The opening day of racing at the 2013 Finn Gold Cup in Tallinn, Estonia
started slowly with light winds and a delayed start. After two races
Andrew
Mills (GBR) leads from Ed Wright (GBR) and Matt Coutts (NZL). Race wins
went to Oliver Tweddell (AUS) and Jorge Zarif (BRA). Racing was postponed for two hours Monday morning to wait for the wind, which when it did arrive was
still only 5-7 knots. Race 1 got away after one general recall, with the wind increasing to 7-8 knots by the finish.
Oliver Tweddell (AUS) started at the
committee boat and immediately tacked to the right. He soon pulled
clear of the right and when the sides crossed near the top mark was
already building a nice lead. He extended on each leg to win by nearly
two
minutes. Pieter-Jan Postma (NED) rounded a tight second ahead of a big
group of chasing boats, but he too pulled away. Jonathan Lobert (FRA)
eventually moved up to third and Matt Coutts (NZL) to third, which they
all held to the finish.
Ed Wright (GBR) and Andrew Mills (GBR) also climbed through the fleet to fifth and sixth, while home
favourite Deniss Karpak (EST) wasn't looking good at the first top mark but recovered to eighth by the finish.
The second race got under way fairly
promptly, though took three attempts to get it away with three
boats black flagged. Again the right paid handsomely with Alexey
Selivanov (RUS) leading Marin Vujansinovic (CRO) and Jorge Zarif (BRA)
round the top
mark. These three led the fleet round the course in the gradually
lightening wind, but at the end of the final downwind, Zarif passed
Selivanov on one
side and Vujansinovic passed him on the other. Zarif and Vujansinovic
rounded the downwind gate side by side, but Zarif just had an edge to
move ahead
and take his first ever Finn Gold Cup race win. Vujansinovic crossed in
second, while Mills had a great last leg to move into third, with
Selivanov in
fourth.
Tweddell described his race win, “It was a
nice fun race and great to get off with race win. I
started at the boat end and I tacked straight out towards the shore.
There was more breeze and a right hand shift. When I tacked back I was
quite a
long way ahead. The conditions were really tricky, but I like light
winds, and seem to be OK in them at the moment, but maybe I just got
lucky in that
race. I'm looking forward to the rest of the week if it stays light like
this.” Tweddell had spent all day yesterday preparing his charter boat
for the week, “So I was pretty rapt to go out there in the first race
and win by quite a long way. I had a pretty big smile on my face after
that.”
Championship leader, Mills commented on his
day, “There were two races in light and tricky
conditions. I had bad start in the middle of the pack, and rounded the
top mark about 12th so just fought back and won a few places on all the
other
legs to sixth, so that was a good comeback. The second race as similar
conditions, with different bias on the line, though the right was still
favoured. I had a good start and good speed and was about sixth at the
top, then fourth at the bottom by playing the pressure but on the second
beat
the left came in better and I dropped to sixth. The last run was lighter
again, and I managed to jump to third on the last reach”
Race two winner Zarif said, “We were
expecting the left to pay today, but we were wrong so in the
first race I had a bad race, but I learned from that for the second one.
We have been here for ten days, which I thought was enough time, but I
think
we needed more time as the conditions are quite difficult.”
Zarif, 21, said last week that it was his
father winning a Finn Gold Cup Race in Rio in 2004 that
inspired him to start Finn sailing. “After I crossed the line I thought
about it and I was very happy about it and remembered that day in 2004.
I think it's very nice that two Zarifs have won a race at the Finn Gold
Cup.”
There have been plenty and father and sons who have sailed Finns, but perhaps this is the first father
and son to have won races at the Finn Gold Cup?
Zarif says his 2016 campaign is different
from the one leading up to 2012. “I am very lucky that
the Star is out of the Games. Because of that Bruno [Prada] came to the
Finn and since October we are training together. The difference between
sailing alone and sailing with someone with his level and his history is
huge. He also hired Rafa [Trujillo], for me already one of the best
coaches
in the world, if not the best. It's amazing how many important things he
knows about the class and I am just trying to learn as much as possible
from
them. To look to your side and see two Olympic medallists, two world
champions is very motivating; it's helping a lot.”
His goal this year, “I still have to improve a lot to fight for a podium. A good target for me is
top 15. If I finish top 20 it's not too bad and top 10 would be very nice.”
In the light winds today the fleet was
really compressed for most of the race with very busy mark
roundings and tight upwind legs making for some exciting if mentally
exhausting racing. The high scores already after just two races perhaps
hints at
the kind of week this is going to be, and consistency is going to be a
key element. Lots of the favourites had difficult days and picked up one
or two
high scores. The results make fascinating reading.
Racing continues at 12.00 on Tuesday. The
opening series of ten races will be followed by the medal
race for the top ten and the final race for the rest on Saturday, 31
August. It can be followed in a number of different ways including the
live
video stream from ERR, GPS tracking from Trac Trac and Twitter updates
on @Finn_Class. All the links can be found at www.finngoldcup.org/2013.
Results after two races:
1 GBR85 Andrew Mills 9
2 GBR11 Edward Wright 10
3 NZL1 Matt Coutts 11
4 POL13 Michal Jodlowski 20
5 AUS261 Oliver Tweddell 23
6 FRA112 Jonathan Lobert 23
7 ITA146 Michele Paoletti 23
8 EST2 Deniss Karpak 25
9 TUR211 Alican Basegmez 26
10 HUN40 Zsombor Berecz 30
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