Mark Lloyd / www.lloydimages.com

5th straight bullet for awesome Ainslie

British legend now untouchable after a yee-haa day at the JP Morgan Asset Management Finn Gold Cup

Thursday May 17th 2012, Author: Robert Deaves, Location: United Kingdom

Awesome is an overused word, but today it doesn't really come close to adequately describe the performance of Ben Ainslie on day five of the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Finn Gold Cup in Falmouth. In the toughest, roughest conditions that much of the fleet have sailed in for many years he took three race wins and is now within a whisker of his sixth Finn World title. Ed Wright remains in second while Jonas Høgh-Christensen (DEN) moves up to third.

The morning forecast was somewhat daunting as the fleet set out under the threat of 30 knots winds and big seas by the afternoon. Three races were scheduled to make up for those lost on Wednesday, and though 85 boats made the first start, by the third race there were only 53 boats left on the water. The wind rose from 15-16 knots for the first race of the day to 20-25 knots in the third, and the wave also built to reach 2-3 metres in height, providing for some stunning downwind sailing so even those who were having a bad day were also having a fantastic day.

Pieter-Jan Postma (NED) obviously liked the conditions and had his best day yet, rounding the first mark in race seven in the lead from Greg Douglas (CAN) and Mark Andrews (GBR). Tapio Nirkko (FIN) rounded in fifth and moved up on the downwind to round level with Postma, but at the opposite gate. Postma still led at the second upwind mark, while Ben Ainslie had moved up to second. Then on the final run to the finish, there were lots of position changes. Ainslie stormed through to the lead to win the race from Ed Wright and Daniel Birgmark (SWE)

The conditions worsened (or improved depending on your viewpoint) for the next race with big rolling waves coming down the course. Matts Coutts (NZL) was the clear leader at the top mark from Douglas and Andrews. Wright had moved to third at the gate and then took the lead up the beat to lead down the first reach. Ainslie had recovered from a poor first beat to third place, but was handed his second victory of the day on a plate when Wright capsized on the gybe and Douglas went wide. Ainslie slipped through the gap and screamed off to the finish. Douglas crossed in second with Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) in third. Wright righted his boat and crossed in 14th.

The final race of the day was an epic of big winds, big waves and downhill sleigh rides that needed nerves of steel. Ainslie now had the measure of the day and rounded the first mark with a nice lead which he extended on every leg to win by 200 metres at the finish. Wright was again in second for much of the race but slipped on the final reaches to fourth. Kljakovic Gaspic crossed in second with Zach Railey (USA) sailing his best race of the regatta into third to grab the final place in Friday's medal race.

Ainslie described the day: “It was a pretty big day, amazing conditions. There were massive waves. It was an amazing day's sailing for everyone I think. It is not often we race in conditions like that, so it was great. I think there will be a lot of tired sailors, but I think most people had a smile on their face most of the time.

“It has been a good week and this event is important but really the main focus this year is the Olympics coming up. It is good with that in mind but of course it is a great achievement to win a Finn Gold Cup. This fleet is very tight, there are a lot of good sailors so I've still got to keep pushing and making improvements. Obviously I am very happy with the way this week has gone.”

Wright summed up his day: “Today was probably the craziest days sailing I've had for a long time. It was enormous waves, really windy and it built all day. It was really exciting probably my favourite day. I wasn't really sailing just trying to keep control, it was quite a nice feeling.”
“Today was even more about survival than Tuesday. Downwind was just survival, there were quite a few capsizes and in my second race on the last couple of reaches I was winning by quite a way relaxing in survival mode. I went in for the gybe and capsized. It was hard because I went in the water and after that pretty difficult to get yourself back up and into the boat so I probably lost about 10 places there. The good thing is I can discard that race. Going into medal race tomorrow it's going to be close racing but we will just have to wait and see what happens.”

Kljakovic Gaspic said: “It was a lot of fun out there. To be honest it was great rounding the mark and watching the other guys capsize behind and get in trouble on the downwind, watching as you pass them by it was a good feeling to be fast but cautious. Today was quite a good day for me I had two really unlucky moments today, the first and third start a really big wave broke on my deck and flooded my boat with water, so about 30 seconds after the start my boat was totally sinking and I was trying to get it out as quick as possible.

“Tomorrow will be good experience for the future and for the Olympics. I hope it will be windy to take advantage of the guys that are tired from today's racing, maybe I am a bit fresher than the rest. It has been quite a tough week but I'm fit and strong and I have confidence in myself. I don't doubt my fitness.”

For Douglas, this event forms his Olympic trials and had a great day to move up to 14th overall, while his main rival Chris Cook (CAN) unfortunately fell ill and didn't complete the last two races, to drop to 27th and now too far back to catch up.

Douglas said, “I saw the forecast this morning and put a little post on Facebook that I was going to teach the old boys how its done today and the wind picked up, the waves got big, it was a really good one out there today. In the second race coming around the reach Ed capsized at the gybe and then Ben got inside me at the gybe, but getting passed by Ben Ainslie was not the worst.”

Oleksiy Borysov (UKR) is the only dinghy sailor from Ukraine to qualify for the Olympics and his week hasn't gone quite to plan. He sits in 21st place. “To my mind it’s the most difficult start to this season. I was ready to take the challenge physically, yet in conditions I didn’t reach my target. Having said that I’m quite happy with the outcome and my results. My aim and the most important thing was to finish in the top 20 regardless, so I had pretty consistent results in today’s races.

“It’s quite important for me to get down to Weymouth as soon as possible. Because of lack of financial support I didn’t have a chance to compete in last years Skandia’s Sail for Gold, nor in the Pre-Olympic test event”

In Friday's medal race Ainslie just has to finish cleanly to win a sixth Finn world title. Wright also has to just finish to win the silver. The real interest is the bronze, where technically any of the next six boats can take it out of the hand of Jonas Høgh-Christensen (DEN).

Following the medal race, the 11th and final race will be sailed for the rest. For some this is an important race as will determine the final places at the Olympics. Poland has already qualified. Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, China and Norway currently occupy the next six places, though some are dependent on National Authority requirements.

The medal race will feature GoPro stern cameras on each of the 10 boats, so hopefully by the end of the day we will have a idea what it take to be a world class Finn sailor.

Top 50 results:

Pos SailNo Helm R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 Tot Net
1 GBR 3 AINSLIE Ben 1 -3 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 13 10
2 GBR 11 WRIGHT Edward 2 1 5 7 5 4 2 -14 4 44 30
3 DEN 2 HOEGH-CHRISTENSEN Jonas 14 9 4 6 2 8 4 -18 17 82 64
4 CRO 524 KLJAKOVIC GASPIC Ivan -26 16 3 12 3 20 13 3 2 98 72
5 FIN 218 NIRKKO Tapio 6 -22 9 8 16 2 5 17 9 94 72
6 POL 17 KULA Piotr 9 10 8 15 12 5 9 12 -18 98 80
7 GBR 88 ANDREWS Mark -33 23 12 10 7 6 7 5 11 114 81
8 GBR 85 MILLS Andrew 4 8 2 11 19 3 -30 20 15 112 82
9 NED 842 POSTMA PieterJan 22 14 11 4 (95.0 DSQ) 14 6 6 8 180 85
10 USA 4 RAILEY Zach 15 15 10 -32 8 13 18 11 3 125 93
11 EST 2 KARPAK Deniss 5 5 20 26 4 7 (95.0 OCS) 15 13 190 95
12 SWE 11 BIRGMARK Daniel -24 17 17 14 10 19 3 10 10 124 100
13 AUS 1 CASEY Brendan 13 25 7 9 17 18 8 4 (95.0 DNC) 196 101
14 CAN 5 DOUGLAS Greg -34 7 15 13 22 26 15 2 7 141 107
15 FRA 112 LOBERT Jonathan 25 2 6 2 15 -27 25 25 12 139 112
16 NZL 1 SLATER Dan 12 24 13 27 9 -32 10 7 14 148 116
17 RUS 9 SKORNYAKOV Eduard 20 -42 24 19 11 10 17 13 5 161 119
18 ESP 100 TRUJILLO Rafael 31 -39 14 5 6 15 12 24 30 176 137
19 POL 7 SZUKIEL Rafal 3 20 22 16 27 22 -41 28 22 201 160
20 GER 151 MILLER Matthias 23 13 30 -54 20 11 23 27 16 217 163
21 UKR 1 BORYSOV Oleksiy 30 4 26 18 18 29 -32 21 19 197 165
22 NZL 8 COUTTS Matt -45 35 36 22 32 25 11 9 6 221 176
23 AUT 3 RAUDASCHL Florian 29 11 21 -35 33 28 16 16 28 217 182
24 CZE 1 MAIER Michael 10 -37 31 30 21 24 19 30 27 229 192
25 CAN 41 COOK Christopher 8 12 16 1 13 12 40 (95.0 DNS) 95.0 DNC 292 197
26 SWE 6 ALLANSSON Bjorn -64 26 19 42 28 31 21 8 26 265 201
27 USA 619 PAINE Caleb 37 27 27 20 (95.0 DSQ) 16 20 36 20 298 203
28 NED 83 HAGOORT Timo 35 21 28 25 31 -40 14 22 35 251 211
29 TUR 21 KAYNAR Alican 32 30 25 -64 40 9 26 32 29 287 223
30 CHN 1226 GONG Lei 21 31 33 38 26 17 28 -48 33 275 227
31 CZE 85 VIKA Tomas 17 19 39 -44 25 35 34 38 21 272 228
32 NED 841 VAN EGMOND Hein 11 41 -42 17 34 33 29 40 32 279 237
33 UKR 5 GUSENKO Andrii 43 18 40 21 30 36 -47 26 24 285 238
34 BRA109 ZARIF Jorge 50 6 35 31 35 23 (95.0 OCS) 34 25 334 239
35 CRO 11 OLUJIC Josip 36 -55 34 23 39 21 36 19 36 299 244
36 CAN 110 ROBITAILLE Martin 18 33 29 45 24 (95.0 DSQ) 31 23 44 342 247
37 NOR 1 PEDERSEN Anders 44 46 18 -55 20.0 RDG 34.3 RDGa 24 33 34 308.3 253.3
38 CRO 671 BILIC Tudor -48 47 38 36 14 37 27 35 35.3 RDGa 317.3 269.3
39 RUS 1 SELIVANOV Alexey 7 34 52 48 (95.0 DSQ) 30 22 53 39 380 285
40 CYP 19 PAPADOPOULOS Haris 47 44 48 33 -50 38 39 37 23 359 309
41 POL 8 LESINSKI Lukasz 61 52 -70 40 29 45 33 31 38 399 329
42 RUS 57 TERPIGOREV Egor (95.0 BFD) 60 32 28 48 44 53 39 31 430 335
43 IND 11 JOHAL Nachhatar 38 38 -62 52 43 29.0 RDG 48 45 43 398 336
44 HUN 6 PAL Gaszton 39 29 43 46 47 34 49 51 (95.0 DNC) 433 338
45 GBR 18 HADDEN James -70 36 47 41 49 60 37 42 37 419 349
46 GBR 29 MCCOY Peter 42 59 37 47 42 47 43 43 (95.0 DNF) 455 360
47 SWE 89 AXELSSON Andreas 41 63 60 37 41 41 42 47 (95.0 DNC) 467 372
48 IRL 4 HAMILTON Ross -73 40 45 58 38 46 50 56 46 452 379
49 HUN 8 BELICZAY Marton 54 51 -64 29 57 43 45 61 41 445 381
50 CAN 902 WILTON Brendan 46 32 55 39 (95.0 BFD) 48 38 29 95.0 DNF 477 382

 

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