Not put a foot wrong

Guillaume Florent is looking strong at the Finn European Championships in Italy

Guillaume Florent (FRA) has yet to make a mistake at the 2008 Finn European Championship. A first and third today moves him into the overall lead. Chris Cook (CAN) won the second race to move up to second overall, just one point behind the Frenchman.

After yesterday's long, hard day on the Gulf of Follonica, the Finn sailors arrived at the La Marina di Scarlino hoping for a less wearing day on the body and mind. Conditions were the same as the previous day, so rather than wait on the water, the race committee postponed onshore until 13.30 while the wind gradually died and then shifted to a sea breeze of six to eight knots.

Race four was started at 14.40 with the pin end favoured and the fleet got cleanly away first time. Several favourites including yesterday's race winner Pieter-Jan Postma (NED), Jonas Hogh-Christensen (DEN) and Ben Ainslie (GBR) all started next to the pin and tacked across to the right after 200 metres. However the right was paying well and Guillaume Florent (FRA) built up a useful lead into the first mark over Tapio Nirkko (FIN) and 2005 World Junior Champion, Jan Kurfeld (GER). Hogh-Christensen rounded in seventh and Ainslie in 14th.

On the first downwind the left side paid, Guillaume extended his lead on the right, while Ainslie moved up to fifth by the bottom mark, just behind Nirkko, Kurfeld and Chris Cook (CAN). Most of the fleet went right up the second beat and Florent controlled his lead from this side. Nirko split tacks to play the middle and lost some ground on Cook, while Ainslie moved up to fourth.

On the final downwind, Florent looked under pressure as Ainslie overtook Cook and then Nirkko and started closing in on Florent. However Florent just had a large enough gap to take the win, followed about ten boatlengths behind by Ainslie, Cook and Nirkko.

Last year's European Champion, Eduard Skornyakov (RUS) finally had a better race, placing tenth, after a poor start to the regatta. The overnight leader Gasper Vincec (SLO) recovered from a poor first upwind to finish 13th.

All this week, Sailing Revolution will be on the water filming the action. Today they recorded the entirety of race four including Ainslie's comeback from 14th to second place. This is available as a free download at www.sailrev.tv . After only one day of racing the site had already received more than 3,000 download requests.

Race five started almost immediately at 16.05 with the wind now slightly increased to 10-12 knots and followed a similar pattern. The right side paid again, with Cook sailing clear of the pack to lead round the first mark followed by Florent, Ismael Bruno (FRA) and Nirkko. Meanwhile Ainslie had set himself another comeback challenge rounding the top mark in the early 30s.

The 'O' flag was raised for unlimited pumping allowing Cook to stretch out his lead. Also enjoying the downwind was Postma who moved up to fourth and Ainslie who made the largest gain to about 16th. On the final upwind of the day, most of the fleet again favoured the right. Cook controlled from the front, playing the shifts on the final approach to the layline and keeping the clever Florent in his sights. However the danger was now coming from Postma who had moved up to second.

Round the top mark it was Cook, Postma, Florent, Zach Railey (USA) and Nirkko. Ainslie had moved up to 11th and was closing in on the bunch just behind the leaders. The wind had dropped slightly by now so flag 'R' went up to restrict the unlimited pumping.

Cook was now the one under pressure as both Postma and Florent started to close in. However by the finish the positions hadn't changed and Cook took a well deserved win followed by Postma, Florent, Nirkko and Railey. Ainslie continued his comeback tradition and finished eighth to keep his title chances alive, although he has been making hard work of it so far.

Florent said, “I was really happy about how I sailed today. In the first race I was very fast and I picked the right hand side of the course and managed to stay well ahead of the fleet and in control. I was extremely happy with the race committee's decision to wait on shore this morning. The course was good and the winds were steady and I am getting to know them now. This really is a great place to sail.”

Cook agreed with Florent's thoughts but added, “For me it was a pretty difficult day. In fact if I had to sum it up I would say it was very stressful. I kept on putting myself in bad positions on the start line and had a tough time getting across all the bows, but finally managed to pull away. In the second race the free pumping was really fun and it was great to be able to stretch out.”

After five races, Florent leads on eight points with Cook just one point behind him. Ainslie is lying in third on 15 points.

In the Juniors, Jan Kurfeld had the best day with an excellent seventh in race four followed by a 27th in race five. However Piotr Kula (POL) is still the leading Junior in 15th overall with Kurfeld in 23rd and Tomas Vika (CZE) in 36th.

Results:

Pos	Helm	Nationality	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Tot	Net
1st	Guillaume Florent	FRA	2	2	-6	1	3	14	8
2nd	Christopher Cook	CAN	-14	3	2	3	1	23	9
3rd	Ben Ainslie	GBR	1	-16	4	2	8	31	15
4th	Gasper Vincec	SLO	6	1	3	-13	9	32	19
5th	Zach Railey	USA	-63	6	5	7	5	86	23
6th	Pieter-Jan Postma	NED	9	15	1	-20	2	47	27
7th	Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic	CRO	(84.0 DSQ)	4	9	8	7	112	28
8th	Jonas Hogh-Christensen	DEN	4	12	10	5	-30	61	31
9th	Ed Wright	GBR	8	13	8	-28	14	71	43
10th	Tapio Nirkko	FIN	20	-23	17	4	4	68	45
11th	Rafael Trujillo	ESP	-35	7	11	16	16	85	50
12th	Daniel Birgmark	SWE	3	(84.0 BFD)	14	19	18	138	54
13th	Ismael Bruno	FRA	7	21	23	-29	6	86	57
14th	Rafal Szukiel	POL	15	17	16	10	-20	78	58
15th	Piotr Kula	POL	10	10	-41	14	26	101	60
16th	Jonathan Lobert	FRA	22	5	24	-27	13	91	64
17th	Dan Slater	NZL	32	11	7	(84.0 OCS)	19	153	69
18th	Eduard Skornyakov	RUS	-54	14	22	9	24	123	69
19th	Anthony Nossiter	AUS	24	-28	12	23	12	99	71
20th	Giorgio Poggi	ITA	11	26	15	22	-29	103	74
21st	Ed Greig	GBR	26	8	(84.0 OCS)	15	32	165	81
22nd	Ali kemal Tufekci	TUR	-62	22	18	17	25	144	82
23rd	Jan Kurfeld	GER	-37	25	25	6	27	120	83
24th	Timothy Goodbody	IRL	27	(84.0 BFD)	13	30	22	176	92
25th	Bjorn Allansson	SWE	-50	9	20	26	40	145	95
26th	Emanuele Vaccari	ITA	5	29	29	-47	33	143	96
27th	Mark Andrews	GBR	31	-33	26	11	28	129	96
28th	Florian Raudaschl	AUT	30	20	28	-36	21	135	99
29th	Michael Maier	CZE	-52	30	21	37	15	155	103
30th	Riccardo Cordovani	ITA	21	19	-36	35	31	142	106
31st	Rudolf Lidarik	CZE	17	24	30	38	-47	156	109
32nd	Nanno Schuttrups	NED	34	32	-42	18	41	167	125
33rd	Haris Papadopoulos	CYP	39	(84.0 BFD)	46	31	11	211	127
34th	Marko Kolic	ITA	13	(84.0 DNC)	37	60	23	217	133
35th	Diego Fructuoso	ESP1	-51	27	34	34	38	184	133
36th	Tomas Vika	CZE	33	36	33	32	-37	171	134
37th	Peer Moberg	NOR	23	(84.0 BFD)	19	84.0 OCS	10	220	136
38th	Dennis de Ruiter	NED	12	45	40	-57	45	199	142
39th	Gaszton Pal	HUN	16	31	43	-68	54	212	144
40th	Alexandros Dragoutsis	GRE	47	37	-50	25	35	194	144
41st	Andriy Gusenko	UKR	25	35	38	48	-51	197	146
42nd	Mihail Kopanov	BUL	-72	18	47	42	43	222	150
43rd	Francesco Lubrano	ITA	41	34	49	33	-57	214	157
44th	Andrew Mills	GBR	(84.0 OCS)	84.0 BFD	35	24	17	244	160
45th	Matt Johnston	CAN	48	(84.0 BFD)	44	41	34	251	167
46th	Marton Beliczay	HUN	38	40	-68	43	46	235	167
47th	Dmirtry Tereshkin	RUS	-70	43	31	40	55	239	169
48th	Piero Romeo	ITA	68	(84.0 BFD)	48	12	49	261	177
49th	Conrad Brown	USA	19	39	54	-70	70	252	182
50th	Roberto Bosetti	ITA	18	49	56	-66	64	253	187
51st	Carlo Recchi	ITA	45	(84.0 BFD)	53	46	44	272	188
52nd	Frederico Melo	POR	67	(84.0 BFD)	32	50	42	275	191
53rd	Marco Buglielli	ITA	43	42	51	56	-59	251	192
54th	Kenneth Boggild	DEN	40	(84.0 BFD)	52	55	50	281	197
55th	Sebastian Kaule	GER	56	(84.0 BFD)	27	54	62	283	199
56th	Simone Mancini	ITA	49	48	55	51	-66	269	203
57th	Eduardo Couto	BRA	(84.0 OCS)	84.0 BFD	39	44	39	290	206
58th	Tomas Hrncal	CZE	28	60	-77	63	56	284	207
59th	Michal Strusinski	POL	58	38	64	53	-67	280	213
60th	Maciej Pezala	POL	42	54	-66	52	65	279	213
61st	Gert Van der Heijden	NED	44	59	-65	49	61	278	213
62nd	Geza Huszar	HUN	36	47	60	-72	72	287	215
63rd	Jan CaJCIC	CZE	53	41	69	-74	53	290	216
64th	Karel Van Hellemond	NED	46	(84.0 BFD)	84.0 OCS	39	48	301	217
65th	Abe Torchinsky	CAN	74	(84.0 BFD)	45	45	60	308	224
66th	Alexey Selivanov	RUS	(84.0 OCS)	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	21	36	309	225
67th	Viacheslav Sivienkov	RUS	29	57	73	69	-75	303	228
68th	Davourlis Panagiutis	GRE	66	44	62	58	-68	298	230
69th	Peter Haidekker	HUN	59	53	-72	62	58	304	232
70th	Lorenzo Podestà	ITA	55	(84.0 BFD)	67	64	52	322	238
71st	Vasily Kravchenko	RUS	60	46	-74	71	63	314	240
72nd	Paolo Cisbani	ITA	-73	50	59	59	73	314	241
73rd	Tomek Kosmicki	POL	64	56	61	67	-77	325	248
74th	Andrea Bianchi	ITA	57	(84.0 BFD)	58	65	69	333	249
75th	Branislav Erac	SRB	61	61	70	61	-80	333	253
76th	Srdjan Volarevic	SRB	69	62	57	73	-78	339	261
77th	Constantinos Gnafakis	GRE	65	55	71	-78	71	340	262
78th	Francesco Cinque	ITA	(84.0 OCS)	51	63	75	79	352	268
79th	Darko Burcul	SRB	-76	52	75	76	76	355	279
80th	Eirinaios Gnafakis	GRE	75	58	76	-77	74	360	283
81st	Mauro Merlini	ITA	71	(84.0 DNC)	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	407	323
82nd	Michele Tognozzi	ITA	(84.0 DNC)	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	420	336
82nd	Aimilios Papathanasiou	GRE	(84.0 DNF)	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	420	336