They said come to France, it will be sunny
and hot. They said the water will be warm and they said it
never rains here. They lied. However they were right about one thing.
The racing on the opening day of the 2013 Finn World Masters in La
Rochelle
was simply fantastic. Despite the cold inclement weather, with low
cloud, non-stop drizzle and temperatures around 10 degrees, about 95
per cent of
the fleet went racing and a grand time was had by all. The fleet of 285 Finns was split into two
starts of around 140 boats each. After the first two races,
three times champion Andre Budzien (GER) shares the lead with Erik
Lidecis (USA), sailing his first Masters, after both sailors won both
races in
their respective fleets. Karl Purdie (NZL), in his first year in the
Finn is in third after a 4, 2.
Yellow fleet got away first, and to
everyone's surprise, the first time. The wind was 12-14 knots and a
big swing in the wind on the first upwind that came back just in time
for Erik Lidecis (USA) to lead round the top mark and extend to win. He
was
followed across the finish by Lars Hall (DEN) and defending champion
Michael Maier (CZE). He then led the second race from start to finish
again, this
time with Marc Allain des Beauvais (FRA) in second and Maier again in
third.
Lidecis said, “I had two
mid-line starts, managed to punch out OK. In the first race
it went pretty hard right but I was left. Luckily it came back to the
left enough for me to cross the fleet and the rest was just about
following the
course. It's the first day and I didn't know where everything was, so
just about getting round the course and staying in the puffs. I was able
to
extend pretty good and then it's easier to stay ahead when you have a
nice gap.”
“In the second race we just
had so many starts, it was difficult to keep it
consistent, but I got another mid line start came out well. The first
beat had smaller oscillations and the leaders all pretty much came out
of the
middle. So I was just playing the shifts up the middle. And then I
managed to stay in front again. It was lighter with smaller waves and
the second
beat became really shifty. It was real fun.”
The lines here are so long,
with the starting boat in the middle, how does he choose where
to start? “I don't like the leverage out to the side. If you get it
wrong on one side it's hard to come back, but in the middle you can
always
at least salvage half of it. I have good speed and I am younger than a
lot here so I was going a bit faster.”
Was he surprised to win both?
“Yes, it's exciting. It's great to beat Maier twice. I
think he's not too happy about that. But that's cool. If it ended today
I'd be happy. To come all this way and in a boat I've only sailed twice
and do
this is just great.”
Lidecis is being coached here by the 2010 Finn World Champion Ed Wright (GBR). “I've
learned a lot from him. He so driven and focused and just pushes me all the time, so he's definitely made a big difference.”
Both races in the Blue fleet were by
Budzien, though he had a harder time than Lidecis. Both blue fleet
races had one recall. In the first race Tauras Rymonis (LTU) led at the
first with with Budzien in third. Budzien pulled through downwind to
take the
win. In the second race he rounded the top mark in 30th but surged
through to the lead downwind again. He lost two places on the next
upwind but
retook the lead on the final downwind to win his second race of the day.
The general recalls for the second race took their toll with 39 black flag disqualifications across
both fleets.
While the real surprise of the day was that
four time champion Maier got beaten twice, Karl Purdie put
in two great results to sit one place ahead of Maier. Twice the OK
Dinghy World champion, he switched to the Finn last year. “Coming from
the OK
to the Finn was not too much of a transition, apart from the free
pumping that is. At my home club in Wellington Josh Junior (NZL) also
sails a Finn,
so it is a chance to help him prepare for Rio. We train together a lot.”
“In NZ the Finn fleet is great, with really
friendly guys happy to share knowledge and while
being competitive on the race track also happy being social off it. The
racing is fantastic too with Josh, Andrew Murdoch (NZL) and Matt Coutts
(NZL)
all actively supporting and racing in our regional regattas. I think
over the coming few years I wouldn't be too surprised to see three NZers
regularly making medal races at ISAF grade 1 events and challenging Team
GBR.”
“Regionally over NZ and AUS I would say
there is not quite the depth in Finns competitive-wise
that there is in the OK due to the smaller amount of people sailing
them. But I love the challenge of sailing them. It's just so physical
and
unrelenting. Downwind has been a real challenge but with Josh to train
against that's improving. The tuning aspect provides a further dimension
and
adds a lot of interest for me. Overall I would say this is by far
physically and tuning wise the most challenging boat I have ever
sailed.”
Two more races are scheduled for Tuesday, with less wind forecast and also less rain. The sailors live
in hope. The championship concludes on Friday.
Results after 2 races
1 GER 711 Andre BUDZIEN 2.00
1 USA 505 Erik LIDECIS 2.00
3 NZL 111 Karl PURDIE 6.00
4 CZE 1 Michael MAIER 6.00
5 LTU 7 Tauras RYMONIS 9.00
6 SWE 22 Stefan FAGERLUND 11.00
7 FRA 75 Laurent HAY 15.00
8 GBR 2 Allen BURRELL 15.00
9 ITA 2 Marco BUGLIELLI 20.00
10 GER707 Uli BREUER 21.00
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