Finn Class
The penultimate day of the Finn World Masters in Medemblik threw a curveball at the fleet with very light and tricky winds, some high scores, complex racing, protests and unfinished races. It was a long, busy and hot day in Medemblik, but also a lot of fun for the 300 sailors.
After all the hearings were done and addressed, Pieter-Jan Postma, from The Netherlands, has won his second World Masters title with a race to spare, after a protest moved him up one place in the final race. This means second placed Laurent Hay, from France, cannot better Postma’s score on countback. The two are 10 points ahead of third placed Fabian Lemmel from Germany, though there are about 10 boats still in the hunt for third overall.
The weather continued to amaze everyone with sunny skies and high temperatures, though Thursday brought light wind and big shifts. Yellow group sailed almost three races after bizarrely missing the change of course signal at the first gate and all headed to a finish line that was not there. The race was abandoned and resailed later in the day. The race wins in yellow went to Britain’s Lawrence Crispin and Jelte Baerends, from The Netherlands. In the blue group, which did not make the same mistake Australia’s Anthony Nossiter took a very popular win in the first race with Slovakia’s Peter Mosny winning the second.
Over on the other course Postma carried on his winning ways by taking the first race only to struggle in the second after a risky start and ended up fifth over the line. Meanwhile, Hay, in the same group was sixth in the first race and then escaped in the second for a big win to keep his title retention within reach. However, a protest from Postma disqualified the third place finisher and he moved up to fourth, which was enough to win the title with a race to spare.
In the green group, the wins went to Hungary’s Tibor Pallay and France’s Harri Veivo. In fact, Pallay and Baerends matched the best score of the day with a 1,2 each.
One final race is scheduled for Friday to conclude a fantastic event in Medemblik, which has enjoyed some incredible hospitality and unprecedented weather.
Results after 7 races
1 NED 842 Pieter-Jan POSTMA 6
2 FRA 75 Laurent HAŸ 9
3 GER 501 Fabian LEMMEL 19
4 AUS 2 Rob McMILLAN 22
5 ESP 7 David TEROL 25
6 UKR 8 Taras HAVRYSH 27
7 NED 68 Martijn van MUYDEN 28
8 AUS 221 Anthony NOSSITER 29
9 NED 1 Jelte BAERENDS 30
10 NED 703 Eric BAKKER 33