Photos: Robert Deaves

Andrew Mills extends

As Pieter-Jan Postma gets his first point on the board at the Finn Gold Cup in Tallinn

Tuesday August 27th 2013, Author: James Boyd, Location: Estonia

Andrew Mills (GBR) has extended his lead on the second day of the 2013 Finn Gold Cup in Tallinn, Estonia after winning the second race of the day. Zsombor Berecz (HUN) moves up to second with Michele Palette (ITA) now in third. The first race of the day was won by Pieter-Jan Postma (NED).

In conditions very similar to Monday's races the fleet was again held on shore for two hours for the wind to build. The wind turned up again, but was still not more than 7-8 knots at any time and still very unpredictable, causing a string of high scores throughout the fleet. The results make for interesting reading with a huge number of different names near the top, with many of the favourites struggling down to mid-fleet

Race three got under way after two general recalls. Starting right at the pin end and tacking straight across to the right side if the course. Pieter-Jan Postma ((NED) controlled race three from start to finish. He rounded the top mark ahead of Josh Junior (NZL) and Jonathan Lobert (FRA) and these positions remained the same throughout. Junior made some gains on the second upwind with Postma tacking right on top of him as they approached the top mark. However, Postma extended downwind to win from Junior and Lobert. Mark Andrews (GBR) recovered from the teens at the first mark to cross the line in fourth

Regatta leader, Andrew Mills (GBR)) crossed in 15th after rounding the first mark well placed, as he slipped back slightly. However in the second race, he made amends, starting near the pin and tacking across to the right to lead at each mark for the whole race. He rounded the top mark ahead of Michal Jodlowski (POL) and Milan Vujasinovic (CRO). Many of the overall leaders were deep in the fleet again.

As Mills maintained his lead throughout Vujasinovic moved up to second at the downwind gate. Jodlowski was back in second at the final top mark and held it to the finish, only to find out he was one of seven boats black flagged at the start. So Vujasinovic picked up the second place with Jorge Zarif (BRA) had a great last leg to move up to third.

The list of black flagged starters also showed that Bruno Prada (BRA) had picked up his second black flag of the day.

Postma described his day: “Before the start, the wind shifted a little bit left and so I went to the left side of the line and I won that side, and then I could take the shift and I was leading straight away. The fourth race was not a good race for me. Again the wind shifted left at the start but farther than the whole day so I started on the right side and I thought it would shift back but it only shifted more left so I was taking the long way and had a bad race.”

Junior scored a 2, 11 today and moved up to 15th overall. He said, “Another glamour day with five knots and the shifts continued, but instead of the right paying like yesterday, the left paid. I was pretty lucky and found myself out on the left and managed to get a second in the first race and a 12th in the second, so I'm pretty happy. It's plenty tricky and it's really hard to predict what's going to happen as you can't really see the pressure, so all you can do is get a good start and play the percentages and work your way up.”

Mills said, “Another tricky day. It was just about trying to get two consistent races, maybe top 10s. Light winds is not traditionally what I am good at but I seem to be doing OK here. But it's a long way to go, with seven races left.

“The last race was tight, with a black flag and a lot of people pushing the line at the pin. I lined up with a few seconds to go and was perfectly covered and found a wave to surf out of the line. I hit that perfectly. From there I was well punched, tacked on the shifts and got a decent bit ahead. From there it was just sailing, as I was confident I was in the top two from five minutes out.”

After an indifferent Monday, Greg Douglas (CAN) had a better Tuesday with a 8, 13 to move up to 13th overall. He said, “It was another lovely summer day in Estonia with a light, tricky breeze which made for some interesting racing. As always the boys were eager to get off the line so we had a few recalls which made for a slow start but we got away and had two great races.

“Being consistent and keeping your head out of the boat really paid. There was more wind in the second race which stretched the fleet out a bit more, which was nice so the marks were less crowded and made the racing easier and more spread.

The man who brought the Finn Gold Cup to Estonia two weeks ago now finds himself 17 points clear at the top of the leaderboard after four races. He is not taking anything for granted but in this high scoring regatta most of his main rivals have already collected two high scores. The forecast is for more of the same conditions in the coming days.

 

Results (top 50):

 

Pos SailNo Helm R1 R2 R3 R4 Tot Net
1 GBR85 Mills Andrew 6 3 15 1 25 25
2 HUN40 Berecz Zsombor 7 23 7 5 42 42
3 ITA146 Paoletti Michele 14 9 11 8 42 42
4 CRO69 Vujasinovic Milan 38 2 5 2 47 47
5 FRA112 Lobert Jonathan 3 20 3 26 52 52
6 ITA117 Poggi Giorgio 28 6 18 6 58 58
7 GBR11 Wright Edward 5 5 28 21 59 59
8 EST2 Karpak Deniss 8 17 6 28 59 59
9 AUS261 Tweddell Oliver 1 22 9 33 65 65
10 BRA9 Zarif Jorge 44 1 24 3 72 72
11 EST11 Väinsalu Lauri 25 12 20 20 77 77
12 CZE1 Maier Michael 19 19 21 18 77 77
13 CAN5 Douglas Greg 29 32 8 13 82 82
14 NED842 Postma Pieter Jan 2 45 1 36 84 84
15 NZL24 Junior Josh 33 38 2 11 84 84
16 SLO573 Zbogar Vasilij 22 41 14 7 84 84
17 CRO524 Kljakovic-Gaspic Ivan 49 8 22 10 89 89
18 NZL1 Coutts Matt 4 7 43 37 91 91
19 POL17 Kula Piotr 13 39 38 12 102 102
20 FRA29 Le Breton Thomas 17 16 44 25 102 102
21 ESP7 Muscat Alejandro 37 18 26 24 105 105
22 TUR211 Basegmez Alican 12 14 32 49 107 107
23 NZL16 Murdoch Andrew 35 21 35 16 107 107
24 SLO5 Vincec Gasper 60 25 10 19 114 114
25 GRE77 Mitakis Ioannis 23 71 19 9 122 122
26 GBR88 Andrews Mark 56 50 4 14 124 124
27 RUS6 Kistanov Arkadiy 46 11 30 42 129 129
28 TUR21 Kaynar Alican 34 27 45 23 129 129
29 SWE6 Allansson Björn 15 67 12 39 133 133
30 RUS1 Selivanov Alexey 31 4 61 41 137 137
31 NED83 Hagoort Timo 69 36 33 4 142 142
32 USA6 Paine Caleb 63 40 13 29 145 145
33 CZE85 Vika Tomas 20 53 59 17 149 149
34 UKR5 Gusenko Andrii 32 24 40 53 149 149
35 AUS1 Casey Brendan 21 33 48 48 150 150
36 ESP161 Fernandez Vasco Miguel 9 48 51 45 153 153
37 IRL4 Hamilton Ross 16 29 47 61 153 153
38 USA21 Lamphere Gordon 39 49 29 38 155 155
39 ITA213 De Luca Umberto 58 51 34 15 158 158
40 ESP669 Guitian Sarria Pablo 11 55 53 40 159 159
41 RUS57 Terpigorev Egor 41 34 25 60 160 160
42 POL13 Jodlowski Michal 10 10 54 87.0 BFD 161 161
43 ITA123 Baldassari Filippo 24 28 27 87.0 RET 166 166
44 ITA66 Voltolini Enrico 45 26 49 47 167 167
45 GBR29 Mccoy Peter 55 44 42 27 168 168
46 ITA214 Bevilacqua Riccardo 42 13 31 87.0 RET 173 173
47 SWE33 Salminen Max 36 70 23 51 180 180
48 AUS41 Lilley Jake 57 72 17 35 181 181
49 FIN218 Nirkko Tapio 30 31 36 87.0 DSQ 184 184
50 RUS9 Skornyakov Eduard 50 30 62 43 185 185

 

 

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