine Olympique Francaise France Expert Olympic Garda Italy Palavska Regatta Czech Republic GKSS Regatta Sweden Delta Lloyd Regatta Netherlands FINN WORLD MASTERS France http://finn.france.free.fr/masters2009.html Kieler Woche Germany

1-4/7/2009 3-11/7/2009 4-12/7/2009 4-8/7/2009 17-21/7/2009 20-23/8/2009 21-29/8/2009 27-30/8/2009 2-7/9/2009 3-6/9/2007 11-13/9/2009 14-19/9/2009 20-22/11/2009 26-29/11/2009 4-8/12/2009 5-9/12/2009 14-19/12/2009 17-22/12/2009

Robert

Intervela FINN GOLD CUP

Italy Denmark www.fgc-2009.com Warnemunder Woche Germany Flanders Regatta Belgium Travemunder Woche Germany North American Championship Canada FINN EUROPEANS Bulgaria Djerdapa Cup Serbia Balkan Sailing Championships Serbia Lipno Regatta Czech Republic Finn US Nationals USA Skandia Sail For Gold Regatta Great Britain Cup Opatija Croatia Sail Brisbane Australia Canarian Sailing Olympic Week Spain Sydney International Regatta Australia Sail Melbourne Australia Christmas Race Spain More details can be found on www.sailing.org or on www.finnclass.org

FINNFARE NOVEMBER 2008