FINNFARE September 2019

SEPTEMBER 2019

• GILES SCOTT WINS THIRD EUROPEAN TITLE IN ATHENS • JÜRI ŠARAŠKIN REMEMBERED • SUBMISSIONS EXPLAINED • SECOND U23 SILVER CUP FOR OSKARI MUHONEN • Krutskikh WINS THIRD WORLD MASTERS • AGM AND ACCOUNTS

finngoldcup.org • finneuropeans.org • finnsilvercup.org • finnclass.org

Opening shot: Lachlan Gilham at the Silver Cup in Anzio

President’s Letter Dear Finn Sailors, Dear Members of the International Finn Association,

W

ith the 2019 International Finn regatta season coming slowly to its end, with the 2019 Finn Gold Cup in Melbourne closing the year, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate not only the medalists of the major international regattas but also to all Finnsters from club level to the top international sailors, from 15 year old juniors to 85 year old master sailors for taking the time, energy, and the huge physical and mental effort to sail this beautiful boat called the Finn.

As you know in the last 12 months there have been many changes in the world of sailing. First, World Sailing had set up a procedure to review the 2020 Olympic sailing events and equipment for the Games in 2024. In the framework of this process in May 2018 a controversial decision was made by World Sailing by creating a list of new mixed Olympic sailing events, including a one-person mixed event where (according to the submitter) the Finn was proposed to be the male equipment.

In November 2018 to the surprise of the sailing world the WS Board came forward with a last-minute late submission that proposed the replacement of the one-person mixed event with a new mixed-gender two-person offshore keelboat event. The WS Council vote involved a voting scandal never seen at WS before followed by a still ongoing World Sailing Ethics Commission investigation against the WS President and the WS CEO. Since last November the Finn Executive and other Finn stakeholders have been working hard to showcase to the sailing world, the IOC and WS stakeholders how important a dinghy event for larger sailors is on the Olympic sailing programme.

The IOC will make its final decision on the 2024 Olympic events as late as 2021 and the IFA Executive with the support of a large number of people from the international sailing community work restlessly towards finding a way back for the Finn on the Olympic programme.

The recent Olympic Test Event and the subsequent Sailing World Cup regatta at the 2020 Olympic sailing venue in Enoshima, Japan, showed that the 2020 Olympics may deliver almost any kind of wind and wave combination with a monstrous Pacific swell hugely challenging many of the current Olympic classes. The Finn, on the other hand, looked very comfortable in the big winds and waves and was loved by the media covering the events.

So, the 2020 Olympics may be another big spectacle for the Finn (comparable to Rio 2016) and will show the world that the Finn should also be part of the Games beyond 2020.

In summary, we strongly hope that wise decisions – especially by the IOC – on the future of Olympic sailing will allow the Finn to continue its Olympic presence and its unmatched sailing history.

Warm regards Dr. Balazs Hajdu HUN-1 IFA President FINNFARE SEPTEMBER 2019

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EDITORIAL W

e live in interesting times. Sometimes you wish they were not quite so interesting, but Finn sailors thrive in interesting times. We will continue to thrive.

With everything that is going on regarding the Olympic decision, it overshadows the fact that the class this year celebrates its 70th anniversary. Seventy years ago Rickard Sarby, together with his brothers Johan and Ernst, built the first Finn and launched it on Ekoln at Uppsala Kanotförening, in Sweden. It changed the sailing world forever.

In 2020 the Finn will participate in Enoshima as part of the Olympic programme for the 18th consecutive time. It's an absolutely amazing achievement, but the Olympic story of the Finn should not end there. The fact that Finn has been excluded from the 2024 Olympic programme is very sad and tragic, and will have major negative consequences for the future development of talented sailors worldwide, but it should not be the end.

That is why IFA is trying to change the decision. Many initiatives are in progress to reinstate the Finn into the Olympic

programme. You can read about the submissions put forward by the IFA later in this issue. It is an important step, but by far not the only one.

Throughout the 70-year history of this great class there have been moments of trouble, obstacles to overcome, but nothing quite like the mountain we are currently climbing. This will be a defining moment for the class. Change is surely coming in many forms and we should be part of that change, not changed without recourse.

On a final note, we also include a tribute to one of the class’s most loved figures, Jüri Šaraškin, who passed away earlier this year. Jüri was my friend, as he was friends with hundreds of Finn sailors worldwide, and he will be hugely missed both at regattas and on a technical level. However, he has left us an amazing legacy and his influence will live on long after the rest of us have hung up our hiking pants for the final time. Thank you Jüri.

IFA Executive Committee 2019-20 President of Honour Gerardo Seeliger Paseo Marquesa Viuda de Aldama, 52 28109 La Moraleja, Madrid, Spain Mob: +34 609 20 10 20 Email: gerardo.seeliger@gmail.com President Dr Balazs Hajdu Furj u 25, H-1124 Budapest, Hungary Mob: +36 30 332 7415; Fax: +36 1 319 1680 Email: balazs.hajdu@t-online.hu Skype: bhajdu001 Vice-President – Sailing Rafael Trujillo c/o NTC Australia Sailing Team, Middle Harbour Yacht Club, Lower Parriwi Road, The Split, Mosman 2008, Australia Tel: +61416719100; +34677523442 Skype: rafaeltrujillovillar Email: rafatrujillovillar@gmail.com Vice-President – Development Marc Allain des Beauvais c/o Transmer Assurances, Mandataire exclusif d’Assureurs Plaisance, 62, Avenue Camus, 44000 Nantes, France Tel: +33 (0)2 85 520 350 Fax: +33 (0)2 85 520 348 Email: marc@transmer.com Vice-President – Masters’ Fleet Andy Denison 4 Wickfield Ave, Christchurch; BH23 1JB, UK Tel: +44 (0)1202 484748; +44 (0)7802 355 522 Email: andy@denisons.com Executive Director Corinne McKenzie 39 Rue du Portal d’Amont 66370 Pezilla la Riviere, France Mob: +33 670 10 18 13

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Tel/fax: +33 4 68 92 60 46 Email: corinne.mckenzie@orange.fr Skype: corinnerollandmckenzie Chairman Technical Committee Paul McKenzie 39 Rue du Portal d’Amont 66370 Pezilla la Riviere, France Tel/fax: +33 4 68 92 60 4 Email: paul.mckenzie@orange.fr Honorary Treasurer Tim Carver 23 Balmoral Close, Alton, GU34 1QY, UK Tel: +44 7798 927971 Email: tim@timcarver.com, Skype: carvert Special projects Michele Marchesini Email: michele.marchesini@me.com FINNFARE Editor and Chairman Marketing Committee Robert Deaves 2 Exeter Road, Ipswich IP3 8JL, England Mob: +44 7932 047046 Email: robertdeaves@yahoo.co.uk Skype: robert.deaves IFA website: finnclass.org Gold Cup: YEAR.finngoldcup.org Europeans: YEAR.finneuropeans.org Silver Cup: YEAR.finnsilvercup.org Finnshop: finnclass.org/shop Finn Masters: finnworldmasters.com YouTube: finnclass.org/finn-tv Twitter: Finn_Class Facebook: Finn-Class Instagram: finnclass Next issue: December 2019 Online issues: issuu.com/finn-class

is the official publication of the International Finn Association

No. 162 • SEPTEMBER 2019 FINNFARE is a non-profit publication that is distributed free of charge to all IFA members and interested parties connected to the International Finn Class around the world. For extra copies, or if you have addresses of people who you think should be receiving FINNFARE, please contact the IFA Office. Articles, race results, photographs and reports from countries are always welcome. Please include FINNFARE in your mailing for newsletters, press releases and race reports. All advertisement enquiries should also be addressed to the Editor. A media pack is available on www.finnclass.org

Cover photo: James Skulczuk heads

downwind to victory in Race 2 of the U23 World Championship in Anzio. Inset: European Championship in Athens. Photos: Robert Deaves

finn news Tokyo 2020 Olympic Qualification Following the World Cup Series event in Enoshima in August, 14 out of the 19 nations that will compete in Tokyo 2020 have been decided. The first eight nations qualified in Aarhus in 2018 (HUN, SWE, NED, NZL, CAN, ARG, GBR, TUR).

At the European Championship in Athens in May, Jorge Zarif (middle) qualified Brazil, Anders Pedersen qualified Norway, Caleb Paine qualified USA and Ioannis Mitakis (top) qualified Greece.

Three sailors went into the Enoshima event to try and take the Asian continental place. He Chen (bottom), from China, James Dagge, from Hong Kong and Ahmad Ahmadi, from Iran. The three sailors were close all week, but Chen won the spot for China.

The final five places will be available at the South American Continental Qualifier (Rio, November), the Oceania Continental Qualifier (Melbourne, Finn Gold Cup, December), the North America Continental Qualifier (Miami, January 2020), European Continental Qualifier (Genoa, May) and the African Continental Qualifier (tbd).

Photos

Most of the photos from the major events featured in this issue, along with many thousands more can be found at robertdeaves. smugmug.com and can be purchased as prints or downloads.

All photos are tagged with sail number and name.

Major Championships 2020

Louie Nady We are sorry to report the passing of Louie Nady one of the USA’s most legendary sailors. He started sailing Finns in the 1960s, winning the Zellerbach at St. Francis in 1967. He was an alternate on the US Olympic Team in 1972 and raced against Paul Elvstrøm, Jacques Rogge and other legends. He made the top ten at the Gold Cup more than once. At 77 years old he still sailed his Finn three times a week at Buccaneer Yacht Club.

A full tribute will appear in the next issue of FINNFARE.

Presidential Bid After much consideration and thought, our President of Honour and Finn sailor friend, Gerardo Seeliger, has decided to stand for the President of World Sailing in the 2020 elections.

The Finn Class wishes him the best of luck in the challenges that lay ahead. If you wish to write to Gerardo, his contact details are on page 4.

Finn Gold Cup • 8-16 May • Palma, Spain (Open entry and combined with U23 World Championship) Finn World Masters • 29 May-5 June • Port Zélande, The Netherlands European Championship • 3-11 July • Gdynia, Poland Olympics • 28 July-4 Aug • Enoshima, Japan European Masters • 28 Aug-4 Sept • Gdynia, Poland FINNFARE SEPTEMBER 2019

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Giles Scott wins Epic European fight in Olympian arena

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n what was the toughest fleet of the season, 84 Finns from 33 nations took to the waters off Athens for the Senior and U23 European Championships from May 10-18 in one of the most Olympic settings on the planet. Also at stake were four places on the starting line at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

After a challenging week of racing with two days lost through light winds, Giles Scott won his third European title,

1 GBR 41 2 NZL 61 3 HUN 40 4 ARG 48 5 NED 89 6 TUR 21 7 BRA 109 8 NZL 24 9 NOR 1 10 GBR 11

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Giles Scott Andy Maloney Zsombor Berecz Facundo Olezza Nicholas Heiner Alican Kaynar Jorge Zarif Josh Junior Anders Pedersen Edward Wright

while Norway, Brazil, USA and Greece secured places in Tokyo.

The symbolism of racing the Olympic Finn in the original Olympic city was not lost on the athletes, with the line-up of Finn stars including just about anyone who was anybody in Finn sailing, either to test themselves against the best sailors in the world, or to scrap for one of those elusive four places.

Athens was chosen as the venue after the previous host, Marsala in Sicily,

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 MR

1 3 1 3 (23) 14 5 1 3 17 3 1 9 2 4 (22) 17 5 15 6 (dnf) 2 4 15 13 12 16 (bfd) 5 10 3 7 9 4 36 (47) 18 14 28 30 8 3 11 8 22 12 19 (28) 22 5 6 9 30 6 8 13 (45) 16 21 26

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3 (25) 4 33 6 12 2 23 24 8

3 20 2 5 19 21 (50) 4 (35) 8

10 1 9 2 8 3 4 6 5 7

Pnts

48 52 61 84 97 98 111 111 112 114

had to pull out after storm damage over the winter. The racing was held out of the Athens International Sailing Centre.

A relatively new facility, the sailors were made to feel at home by the enthusiastic staff and volunteers. The event was preceded by a marina clean-up operation initiated by the sailors, with many bags of trash recovered from the water.

After the opening day was lost because of light and unstable winds, racing got underway on the Tuesday.

Three races were sailed after a further delay onshore, but once on the water Giles Scott made the best of the conditions with two wins and a third in the other to take the early lead. Andy Maloney won the other race to sit in second with world champion, Zsombor Berecz in third.

Ironically after a week of hard racing, this is also how they ended the regatta.

Overlooked by the Acropolis of Athens in the distance, the sailors

needed plenty of Greek wisdom to manage the racing in some challenging conditions, and to conquer the Greek winds.

Former European champions Ioannis Mitakis and Jonathan Lobert shared the wins on the third day after another long day on the water. After five races, Scott still led overall from Maloney and Alican Kaynar. Joan Cardona remained the leader in the U23 European Championship.

It was a day of two halves. The fleet was sent out on time, only for the wind to vanish into the hills. Three hours later, race officer, Peter Reggio, sent the fleet ashore, only for the wind to return almost immediately. An hour later, the fleet was back on the water with a building wind that looked promising.

The second race of the day nearly didn’t happen with the wind dropping away, but patience was rewarded with a solid 10-12 knots and Oscar flag being raised for free pumping.

At the half way stage, the battle for the four Tokyo 2020 Olympic spaces was also heating up, with 13 of the 24 nations in the top 25 overall, and all very close on points. The top four nations at that point were France, Norway, Greece and Croatia.

Scott extended again on the fourth day, while the fight for Tokyo places continued, but the schedule was back on track after three more races. After losing the overall lead following the opening race, Scott ended the day with a 15-point lead over Berecz, while Maloney dropped to third, despite winning the opening race. The other race wins went to Nils Theuninck and Josip Olujic, both seeking Olympic qualification.

Of the other nations, only Norway remained in the qualification zone from Wednesday. A great day from Jorge Zarif, from Brazil, moved him up to 10th and second nation, just one point behind Anders Pedersen from Norway, while a fantastic performance from Nils Theuninck put Switzerland in third, with USA fourth.

The opening series ended how it began with racing abandoned late on Friday, with no more races sailed due to very light wind all day. The fleet had a long day of waiting on shore followed by a brief excursion onto the water, only to be turned around as storm cell appeared from Athens.

After a further wait onshore, racing

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 11 USA 6 Caleb Paine 14 17 (38) 6 35 16 12 CAN 18 Tom Ramshaw 21 10 25 5 (31) 7 13 GRE 77 Ioannis Mitakis 25 27 14 1 10 (52) 14 NED 842 Pieter-Jan Postma 10 23 11 14 43 30 15 RUS 6 Arkadii Kistanov 7 33 17 18 (61) 2 16 ESP 26 Joan Cardona (U23) 23 31 2 (bfd) 9 29 17 CZE 5 Ondrej Teply 12 37 33 (bfd) 15 27 18 FRA 112 Jonathan Lobert 17 11 5 (bfd) 1 46 19 AUS 1 Jake Lilley 24 29 13 36 2 9 20 ESP 17 Pablo Guitian Sarria 27 25 34 20 27 8 21 FRA 17 Fabian Pic 4 34 30 27 37 12 22 CRO 10 Nenad Bugarin 2 9 (48) 46 33 41 23 ESP 7 Alejandro Muscat 29 18 21 11 28 (35) 24 CRO 1 Josip Olujic 6 15 10 (bfd) 32 51 25 SWE 33 Max Salminen 26 30 35 (40) 38 11 26 POL 17 Piotr Kula 16 16 47 23 44 (49) 27 GBR 71 Henry Wetherell (U23) 47 4 18 21 42 24 28 GER 25 Max Kohlhoff (41) 32 26 15 20 36 29 SUI 1 Nils Theuninck (U23) 30 21 12 (bfd) 29 4 30 GER 259 Phillip Kasueske 20 35 32 13 22 38 31 FIN 218 Tapio Nirkko 42 39 7 (dnf) 18 17 32 FIN 8 Oskari Muhonen (U23) 36 20 23 26 13 34 33 DEN 24 Andre Hojen Cristiansen (46) 45 19 7 24 33 34 SWE 11 Johanes Pettersson (U23) 43 47 29 (bfd) 11 23 35 EST 2 Deniss Karpak 28 24 27 31 47 13 36 CHN 1 He Chen (ufd) 40 20 32 16 32 37 IRL 9 Oisin Mcclelland 31 22 24 42 7 45 38 IRL 22 Fionn Lyden 39 42 39 24 (45) 19 39 UKR 4 Andrii Husenko 19 19 52 34 (63 25 40 CRO 369 Milan Vujasinovic 48 44 15 10 26 (59) 41 USA 91 Luke Muller (U23) (ufd) 26 8 29 59 37 42 AUS 41 Lewis Brake 32 49 37 (bfd) 34 48 43 CHN 6 Luwen Shen 37 51 44 47 25 (67) 44 FRA 111 Valerian Lebrun (61) 57 50 35 12 43 45 POL 52 Krzysztof Stromski (U23) 34 (59) 54 41 46 40 46 CAN 2 Kyle Martin 49 28 43 48 55 20 47 ESP 57 Victor Gorostegui 45 54 36 25 39 22 48 RUS 73 Vladimir Krutskikh 54 55 46 8 48 50 49 GBR 38 Callum Dixon (U23) 33 48 51 45 41 (54) 50 UKR 573 Georgii Paches 40 64 (81) 39 6 44 51 AUS 32 Jock Calvert (U23) 52 36 42 (bfd) 40 55 52 ITA 71 Federico Colaninno (U23) 44 61 62 (bfd) 14 61 53 GER 595 Simon Gorgels (64) 41 41 19 52 39 54 RUS 1 Mikhail Latsun (U23) 53 60 (61) 28 49 42 55 GBR 81 James Skulczuk (U23) 62 43 57 (bfd) 64 21 56 EST 1 Taavi Valter Taveter (U23) 56 53 40 49 50 31 57 TUR 35 Can Akdurak 65 69 49 43 65 18 58 AUS 91 Lachlan Gilham (U23) 60 52 31 (bfd) 56 57 59 FRA 93 Antoine Davineau 51 38 58 44 54 64 60 USA 14 Eric Anderson 57 67 (70) 58 53 60 61 HUN 80 Domonkos Nemeth (U23) 66 46 53 53 (70) 62 62 CYP 1 Panagiotis Iordanou (U23) (75) 62 67 56 51 53 63 BER 9 Rockal Evans (71) 56 55 54 57 66 64 ESP 117 Carlos O Sanchez (U23) 35 (71) 65 62 62 71 65 JPN 7 Yuki Nishio (U23) (ufd) 50 56 51 74 63 66 AUT 1 Moritz Spitzauer (U23) 74 72 69 52 60 (75) 67 FIN 118 Waltteri Moisio (U23) 59 70 63 66 67 56 68 UKR 21 Artem Hudyma (U23) 38 74 68 50 (75) 72 69 ESP 888 Andres V.L. Perez (U23) 72 68 74 37 (80) 73 70 GRE 7 Antonis Manolakis 58 58 71 33 (dnf) 79 71 JPN 6 Hajime Kokumai (ufd) 73 59 60 76 65 72 UKR 69 Sergii Maliuta 55 (78) 76 57 71 70 73 ITA 1071 Matteo Iovenitti 73 65 64 64 58 (80) 74 GER 723 Nicolas Thierse (U23) 77 (80) 75 38 68 68 75 GRE 4 Panagiotis Kotsovos 63 66 60 (bfd) 73 76 76 FRA 99 Marc Allain Des Beauvais 76 (77) 73 63 72 74 77 CAN 15 Quinton Gallon (U23) 50 (81 78 55 78 78 78 HKG 8 James Dagge 67 75 72 (bfd) 69 58 79 NED 29 Bas De Waal 70 63 66 65 79 69 80 UKR 14 Volodymyr Stasyuk 68 76 77 68 66 77 81 UKR 12 Maksym Krukovskyi 69 83 (dnf) 59 81 84 82 BRA 10 Cristiano Ruschmann 79 79 80 67 82 81 83 GRE 71 Panagiotis Davourlis 78 (dnf) dns 61 77 82 84 GRE 1 Tasos Mpoudouris 80 82 79 69 (83) 83

R7 R8 FR Pnts 16 16 3 123 30 24 6 128 14 31 11 133 7 (48) 1 139 41 18 16 152 43 11 5 153 9 14 7 154 20 49 10 15 13 (53) 41 167 17 9 (37) 167 10 (40) 15 169 5 36 4 176 32 27 12 178 35 1 30 180 29 6 8 183 15 13 14 188 21 (51) 13 190 40 12 9 190 1 15 dsq 197 22 23 (39) 205 45 7 32 207 28 30 (47) 210 34 33 19 214 36 37 2 228 31 (52) 27 228 39 25 28 232 50 (59) 26 247 18 44 33 258 51 17 43 260 27 46 49 265 37 61 18 275 19 41 20 280 11 28 51 294 42 29 40 308 26 39 29 309 (62) 42 25 310 (56) 54 44 319 44 (71) 17 322 52 26 31 327 49 67 21 330 46 43 24 338 65 10 22 339 57 55 35 339 58 22 38 350 53 38 23 361 55 (74) 52 386 (71) 47 36 392 48 34 57 395 47 (65) 45 401 60 32 55 442 67 58 59 464 66 64 46 465 61 68 54 471 64 57 66 482 59 77 56 486 54 75 34 490 72 (73) 48 501 74 72 58 506 79 45 62 510 80 dnf 53 517 38 78 68 517 75 76 42 522 68 69 61 522 77 60 67 530 69 63 70 540 73 62 50 543 70 66(SP) 71 547 63 80 64 548 76 70 (dns) 558 (81) 79 63 574 84 dnf 60 605 83 56 (dns) 607 78 dnf 65 611 82 81 69 625

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was abandoned for the day around 18.30.

This meant that Norway and Brazil secured their places at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with no more races sailed.

The next day was the day of reckoning in Athens, with two European titles and two more places for Tokyo to be decided. Despite forecasts of a sailable wind in the morning, the sun beat down on a calm Saronic Gulf for most of the day. The cut-off for the warning signal for the Final Race was 15.00 and at 14.30, with signs of wind further offshore, the race team moved position and set a course with a start at 14.55. Inevitably this was a general recall, which was quickly turned around with a new warning signal at 14.57, with just three minutes left. This start got away cleanly, with a left shift soon after the start.

was full of drama. Caleb Paine crossed in third to qualify the USA, while Nils Theuninck crossed in ninth thinking he had secured a place for Switzerland in Tokyo. However, the elation turned to heartbreak when he was later disqualified after an incident at the first windward mark. This meant that Ioannis Mitakis, who finished just behind in 12th, took the fourth place available in Tokyo, for Greece.

Joan Cardona also did enough to secure the U23 European title.

The medal race followed with Scott holding off Berecz, the only sailor who could pass him, by taking him down the

fleet on the first upwind. This ultimately left Maloney with an easy race win and second overall, with Berecz dropping to third. However, of the Europeans, Scott took gold, Berecz silver and Nicholas Heiner the bronze.

So Scott took his third European title as he ramps up his defence for the Olympic title in 15 months time. Over the past year Maloney has made huge gains and this was another statement of intent, come August 2020. Just behind them, Berecz and Heiner have become two of the strongest sailors in the fleet, challenging the front at most regattas.

But the rest are not far behind‌

After losing the Dutch Olympic trials the day before, Pieter-Jan Postma wanted to go out on a high, in what was his last race in the class, and, judging the port layline perfectly, he rounded in first and led all the way to claim a massive race victory, a fitting end to 14 years campaigning the Finn. It was a beautiful and poignant moment when he crossed the line, way ahead of the fleet, a supreme talent in the Finn and one of the most popular sailors in the class.

Behind him the race for Tokyo places FINNFARE SEPTEMBER 2019

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How one became eight – the Return of the Finn?

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t the 2019 World Sailing annual conference in Bermuda the Finn Class has made eight submissions with the purpose of trying to ‘rebalance the slate’ and reinstate the Finn as Olympic equipment for 2024 and beyond.

In July the class announced its strategy of ‘rebalancing the slate’ with a mixed reception among sailors, but with a lot of support from around the world. One thing the class is confident about is that a significant number of MNAs and sailors worldwide would like to see the Finn reintroduced to the Olympic programme.

To be clear from the outset, it is not the intention of the class to attack any other event or class – these submissions just give Council various options to make some small changes to bring back the Finn, while keeping innovation and gender equity, but in doing so to rebalance the existing slate so it is more representative of sailing and sail sports globally.

One of the early hurdles was to battle through the World Sailing Conference submissions process. This process is very convoluted and challenging – in fact it is one of the key drivers

IFA has made eight submissions to the World Sailing annual conference. Tim Carver explains behind the governance reforms that World Sailing is proposing.

The approach started off with one suggestion containing three alternative event slates for 2024 and ended up with eight separate submissions.

To change any event, firstly that line in the current Events slate for 2024 needs 75% of a World Sailing Council vote to re-open it. Once that line is open and the event, changed a separate submission is then needed to propose a class for that event, but that only needs a simple majority vote. The eight submissions propose potentially re-opening four lines, that’s four submissions, and then four more submissions suggesting new equipment/classes, to make eight submissions in total.

Each submission can be taken in isolation but all together they could result in the reinstatement of the Finn while retaining absolute gender equity across all ten events.

These submissions could also result in other outcomes, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing as one of the key principles of this action is to allow the World Sailing Council the freedom to decide from a number of options. The Class will present evidence and persuasive arguments and then leave the final decisions to Council, rather than push for one specific route.

Top: Will we still see Finns racing in Marseille in 2024? • Above and right: Finns proved in Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2019, that it is one of the few classes capable of being raced in virtually all conditions

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Finn support It is well known that many of the World Sailing Council Members support the Finn and one of the key messages the Class took away from the May 2019 conference in Chelsea, UK, was that one of the many reasons the Finn lost its Olympic place was because of failure to provide submissions that its many supporters could rally behind. The class executive failed twice with its ideas, submissions and lobbying in 2018 and again in May 2019 and these were tough messages to hear.

By providing these submissions now, there is a

chance, albeit small, that a 75% majority vote can be achieved to give the Finn’s supporters within the World Sailing Council a chance to act. Feedback from some of the MNAs that have reviewed these new submissions is broadly positive, and the Class is hopeful that many other MNAs and Council Members will support these proposals.

It would be easy to dismiss them out of hand and maintain the status quo, however the arguments behind their purpose will not go away. So everyone is encouraged to read, digest, ask questions and see whether there is common ground on which enough can agree to achieve a 75% vote in favour.

The key points of the proposals are: 1. One of the main problems with the current proposed slate is that there are three Board classes, which is arguably one too many. If Boards occupy 30% of the events, it is not representative of sailing as a sport globally. Additionally as the Board events all head towards foiling classes they start to look very similar. The submissions leave it open to the Council. They could vote for Men’s Kite and Women’s Windsurfer or Mixed Kite and Women’s Windsurfer or Mixed Kite and Mixed Windsurfer or indeed, Men’s Kite and Mixed Windsurfer. Lots of choices and opportunities for both men and women to stand up on foiling boards and compete at the Olympics but within an allocation of two events and not three. The Finn class has no preference for any of these options, but is merely pointing out that two events is more appropriate than three.

2. Submissions 01 and 02 propose replacing the Mixed Kite with the Finn, but that does not represent an attack on the Kite event as submissions 03, 04, 05 and 06 then propose reintroducing it.

The result of these submissions is that there is no need to lobby either for or against any other event or class.

We have simply created a framework of submissions that give the Finn Class supporters within the World Sailing Council the opportunity to rebalance the slate and reinstate the Heavyweight Men’s event while retaining gender equity.

The Finn Class will only be promoting one angle – remaining positive about its amazing sailors and its amazing class at every opportunity, to reinstate a dinghy option for men weighing over 85 kg and to bring back the Finn – Olympic Sailing’s Blue Riband event, its Marathon, the boat that has delivered a succession of heroic Olympians and sailing legends over 17 successive Summer Games. It is too valuable an asset for World Sailing and the Olympics to lose.

These are the eight submissions in the order they will be heard.

IFA01

Open the Mixed Kite event and replace with Heavyweight Men

Adds an event for men over 85Kg and places Kite within the other Board events.

IFA02

If IFA01 is approved, then insert the Finn as equipment

Reinstate the Finn as equipment

IFA03

Open the Men’s Windsurfer event and replace with either a Men’s Kite or a Mixed Kite

Keeps the Kite as an event

IFA04

If IFA03 is approved and Men’s Kite selected, then insert the IKA Formula Kite as equipment

Keep the IKA Formula Kite as equipment

IFA05

If IFA03 is approved and Mixed Kite selected, then insert the IKA Formula Kite as equipment

Keep the IKA Formula Kite as equipment

IFA06

If IFA03 is approved, then open the Women’s Windsurfer Event and replace with Mixed Windsurfer

Ensures a Windsurfing event for both men and women

IFA07

Open the Mixed Two Person Dinghy event and replace with either a Women’s Two Person Dinghy or a Lightweight Women’s One Person Dinghy

IFA01 and IFA03 may result in a gender imbalance in the events, which is addressed here

IFA08

If IFA07 is approved and the Women’s Two Person Dinghy selected, then insert the 470 as equipment

Keep the 470 as equipment

3. The Submissions make no mention of the Mixed Keelboat.

The event has huge support within the World Sailing Council and the submissions do not bring us into conflict with that support base.

4. That brings us on to Submissions 07 and 08. Depending on what happens with 01 to 06, Council has the opportunity to change the Mixed Two Person Dinghy event to a Women’s event to correct any gender imbalance created by previous submissions. There may also be other submissions on the table that propose something similar. Simply, Council is being given a choice with suggestions of either a Women’s Two Person Dinghy or a Lightweight Women’s One Person Dinghy. It is up to Council which one it prefers, though there are many voices pushing for the Women’s One Person Dinghy to cater for lightweight women. The Finn Class will remain neutral on that and is not lobbying either way.

Many people are confused why the Finn has been removed for 2024. Is it time to put it back?

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JÜRI ŠARAŠKIN REMEMBERED 1938-2019 J

üri Šaraškin, the Chief Measurer of the International Finn Association, died on June 10, 2019. He was 80. He had been an integral part of the Finn class for over half a century, and his calm but firm demeanour kept control of measurement at Finn championships for many years.

Jüri ŠaraŠkin – The Grand Old Man of Estonian sailing Extracted and adapted from an article in February 2019 by Piret Salmistu for Estonian Maritime Magazine PAAT

Jüri Šaraškin was born in 1938 in Pärnu, Estonia. In 1963 he graduated from Tallinn Polytechnic Institute and moved to Leningrad (now St Petersburg) to do his Ph.D at the Leningrad Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics, which he was awarded in 1971.

He started sailing in 1952, and since 1962 his life has been intricately connected to the Finn class, initially as a sailor and since 1967 also as a measurer.

He was twice Finn Champion of Estonia, in 1968 and 1970, and since 1992 Jüri was the Chief Measurer of the Finn class. His scientific background and experience enabled him to develop and refine a lot of tools and methods for full and accurate measurement of dinghies.

He was instrumental in ensuring that modern Finns are measured accurately and consistently so that all boats are as alike as possible.

It is hard to imagine the Finn Class without Jüri, but perhaps even harder to imagine what it would have been like without his influence. The Finn class has lost a great advocate and a dear friend. Here are some tributes by his friends.

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üri Šaraškin was nominated as Olympic Attaché to Team Finland at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, with the sailing events held in Tallinn, Estonia.

Being himself an active sailor on his home waters in Tallinn Bay and a specialist in meteorology, Jüri proved to be a golden asset to the whole Finnish Team.

A bear-like appearance hid a well-seasoned tactician.

Each morning meeting he knew exactly what was the name of the game that day. His sarcastic and sometimes cryptic sense of humour kept the whole team delighted and away from excessive stress during this most meaningful event of all.

I, as a young aspirant, was good soil for his comments.

I certainly had great respect for his thoughts. Each morning he explained where and when to go and how things were developing, and mostly he was right. His specialities were these famous ‘Tallinn Pirita Bay Mini-Fronts’ passing over

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üri was born in Pärnu on the 21st of September 1938. This is where he went to school and fell in love with the sea.

Jüri’s uncle Anatoli Jansen was a vet but a huge fan of the sea and he gave Jüri a big toy yacht.

They often went out on the sea together with his passionate seafarer friend Apolloni Tsernov who renovated old ships as a hobby. His first time on a yacht was quite random when he was in fifth grade.

“We must have been good students, because our sports teacher took me and my classmate to Pärnu Yacht Club one day,” recalls Jüri. Then, several years later, in 1953, he got reacquainted with sailing. The rules started to relax only after the death of Stalin, but in those days, yachting was prohibited for anyone younger than 16.

In 1957 Jüri went to Tallinn University of

the course area from various directions, but of course the final decision was always made by the athlete himself. It was only you to blame in the mirror if errors sometimes occurred.

Jüri had a good eye for the details in sailing and also all aspects of sports in general, so he was truly the guy to thank after I won the Finn Gold on July 19, 1980 over Wolfgang Mayrhofer, from Austria, and Andrei Balashov, from USSR.

Esko Rechardt

Technology to study marine engineering. He continued sailing in Kalev Yacht Club in Pirita where, he said, a very extraordinary set of people gathered.

Jüri found employment as an engineer in Tallinn but quite soon left and went to the Institute of Electrotechnics. The new job was much more interesting. In the institute he was on the team developing the Estonian minicomputer STEM that calculated metal cutting profiles. It was 1962. The first computer of its kind was commissioned by a factory in Kirov, Russia. “But I was a student and on top of work I had to write my thesis.” After graduating, from 1962 to 1990 Jüri pursued an academic career and became a Doctor of Science in Technology.

Sailing At the end of the 1950s Jüri and Otto Raud built a 5.5 mR boat Pagi. In 1960 they won the Estonian championships in it and almost got to go to the Olympics.

“Otto was on the USSR national sailing team already and he asked me to join. We worked well together.”

Then in 1961 he switched to the Finn. In 1960, Aleksander Tsutselov from Kalev Yacht Club won an Olympic silver in

I

n 1992 Jüri Šaraškin became Chief Measurer for our Class. I was Technical Chairman, and for the next quarter century I saw him make major improvements to our measurement process, and a major change in the relationship between Measurers and the sailors, particularly with regard to 'Equipment Inspection' at regattas.

For many years before that, the class had struggled with the need to ensure adequate measurement at major regattas.

The wisdom of the day was that we needed to place the boats in a measurement jig in order to apply the templates accurately, and to make some other difficult measurements such as the position of the mast hole in the deck (now freed up). The jigs were wildly expensive to make and move around the world, difficult to use, and each boat took ages to process. Jüri realised this and with Dimitris Dimou of the 470 Class, developed the 'Strongback' system we use now, where measurements are based on a beam placed along the upturned hull.

Jüri made many other contributions to the measurement process, working with the International Measurers SubCommittee of ISAF and at Olympic Games over several quadrennia. His work included contributions to the International Measurers’ Manual and to the periodical International Measurers’ Seminars. His specialities were in developing tools that work effectively in the practical environment of a regatta, and in sorting rules that didn’t work. The classic example of this is our method of checking the fore-and-aft movement of the mast due to play at the bearings. The rule used to require that the horizontal play at the deck and heel bearings did not exceed 5mm. Try checking that! Now we take a string from the masthead to the transom, which sounds very rough and ready, but we can get sensible results in the dinghy park.

Jüri put a huge amount of effort into the management of the measurement process: At the beginning of the period measurement happened (usually) at the annual Gold Cup, and rarely elsewhere. At the end of the period measurement took place every time at the Gold Cup and Regional Championships. He oversaw the production of Templates, arranged for transportation of measurement equipment

Rome. The wooden Finns for the USSR were built in Tallinn and there were hundreds of them. Valentin Mankin’s Finn was number 636. Mankin has claimed Jüri was his “friend from sporty youth”. It was Mankin who taught Jüri the tacking skills that sustained him even in the heaviest weather.

Jüri worked at the Institute but trained every day in Pirita with Valdur Kose. Unremitting training was not in vain – his best results were a second place in the Baltic Regatta and sixth in the USSR championships among the 20 professional sailors of the time.

When in the 1970s Jüri was asked to go professional, he declined the offer, as he earned much more with his doctorate and he did not want to be away from family. This was also the end of his active Finn career. “I sailed on Finn for twelve years and in the last two years I got my Estonian championship medals on zero hours of training.” around the World, and made sure that our class maintained a suitable number of International Measurers to satisfy our needs and ISAF requirements.

He also maintained contacts with our builders, so that over the years it became the norm for them to ask for 'prototype inspection' when they introduced new hull moulds – this was included as a rule requirement in 2013.

One of the difficulties of Class Organisation is that the sailors are less than perfect at preserving paperwork such as certificates. Jüri set up the Class Measurement Database for Hulls and Centreplates, which paves the way for World Sailing objectives such as pre-registration for regattas.

I think that Jüri’s greatest contribution is that he changed the atmosphere of 'Equipment Control'. I remember the times before the 1980s as a period when we dreaded the pre-regatta confrontation with the measurer, but he changed all this. He always considered that nearly all sailors don’t want to cheat, and so encouraged the sailors to consider measurement as a positive part of their preparation.

Measurement became a reassurance to the sailors that their boats were OK. He also showed me many places where our rules could be improved and what should be done.

Jüri’s integrity was absolute. His discretion was exemplary, and for this reason I suspect that this appreciation of his contribution is incomplete. His is a legacy that won’t be forgotten by the sailors he has met over the years, and will be an inheritance for future generations in our sport – I am proud to have worked with him on this, and very sad to have lost a good friend.

Richard Hart

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üri Šaraškin was introduced to me at the 1978 pre-Olympic/ Baltic Regatta in the Tallinn of the Soviet Union via a letter of introduction from Howard Boston, a sail maker in Mount Clemens, Michigan for whom I had worked. Some years before a team of Estonian DN iceboat sailors had travelled to Michigan for an International Championship. The Estonian team was lead by Maiya Imelik and Jüri was a member. Howard had given them full use of his workshop to adjust and improve their equipment so good friendships resulted.

During the regatta, I gave a detailed talk on how to read the fit of a Finn sail to the particular mast it was set on and how it responded to the controls. It involved looking at the rig from four different angles as all five controls were adjusted over their whole range. Knowing the Finn rig in great depth was important to racing success and I had spent a long time and a lot of effort working to develop an understanding. Jüri was there listening and how he immediately understood it all was impressive. In our subsequent conversations I learned that he was a mathematical engineer and chief of the computer division at the Estonian Academy of Sciences. There were a number of others from the Academy there including its head Heino Lind and Viktor Hendrickson, a bio-physicist.

Besides being a DN and Finn sailor I learned that Jüri also raced on the Gulf of Finland in the big boats that belonged to the Kalevi Jahtklubi at Pirita so there were three kinds of sailing that Jüri and I shared enjoying.

We met up again the next year at the 1979 pre-Olympic regatta. If I remember correctly, one of Jüri’s tasks was measuring Finn sails and gear.

Another way we got to know each other was through Maiya Imelik who had been a famous Estonian athlete and was the head of all Estonian Sports. She and her husband Olaf had a beautiful traditional home in the suburbs of Tallinn where Jüri and I were often invited. Olaf Imelik was a medical physician who taught at the Medical School in the University of Tartu where at one point Maija had been his

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student. I especially remember those visits because there were few limits on what could be discussed and explored privately which was unusual in Soviet times.

The stupid Western 1980 boycott meant that the next times I met up with Jüri were at the 1985 Goodwill Games regatta and then again in 1987 after the Finn Gold Cup in Kiel. I remember that on the latter visit Jüri took me for a drive west along the cliff road over looking the Gulf of Finland. Coming back we found ourselves in the middle of a Soviet infantry exercise and Jüri said, “It is best if we do not speak English here.”

It was during those visits that I learned that Jüri had coached Esko Rechardt to a Gold Medal in the 1980 Olympic Regatta. Another connection to Jüri was through the Pärnu Jahtklubi on the Pärnu River in Southern Estonia. It was his home club and Pärnu was where Ülle Tomingas who was my translator in 78, 79 and 85 lived. The Pärnu Jahtklubi was also where the Finn Gold Cup was held in 1994.

In 1990 I organized a visit by 16 Estonian Sailors to Washington, DC, Miami and Fort Lauderdale for a month of touring, practice and two regattas.

Included were Jüri and Finn sailors Meelis Männik, Tammo Otsasoo, Imre Taveter and their coach Margus Kukk.

It also included Olympic medalists Tonü and Thoomas Tóniste and their coach Rein Ottoson. Returning from Lauderdale to Washington, I drove Jüri north through the mountains of Western Virginia. During the drive Jüri heard the sound of fighter jet engines in a valley below us. I explained that they were Marine Corps pilots from a base on the coast practicing low level close air support but that Navy pilots were not allowed to do the same. Arriving in Washington we stopped by the Danish Embassy so that Jüri could get a visa for a business trip there.

When the IFA was looking for a chief measurer I suggested Jüri and encouraged him to take the job as his experience and training were a perfect fit for the task. He became coach, mentor and disciplinarian to most of the active Olympic Finn aspirants. There were times when a Finn sailor would show up with a bright new idea and Jüri would admire the effort and then say, “We tried that thirty years ago and it did

not work.” Among his favourite sayings was, “You can not change the world but, you can change yourself.” Another word to start an explanation was, “Principally…”. Jüri was very thorough: in 2000 at the Sydney Regatta, Jüri found illegal lead in a carbon mast and had to organize the x-ray of every competitor’s masts. He early determined what Finn measurements were essential to speed and concentrated on them while eliminating all extraneous measurement that had nothing to do with speed or safety.

The Finn has gone through a seven decades long evolution in measurement practices, equipment and technique and Jüri was a major contributor to this. In the end, the Finns are more one design and equal in inherent speed than any other Olympic class. This is an example that needs to be understood much more thoroughly by World Sailing and those that control the manufacturer’s classes.

As a scientist and engineer Jüri had been called upon by the Soviets for many services so I usually first greeted him with a left handed backward salute as to a high ranking KGB officer. Jüri kept a file on every active Finn, even from the time it left the manufacturer’s shop. Those files travelled with him in a black box like briefcase. In the boat park, whether it was the Olympics, Gold Cup, Europeans or local regatta, he would spend hours walking among the Finns with some measurement device of the moment in his hand and the black briefcase close at hand. It was a friendly reign of terror to keep honest those pushing the measurement limits.

At the same time he kept aware of the emotional and intellectual state of each competitor and many were the recipient of key friendly advice that helped them become better. At the 2010 Gold Cup dinner we were sitting together when I was singled out for a misadventure at the gybe mark earlier that day; Jüri leaned over and said, “I think you better stand up.”

Jüri is a special memory, loved and enjoyed by many and whose contributions in his measurer’s and other roles had a tremendous impact on global Finn culture and procedures.

Jüri may physically be no longer here but his unique focused presence certainly is.

Gus Miller

Photos supplied and contributed by Dimitris Dimou, Piret Salmistu, Robert Deaves, Šaraškin archive, Vasiliy Kravchenko, Arno Mikkor

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Jüri Šaraškin: A Personal Remembrance

Jüri attended six Olympic Games as a measurer, in 1980, and 1992–2012.

The last occasion was in London in 2012.

Jüri was also an eight-time Estonian Offshore sailing champion.

Ice sailing In those days ice sailing was very popular in Kalev Yacht Club. Ice sailing was practiced on various boats but then rumours about a DN, designed in 1936– 37 in Detroit News, reached Estonia. Jüri proposed they built their own boats. DN boats are fast and light, which makes them popular to this day. Jüri’s boat was the first one completed. It looked oldfashioned but was really fast. This means Jüri was the first person in the entire Soviet Union to sail on a locally made DN-class ice boat, sail number SR 1.

Later Jüri worked extensively as an ice sailing judge and principal race officer.

Team effort Jüri has never worked as a coach but offered a lot of help and support to Esko Rechardt, who took the 1980 Olympic gold to Finland. Jüri was the attaché of the Finnish team, which meant being both the coach and the meteorologist as he knew Tallinn bay best. “When they arrived (to train for the Olympics), Esko’s shoulders were hard as rock.”

Jüri recalls. “But a sailor must be just the opposite - relaxed. One must be like a snake, ready for the strenuous 20-30 minutes. This meant we swapped his usual training for swimming and that did him much good.” This one-

For Jüri’s funeral, the Olympic flame in Tallinn was lit again while the flags flew at half mast

month period was important for Jüri as well: “I learnt from the Finnish team (managed by Börje Nordberg) about management and leadership and the gained knowledge has served me my entire life. Good teamwork, vital in every field of life, was their forte.” Jüri is convinced one must keep learning “otherwise you can teach only the stuff your teachers have taught you.”

Engineering In 1981 Jüri built an autonomous underwater vehicle to “study currents to exploit them for the benefit of submarines to to gather information about the layer where water temperature and salinity change. It was designed on the knowledge I had gained from sailing. And it worked.

They say this apparatus is still in use.”

“People are ashamed to admit when they don’t know something. But not knowing is normal. You know something but there is always someone who knows more. It’s not a sin. You should never shy from asking. It applies to sailing too. Sometimes people ask why I don’t disqualify anyone. My answer is – there is no need – my job, first and foremost, is teaching.”

Measurer At the 1967 Hankø Finn Gold Cup Jüri’s boat was not in accordance with the class rules. “I fixed my boat and was allowed to race. And then the chief measurer Vernon Forster told me: now we measure your boat and then you go to Tallinn and teach the

In 1978 Jüri was 4th in the DN-class World Championship and 3rd in the Europeans. In the USSR he won Silver once (1970) and Bronze three times (1969, 1972, 1979). He won Estonian Championship twice (1975, 1976).

Russian measurers how a Finn must be measured. This is where it all started.”

“Richard Hart and I have made the class rules as simple as possible. We wrote everything down in simple sentences.”

Jüri has built several measuring tools for different boat classes (Finn, Europe, Yngling) in order to increase precision.

Sailmaker How did Jüri become a sailmaker? “Out of sheer necessity. We got some old Finn sails and had to make them usable again. When my son Peter started on the Optimist in the 70s, we had a nice red sail made for him in the then Leningrad.

We made it from an old spinnaker and it was easy as the material was quite light.

His red sail was unique, and his mum enjoyed following him, as he was easy to spot among the other white sails.”

POSITIVE IMPACT Jüri was someone who knew how to both lead and follow by example. He had a positive impact on so many people around the world and his influence is felt and continues to be felt right across the Finn world and the sailing world.

One of Jüri’s favourite sayings was, “You cannot change the world but, you can change yourself.”

His wisdom, dark humour and authority will be sorely missed.

Jüri’s contribution has been recognised on several occasions: • Former member of the Estonian Ice Sailing Federation and the Sailing Federation Presidium.

• Decoration of honour of the Estonian Yachting Union, 2013.

• Silver medal of merit of the Finnish Sailing Federation, 1981.

• Honorary member of Helsingfors Segelklubb (HSK), Finland • Hall of Fame of the International Finn Class since 2015.

• Honorary member of Kalev Yacht Club, Pärnu Yacht Club and the Estonian Sports Association Kalev.

• Lifetime achievement award in 2019 • Kersti Kaljulaid, President of the Republic of Estonia, decorated 112 people this year, marking the 101st anniversary of Estonian independence.

Jüri was a recipient of the Order of the White Star, 5th Class for his contribution to Estonian sailing.

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SECOND SILVER CUP FOR OSKARI MUHONEN

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he 21st Jorg Bruder Finn Silver Cup for the U23 Finn World Championship returned to a traditional Finn venue in Anzio, Italy at the Circolo della Vela di Roma. There were 28 sailors from 16 countries entered, including eight sailors under 19 year old.

Anzio has a long history in Finn sailing, having hosted the Finn Gold Cup in 1972 and 1984, the Europeans in 1991 and several Italian Championships, as well as the Roma Sail Week that ran for many years. Many of the older sailors,

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and now coaches, in the class remember sailing in Anzio’s great conditions in the 1980s and 1990s, but it has been many decades since the class held a major event there so it was long overdue.

The Finn Silver Cup was presented by the Brazilian Olympic Committee in 2004, to remember Brazil’s greatest Finn sailor, Jorg Bruder. This year’s event had a special significance as Anzio was the scene for the third of Bruder’s three consecutive Finn Gold Cups, in 1972, a record at the time, before his tragic death in a plane crash while heading to

France to defend it in 1973. For the first time in 21 years, the Jorg Bruder Finn Silver Cup was present at the scene of one of his victories, and Anzio in 1972 was his greatest victory, winning with a sizable points lead over John Bertrand of Australia.

PERFECT START The championship began with three races in perfect conditions – big winds, big waves and big courses. Nils Theuninck was the early leader from Oskari Muhonen and James Skulczuk.

1 FIN 8 Oskari Muhonen 1 3 9 2 4 3 1 1 (11) 9 1 34 2 ESP 26 Joan Cardona 2 (dsq) 1 1 2 4 2 11 19 5 3 50 3 SUI 1 Nils Theuninck 3 2 4 4 5 7 14 (bfd) 8 3 2 52 4 ITA 71 Federico Colaninno 8 5 11 3 3 1 11 2 1 (21) 12 57 5 SWE 11 Johannes Pettersson 4 (ufd) 3 8 1 9 4 bfd 22 6 5 91 6 FRA 9 Guillame Boisard (ufd) 6 6 6 9 ret 17 3 12 1 4 93 7 GBR 81 James Skulczuk 6 1 7 11 12 10 6 16 (21) 17 10 96 8 SLO 11 Liam Orel, U19 17 13 20 9 7 6 3 6 7 12 (24) 100 9 POL 1 Sebastian Kalafarski 20 7 13 13 21 (23) 5 4 4 4 19 110 10 CYP 1 Panagiotis Iordanou 11 8 18 12 8 11 20 8 10 (24) 7 113 11 GER 723 Nicolas Thierse 16 11 16 (22) 18 8 9 5 6 19 11 119 12 RUS 1 Mikhail Iatsun 12 9 (dnf) 7 10 5 8 bfd 5 ret 6 120 13 AUS 32 Jock Calvert 7 (ufd) 5 5 6 2 23 bfd 20 8 16 121 14 EST 1 Taavi Valter Taveter 10 4 2 16 13 22 16 10 (23) 22 8 123 15 AUS 91 Lachlan Gilham 9 (ufd) 8 10 15 17 22 bfd 14 10 9 143 16 GBR 98 Cameron Tweedle (ufd) 10 10 15 14 14 21 bfd 3 16 18 150 17 ITA 115 Paolo Freddi, U19 (18) 14 17 18 11 18 18 12 15 14 14 151 18 ITA 5 Roberto Rinaldi, U19 23 21 (dnc) 25 26 12 7 15 2 15 13 159 19 GER 332 Nick Heuwinkel 19 17 22 14 20 13 (24) 9 16 13 17 160 20 RUS 6 Alexey Moskalev 21 15 21 (28) 22 21 13 7 24 2 15 161 21 POL 52 Krzysztof Stromski 13 (ufd) 14 19 17 24 12 bfd 9 7 dne 173 22 GBR 38 Callum Dixon, U19 5 (dnf) 12 20 ocs 15 10 18 18 27 21 175 23 HUN 80 Domonkos Nemeth 14 12 15 23 19 20 (28) 19 17 20 22 181 24 UKR 21 Artem Hudyma, U19 22 16 23 24 16 16 15 13 (27) 23 25 193 25 ESP 888 Andres Ivan Lloret Perez 15 (ufd) 19 21 25 19 19 14 26 11 26 195 26 POL 12 Oskar Adamiak, U19 24 18 24 17 24 25 (27) 17 25 18 20 212 27 POL 81 Borys Michniewicz, U19 26 20 25 (27) 23 27 25 21 13 25 23 228 28 ITA 2 Matteo Guglielmo, U19 25 19 26 26 27 26 26 20 (28) 26 27 248

The 2017 champion Muhonen, dominated the first race, while a big left shift in the second race favoured Callum Dixon and James Skulczuk. Dixon lost a huge lead after breaking his rudder, leaving Skulczuk to take the win. The third race was won by Joan Cardona after passing Taavi Valter Taveter.

Cardona then moved into a three-point lead on the second day with three more races competed in slightly lighter conditions. Muhonen was up to second with Theuninck in third.

It was another scorching hot day, with a hot onshore breeze producing some hot competition among the 28 young Finn hopefuls. The best performances of the day were from Cardona and from 20-year-old Federico Colaninno, each amassing just seven points from three quite tough races. Colaninno was fastest to the top mark all day, but was not quite so fast downwind, letting through some of the older sailors.

MuhoNen moves ahead Muhonen, took the lead on the third day after winning both races sailed late in the day in a very difficult breeze. Numerous high profile black flags combined with both good and bad performances from various players set the scene for an exciting finish. Liam Orel helped his chances of winning the U19 title, leading one race until the final downwind.

In an ever-fitful breeze Muhonen closed out the championship with a day to spare after two more races on the fourth day. It was actually his worst day, but with all the other main contenders also scoring high it was enough to take the Silver Cup with a day to spare.

Only one race was sailed on the final day, even more tricky than the preceding ones. With the pressure off Muhonen led all the way to record one of the biggest winning margins of the week. A third place finish from Cardona was enough for the silver medal, while a second place for Theuninck, secured the bronze.

In the U19 event, Liam Orel had already secured the gold a day before, while local sailors Paolo Freddi and Roberto Rinaldi took the silver and bronze.

Above: Top 3: Joan Cardona, Oskari Muhonen, Nils Theuninck Below: Under 19: Paolo Freddi, Liam Orel, Roberto Rinaldi

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PERFECT SCORE FOR VLADIMIR KRUKSKIKH AT WORLD MASTERS

“T

hese waters are the home of legends and what better way to celebrate it than by hosting the biggest regatta for legends – the Finn World Masters.” With these words, Olympic medalist and former world champion, Jonas Høgh-Christensen welcomed around 250 Finn sailors to the 2019 Finn World Masters in Skovshoved, Denmark, hosted by the Royal Danish Yacht Club, which was held from 7-14 June.

From the start, the former double Masters world champion, Vladimir Krutskikh, didn’t put a foot wrong, winning each and every race in his group to end the week with a perfect score. The conditions suited him perfectly with a moderate to strong wind most days and a short chop that was a challenge to sail through.

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The large fleet was split into two groups of around 120, sailing inner and outer loops. Each day the fleets were randomised using a new system introduced this year that allowed eight fleet races and removed all ties without the need for a medal race.

Mike Maier, Krutskikh, and Simon Percival took the race wins on the opening day in an unstable and shifty easterly breeze. Legend Henry Sprague was first to the top mark in the opening race for Yellow fleet, as the wind peaked at 16-18 knots. Maier was close behind and soon took the lead to win from Paul McKenzie and Volodymyr Stasyuk. The wind eased towards the end of the race and the second race was sailed in much lighter conditions with some different faces at the front. After rounding the top mark in second Percival took the lead

downwind, only to lose on the second beat to Allen Burrell, also from Britain.

However, Percival was faster downwind to take the win from Burrell and Ville Aalto-Setälä.

Blue fleet did not fare so well.

Krutskikh lead throughout Race 1 with Laurent Hay moving up from about fifth at the top to second across the finish, with Uli Breuer a close third. The fleet finished in less than 2 knots of breeze and fighting a strong current. Though a start for the second race was attempted for more than two hours, eventually the race team gave up and sent the tired sailors back to shore.

With the fleets imbalanced, the first race on Tuesday had to wait for several hours for the breeze to arrive and when it did Krutskikh led at the top and extended on the fleet for a comfortable win as the breeze built to 15-16 knots, though it

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

RUS 73 CZE 1 FRA 75 AUS 221 SUI 5 POR 51 ESP 757 GER 193 AUS 22 GER 707 UKR 8 DEN 21 NED 29 SVK 1 SWE 72 RUS 41 USA 74 GBR 2 NED 1015 FIN 234 DEN 27 GBR 5 NED 7 AUS 5 SWE 5 GER 194 DEN 80 GBR 21 FRA 38 HUN 50

Vladimir Krutskikh, M (1) 1 1 1 1 1 1 Michael Maier, GM 1 (27) 2 2 1 2 7 Laurent Hay, GM 2 4 (5) 4 5 3 1 Anthony Nossiter, M 5 5 1 8 3 3 (16) Christoph Christen, M 5 (23) 3 3 2 7 5 Filipe Silva, M 8 2 13 1 9 1 (dnc) David Terol, M (7) 6 7 6 7 6 3 Thomas Schmid, GGM 4 (11) 4 9 10 6 8 Paul McKenzie, GM 2 24 4 3 (27) 4 6 Uli Breuer, GM 3 3 (15) 10 8 14 5 Taras Havrysh, M (bfd) 20 2 19 6 2 7 Otto Strandvig, GM 9 (18) 9 7 10 8 14 Bas De Waal, GM 14 15 24 (28) 2 5 4 Peter Mosny, GM (dnc) 28 18 10 5 4 6 Peter Overup, M (20) 19 17 7 20 10 2 Felix Denikaev, GM 10 (37) 3 13 17 32 4 Henry Sprague, L 4 12 14 27 4 18 (43) Allen Burrell, GM 21 2 20 6 7 27 (37) Thierry van Vierssen, GM (28) 10 22 13 17 11 11 Ville Aalto-Setälä, M (47) 3 23 17 25 9 9 Christian Gunni Pedersen, GM (30) 24 13 11 12 26 3 John Greenwood, GGM 13 20 8 28 11 (30) 10 Cees Scheurwater, GM 7 (50) 27 11 28 12 9 Matt Visser, GM 18 14 18 25 (30) 7 12 Fredrik Tegnhed, GM 23 9 7 (30) 13 27 19 Axel Schroeder, GM 33 (43) 11 16 18 20 2 Michael Staal, GGM 31 8 19 4 13 (51) 29 Michael de Courcy, GM (51) 45 17 9 9 13 12 Michel Audoin, GGM 25 (ufd) 15 8 3 11 46 Akos Lukats, M 40 4 12 23 (65) 16 13

was still very shifty. He rounded ahead of Filipe Silva and Uli Breuer and they finished in that order.

Krutskikh was again fastest to the top mark in Yellow group in Race 3, to lead round and win his second race of the day, this time from Taras Havrysh and Christoph Christen.

Blue group was a battle between old adversaries, Anthony Nossiter and Maier.

Nossiter rounded the top mark in the lead, with Maier in the chasing pack. Up the second beat Maier applied pressure but Nossiter remembered what to do and stayed ahead to take the race win from Maier and Felix Denikaev.

After that, Krutskikh led overall from Nossiter, at his first Finn World Masters and Laurent Hay. Despite several attempts at a start

6 15 19 25 25 34 35 41 43 43 56 57 64 71 75 79 79 83 84 86 89 90 94 94 98 100 104 105 108 108

on Wednesday, no racing was possible on the third day. Forecasting Danish weather seemed to be a thankless task. While most forecasts showed strong winds, heavy rain and even the occasional thunderstorm, the reality was in stark contrast. After early rain and wind, a largely windless morning followed and at race time a light southerly was in place for the first time all week, with warm sunshine breaking through the thin, high cloud. The race committee attempted several starts and tried several locations, but fair racing was simply not possible and the fleets were sent home.

The weather changed on Thursday to bring perfect warm, sunny conditions with nice sailable breezes for the two remaining days. Krutskikh made it five wins in five races on Thursday.

Maier was up to second with Christen in third after two more races.

The day’s forecast was for light winds later in the day and after a 90-minute delay from the scheduled 12.00 start, the fleet began racing in a steady 12-14 knots. As the day progressed the cloud cleared to leave a beautiful sunny day on the Øresund.

Krutskikh dominated Yellow fleet, leading both races at the top and extending for some huge wins. In Race 4, Marc Allain des Beauvais was second at the top and held on to finish second while Christen crossed in third. The wind

31 CAN 115 32 FRA 96 33 GBR 567 34 SWE 59 35 FIN 201 36 AUT 333 37 BRA 97 38 GER 711 39 SWE 75 40 FRA 99 41 SWE 14 42 UKR 14 43 POL 73 44 ESP 337 45 ITA 2 46 ITA 4 47 SWE 61 48 RSA 1 49 NED 81 50 ESP 313 51 GBR 33 52 DEN 7 53 NED 43 54 DEN 6 55 BRA 11 56 RUS 1117 57 GER 111 58 GER 909 59 NED 111 60 HUN 1 61 FIN 50 62 CZE 75 63 GER 17 64 DEN 246 65 GBR 635 66 NED 780 67 DEN 20 68 BRA 32 69 DEN 249 70 FIN 112 71 GBR 61 72 ESP 555 73 NZL 15 74 DEN 24 75 GER 212 76 DEN 39 77 RSA 51 78 FIN 23 79 NZL 5 80 CZE 33 81 DEN 298 82 POL 26 83 CZE 67 84 SWE 12 85 SWE 15 86 GER 60 87 SWE 100 88 USA 117 89 AUT 11 90 DEN 25 91 SUI 12 92 GER 19 93 NED 6 94 GER 188 95 AUS 10 96 GBR 750 97 SWE 10 98 DEN 14 99 GER 960 100 SUI 88 101 RUS 142 102 GER 103 103 GBR 20 104 ESP 39 105 GER 289 106 GER 45

Derek Mess, GGM 115 Florian Faucheux, M 118 Martin Hughes, GGM 120 Lars Edwall, GGM 121 Kristian Sjöberg, GM 121 Gerhard Weinreich, GM 121 Ricardo Santos, M 122 André Budzien, GM 123 Johan Wijk, GM 125 Marc AD Beauvais, GGM 126 Stefan Nordström, GM 126 Volodymyr Stasyuk, M 127 Andrzej Romanowski, GM 129 Miguel A. C. Morales, M 132 Marco Buglielli, GM 132 Francesco Faggiani, GM 136 Mikael Nilsson, GGM 137 Greg Davis, GGM 139 Gerko Visser, GM 141 Antonio Parra, GM 149 Kieron Holt, M 155 Martin Mikkelsen, GM 157 Ronald van Klooster, GM 157 Lars Hall, GM 160 Robert Rittscher, GM 167 Andrew Bill, GM 175 Rainer Haacks, GM 175 Udo Murek, GM 178 Chris Frijdal, GGM 180 Geza Huszar, M 183 Freddy Markelin, GM 187 Vladimir Skalicky, GM 195 Kai Schrader, GM 203 Jens Krist. Andersen, GM 203 Simon Percival, M 206 Jan Willem Kok, GM 207 Casper Elkær-Hansen, M 211 Pedro Lodovici, M 216 Svend Andersen, GGM 217 Seppo Ajanko, GGM 218 John Heyes, GM 220 Juan Grau Cases, GGM 224 Greg Wilcox, GM 224 Jacob Brasse, M 225 Rainer Wolff, GM 228 Jacob Dal. Nielsen, M 234 Philip Baum, GGM 235 Henri Räty, M 236 Brendon Hogg, GM 238 Ivan Rames, GM 240 Henrik Sørensen, GM 241 Bog. Nowakowski, GGM 249 Josef Jochovic, GM 253 Stefan Sandahl, GM 253 Daniel Miles, GGM 254 Thilo Durach, GM 255 HP Hylander, GGM 256 Michael Mark, GGM 256 Bernd Moser, GM 258 Allan Hansen, M 262 Franz Bürgi, GM 262 Andreas Bollongino, GM 263 Wobbe de Schiffart, GGM 267 Michael Kluegel, GM 272 John Condie, GM 277 Ivan Burden, GM 278 Magnus Olin, L 280 Henrik Kofoed, GM 280 Klaus Antrecht, GGM 280 Daniel Mueller, GM 285 Yury Polovinkin, L 286 Ralf-Udo Lemke, GGM 288 Andy Denison, GM 288 Jose Maria Pujadas, GGM 290 Lutz Steinemann, M 292 Dirk Sundermann, GGM 296

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race win of the week. Nossiter took third.

Again sailed in near perfect conditions, but with a limited time window to get in the two final races on Friday, it needed to go smoothly with the fleets away without recalls. And smoothly it went with each fleet of 124 boats getting away first time. For the second day running, the sub-tropical conditions were a delight with 8-12 knots of breeze

abated slightly for the next race with Krutskikh building an even bigger lead, to take his fifth win in a row, from Christen and Michel Audoin.

In contrast, Blue fleet had two different race winners and many place

changes. Felipe Silva punched out of the start in the first race to lead at the top and was never headed to take the race win from Maier and McKenzie. Maier went one better in Race 5, though he had to pass Bas de Waal to take his second

107 GBR 1 108 FRA 23 109 SWE 91 110 NED 88 111 CZE 8 112 SWE 2 113 GER 226 114 GBR 77 115 GBR 78 116 FIN 227 117 GBR 51 118 SUI 63 119 SUI 96 120 GER 175 121 AUT 73 122 AUS 68 123 FRA 44 124 HUN 51 125 AUS 6 126 NED 11 127 DEN 201 128 NED 73 129 SUI 593 130 RSA 600 131 NED 82 132 NED 71 133 NED 1009 134 NED 4 135 SWE 28 136 DEN 224 137 GER 122 138 ESP 99 139 GER 43 140 HUN 2 141 GER 84 142 FIN 145 143 NOR 13 144 SUI 51 145 NED 50 146 ESP 260 147 GER 178 148 CZE 222 149 RSA 2 150 GER 180 151 SUI 57 152 FRA 63 153 GER 710

154 NOR 11 155 NOR 55 156 DEN 195 157 FRA 60 158 GER 479 159 GER 998 160 NED 931 161 CZE 211 162 ARG 1 163 SWE 721 164 GBR 34 165 NED 10 166 SUI 27 167 GER 202 168 GER 767 169 GER 62 170 SUI 13 171 GER 818 172 GER 272 173 GER 169 174 GER 200 175 RUS 18 176 SUI 80 177 BRA 103 178 GBR 40 179 NZL 64 180 GBR 631 181 DEN 18 182 BAH 1 183 SWE 20 184 RUS 212 185 USA 23 186 DEN 77 187 ESP 35 188 GBR 745 189 GER 256 190 FRA 30 191 GBR 42 192 GER 912 193 GER 71 194 DEN 211 195 GER 155 196 NED 13 197 DEN 205 198 POL 127 199 GER 505 200 SUI 65

20

Sander Kooij, GM 298 Daniel Chédeville, L 298 Pär Friberg, GGM 299 Chiel Barends, GGM 300 Jiri Outrata, L 305 Svante Collvin, GM 308 Uwe Fernholz, GM 309 Stewart Mitchell, GM 312 Robert Temple, GM 313 Ronnie Roos, M 320 David Kitchen, GGM 333 Thomas Gautschi, GM 333 Oliver Wirz, M 334 Michael Möckel, GGM 338 Markus Schneeberger, GM 339 Jay Harrison, GGM 339 Chr. Deseilligny, GGM 341 Istvan Rutai, GM 346 Bob Buchanan, L 348 Henk De Jager, L 348 Ole Krongaard, GM 353 Maxim Berrens, M 356 Hans Fatzer, L 356 Arend Van Wamelen, GM 357 Roel Lubberts, GM 359 Nico Van Wirdum, GGM 360 Pieter Risseeuw, GM 363 Ruurd Baerends, GGM 367 Lasse Wastesson, GGM 367 Henrik Thomsen, GGM 368 Holger Krasmann, GM 373 Gerardo Seeliger, L 374 Ingo Spory, GM 374 Peter Sipos, GGM 378 M Huellenkremer, GGM 378 Mathias Tallberg, GM 386 Reidar Fosse, GM 390 Ueli Appenzeller, GGM 393 Jan Zetzema, GGM 399 Victor Serrano, GM 400 Norbert Winkler, GGM 401 Petr Vinkl, GM 401 Alan Serritslev, L 402 Detlef Hillers, GM 404 Rudolf Baumann, GGM 413 Alain Renoux, GM 413 Walter Kuhlmann, GM 418

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Arne Refshauge, GM 419 Arild Heldal, GM 419 Peter Nielsen, GGM 419 Jean F. Cutugno, GGM 422 Gerd-Uwe Hillers, GM 425 Guido Halterbeck, GM 427 Hessel Hoekstra, GGM 427 Martin Kalos, GM 434 Ricardo R Anderrson, GGM 435 Mikael Brandt, L 436 Peter Blick, GGM 438 Nanne Boot, GGM 438 Dominik Haitz, GM 438 Rolf Elsaessser, GGM 449 Andreas Demond, GM 453 Uwe Barthel, GGM 454 Peter Kilchenmann, GGM 458 Ross Vickers, M 465 Steffen Weiss, GM 465 Lutz Gunder, GM 469 Ulrich Dahlhoff Dr, GM 478 Evgeny Dzhura, M 478 Attila Szabo, M 480 Luis Mosquera, M 481 Russell New, M 483 Maurice Duncan, L 492 Richard Hart, Sl 493 Richard Berg-Larsen, GGM 495 Pierric Bourbin, GGM 495 Gosta Eriksson, GGM 498 Lanfranco Cirillo, GGM 501 James Hunter, GGM 501 Flemming B. Jensen, L 514 Pedro Jimenez-Meifren, Sl 515 John Colegrave, GGM 516 Peter L-Langmaack, GGM 522 Pollet Yannick, GGM 522 Richard Phillips, GGM 527 Alexander Jena, M 527 Bernd Blaß, GM 529 Einar Olsen, GGM 531 Edwin Gast, GGM 533 Harold Lensing, GGM 536 Mogens Petersson, L 541 Jan Kominek, GGM 543 Dirk-Udo Eisser, GM 544 Thomas Bangerter, GGM 551

In the Yellow fleet Silva again rounded first from Maier and McKenzie, and extended for his second win of the week from Maier and Hay. In the final race, Hay led at the top mark for the first time this week from and maintained that to the finish to win from Axel Schroeder and Christian Gunni Pedersen.

In the Blue fleet Krutskikh rounded from Taras Havrysh and Nossiter. Nothing much changed until the finish, though Krutskikh extended for a large win to take 201 SWE 21 202 SUI 54 203 SWE 734 204 FRA 748 205 GER 502 206 NOR 5 207 NED 9 208 AUS 245 209 GER 876 210 NED 877 211 RSA 592 212 SUI 4 213 POL 3 214 USA 155 215 DEN 825 216 GER 89 217 FRA 40 218 GBR 74 219 NOR 555 220 SWE 111 221 BRA 44 222 AUT 330 223 SUI 36 224 DEN 19 225 SWE 4 226 NED 150 227 USA 32 228 GER 836 229 GER 5 230 NOR 3 231 FRA 800 232 SUI 3 233 ISL 2 234 GER 322 235 NED 93 236 GER 26 237 USA 13 238 GER 245 239 FRA 311 240 NOR 2 241 ESP 318 241 GER 168 241 GER 471 241 GER 800 241 NED 848 241 SWE 35

Mats R Karlsson, GGM 556 Marcin Gregorowicz, M 558 Peter Bernstein, L 565 Jean-Claude Lidon, GGM 565 Hartwig Steege, GGM 568 Frank M Ormstad, GM 571 Jobs Isselmann, L 574 Kerry Spencer, GGM 575 Wolfgang Genesius, GM 577 Lardie Remerie, GGM 586 Leon Ferreira, GGM 591 Jiri Huracek, GGM 593 Jan Okulicz-Kozaryn, L 599 Hans Claesson, L 606 Tom Vestergaard, GGM 608 Günter Kellermann, L 614 Joseph Rochet, GGM 617 Lawrence Crispin, GM 632 Stein Atle Haugerud, GM 632 Torsten Jarnstam, L 634 Fabiano Vivacqua Jr, GM 638 Tina Sperl, Ldy 639 Jens Moecke, GM 644 Frank H Rasmussen, GGM 649 Jan-Erik Florén, L 650 Hans Klaassen, GGM 654 Charles Heimler, GGM 654 Romeo Goetz, GGM 654 Herbert Straub, GM 658 Ola M Johannessen, Sl 670 Yves Zoccola, L 672 Carlo Lazzari, GM 700 Rúnar Steinsen, L 700 Wilfried Jodorf, GM 713 Gelmus Peeters, L 717 Willi Meister, Sl 717 Kay Statz, GGM 727 Hermann Grube, GM 727 Yann Gonzalez, GM 728 Harald Vange, L 733 Rafael Albaladejo, GGM 746 Jack Larsen, L 746 Harald Wozniewski, GGM 746 Gerd Lauszus, GM 746 Pax Van De Griend, L 746 Christer Jakobsson, GGM 746

PRIZEWINNERS

Super Legends: Richard Hart GBR, Pedro Jimenez-Meifren ESP, Ola M Johannessen NOR

Legends: Henry Sprague USA, Magnus Olin SWE, Yury Polovinkin RUS

Grand Grand Masters: Thomas Schmid GER, John Greenwood GBR, Michael Staal DEN

Grand Masters: Michael Maier CZE, Laurent Hay FRA, Paul McKenzie AUS

Masters: Vladimir Krutskikh RUS (missing), Anthony Nossiter AUS, Christoph Christen SUI

Lady: Tina Sperl AUT

Others – Crutch (11th): Taras Havrysh, UKR • Nations Cup: 1. France, 2. Sweden, 3. Denmark • Sailing Club Trophy: 1. WSV Het Witte Huis (The Netherlands), 2. Kongelig Dansk Yachtclub (Royal Danish Yacht Club), 3. SRR Rochelaises • Art of Racing Prize (first Danish sailor): Otto Strandvig

the title with a race to spare. He also led the final race all the way to win from Peter Overup and David Terol.

Krutskikh made it a clean sweep by winning the remaining race to claim his third Finn World Masters title. His final score of seven wins from seven races is remarkable given the calibre of the fleet and the challenging conditions.

While numbers were down on the previous year, 248 Finns is still a huge fleet of boats and sailors to manage, and the Royal Danish Yacht Club did an amazing job to keep everyone fed, watered and looked after on the water.

It is never an easy task to organise such a huge event, but the huge amount of volunteers and club members have made everyone feel welcome.

Krutskikh explained his victory, “The regatta was very beautiful for me because I had a local coach from Denmark, Christian Rasmussen, who helped me a lot because every day he told me about the forecast, the current, about changes in the wind, so that was very good for me, because he knew some tricks with the wind and clouds.”

Though the Masters age category title was dominated by Krutskikh there was a close battle between Christen and Nossiter for second. Nossiter, at his first Masters was so enthusiastic with

the organisation and the racing that he bought a boat during the week so he could reignite his Finn career and train for next year. He wants to see all his friends from his Olympic years back in the class, sailing the Masters.

Maier took the Grand Masters Trophy, passing the early leader, Hay. The 1988 Finn Gold Cup winner, Thomas Schmid was dominant in the very competitive Grand Grand Masters to finish in eighth overall, 14 places ahead of runner up John Greenwood, a double World Masters champion.

Henry Sprague continues to defy his age by not only winning his third Legend's Trophy, for sailors over 70 years old, but to do so while beating hundreds of sailors 20 to 30 years younger than him to finish 17th overall. Former double Legend champion Richard Hart, took

the win in the Super Legends, for sailors over 80 years old, finishing in 180th place overall. There were four Super Legends taking part this week.

All Legends and Super Legends are suitably honoured each year, a remarkable group of sailors who confront the challenge of old age with the unique challenge of the Finn.

The championship ended with a great prizegiving and free bar and as the event ended, so did the nice weather, with the traditional Danish weather returning to assist those late in packing up their boats.

In 2020, Finn Masters from around the world are invited to gather in Port Zélande, in The Netherlands, for the 50th Anniversary Finn World Masters, which is already promising to be the biggest Finn event on the planet…ever...probably.

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AUSTRALIA David Bull writes: A big season of Finn sailing is about commence in Australia.

The Brisbane fleet now has 18 boats on the register with the latest additions to the fleet being Jason Passey, Dave Turton, Curtis Skinner and Sean O’Kane. Club racing at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron will be very competitive and having our own starts and located on the Northern course with windward leewards will be fantastic.

Club sailing in the other States will commence in the next couple of weeks and from all reports there is renewed enthusiasm for a bumper Finn summer of sailing. Unlike some countries, club sailing each weekend is extremely popular in Australia and together with the various regattas around the country there is always plenty of Finn sailing.

The Finn regattas started with the Queensland State Championships held at RQYS over 13-14 July in beautiful sunny winter conditions. Winds were in the range of 8-15 knots with four races on Saturday and three on Sunday.

Early starts were the order of the day to get the best of the wind then followed by a very social lunch, which drifted into the late afternoon. Water temps of 22° and air temps the same were not bad for the middle of winter.

John Condie, aka Bloke, from Sydney described the conditions as “awesome mate” and vowed to return again next year. I think many of the other interstate Finn sailors will do the same.

We had 20 entries with visitors from all around the country and a couple of overseas visitors. Boats from the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth fleets together with a good contingent of local Brisbane boats were joined by

Rockal Evans from Bermuda and James Dagge from Hong Kong.

The results were close and at the end of seven races Rockal won the Queensland State Championships with James Dagge winning silver and young Marcus Whitley from Sydney, the Bronze.

1 BER 9 2 HKG 8 3 AUS 33 4 AUS 10 5 AUS 75 6 AUS 270 7 AUS 282 8 AUS 295 9 AUS 302 10 AUS 77

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12 17 24 25 26 28 33 53 56 59

The Australian fleet continues to grow with over 70 boats. Importantly, we have 60 plus financial members, most of whom sail regularly each weekend. Who said the Finn was not popular?

Our big international event for the season is of course the Finn Gold Cup, which will be held at the Royal Brighton Yacht, Melbourne from 13-21 December 2019. The NOR has been published and all relevant information can be found on the dedicated website.

There will be a series of warm up regattas prior to the FGC, being Go for Gold and the Victorian State Championships (George Mac Regatta) Our major Australian regatta is the RONSTAN 2020 International Finn Australian Championships, which will be

Finn Sailing from Around the World 22

Rockal Evans James Dagge Marcus Whitley John Condie Phil Chadwick James Chilman John Warlow Brendon Green Peter Wallace Mick Patrick

held at Adelaide Sailing Club, South Australia from 5-10 January 2020. We expect a fleet of around 40 boats so should be some excellent sailing.

The Finn regatta programme will commence with Sail Sandy at Sandringham Yacht Club in Melbourne over the weekend 12-13 October.

This is followed by: NSW Finn State Championships, Cronulla SC, Sydney 2-3 Nov; Sail Brisbane, Royal Queensland YS, Nov; Lipton Cup, Royal YC of Victoria, Melbourne 16-17 Nov; Classic Regatta, Cairn Curran, Victoria 23-24 Nov; Go for Gold, Black Rock YC, Melbourne 30 Nov - Dec; Victorian Finn States, Royal Brighton YC 7-8 Dec; Sail Sydney, Woollarha SC, Sydney 12-15 Dec; Finn Gold Cup, Royal Brighton YC 13-21 Dec; RONSTAN 2020 International Finn Australian Championships, Adelaide SC 5-10 Jan 2020; Sail Melbourne, Royal Brighton YC 17-21 Jan 2020 Details of all these regattas and lots of other Finn information can be found on the International Finn Association of Australia website www.finnclass.com.au.

We look forward to welcoming all the Finn overseas visitors to Australia and extend an invitation to join us in any of the regattas around the country.

We will do our best to find you a boat if you don’t have one, just bring your sail.

We will also endeavour to assist with accommodation.

CANADA

DENmARK

CORK Olympic Classes Regatta August 16-20, Kingston Kyle Martin put together a clean sweep of eight first places from eight races to claim the 2019 CORK regatta.

1 CAN 2 2 CAN 15 3 USA 1000 4 USA 99 5 USA 69 6 BRA 44 7 USA 3

Kyle Martin Quinton Gallon Stephen Smeulders Stephen Fuccillo Charles Heimler Fabiano Vivacqua Jr Will Libcke

8 18 20 35 40 41 47

Richard Berg-Larsen writes: The Danish 2019 Finn Summer saw the biggest ever Nationals, and two weeks later the largest DK Finn Regatta ever, the Masters with 250 plus boats.

This gave us an opportunity to get a lot of press cover, and several former Finn sailors came back, and many new joined our select club. The most successful club getting new dinghies has been Veddelev just north of Roskilde, going from zero to 17 Finns in two years, and three more underway, hopefully before Christmas. Veddelev is a small marina, normally not used to dinghies, but two local sailors have done

a great job getting this organised, even buying extra boats, and using them as loaners until resold.

All in all a fantastic summer for the Danish Finn Class and we will now do our utmost to keep the momentum running for as long as possible.

Danish Championship May 31-June 2 • Skovshoved 1 GER 193 Thomas Schmid 12 2 NED 841 Hein Van Egmond 22 3 SUI 5 Christoph Christen 24 4 NED 29 Bas De Waal 28 5 FIN 234 Ville Aalto-Setälä 43 6 FRA 99 Marc Allain Des Beauvais 64 7 DEN 262 Bo Teglers 67 8 GBR 2 Allen Burrell 71 9 FIN 201 Kristian Sjöberg 74 10 GER 17 Kai Schrader 76

GERMANY Andreas Bollongino writes: It’s hard to believe that the first half of the season is already over. We had a long-lasting Winter with snow and storms at the April regattas in Southern Germany followed by a very hot weather period in May and June all over Germany.

Finn sailing on a club level in Germany becomes more popular every year. If you travel to German regattas it is always nice to meet the ‘Old Fellows’ but it is even nicer to see a lot of new sailors at every event. The German association already grew by around 20 members this year. Mostly masters of course but also a couple of youngsters did join our great community.

This all even though we have a very tough competition between the classes for younger sailors. Especially the J70 Class is pushed by the German Sailing Association and the Sailing Clubs offering money, comfort and ‘careless battling’ at the cost of the ‘self-supported’ dinghy classes.

But this doesn’t matter for the Finns, there are only a few regattas in Germany with less than 20 competitors on the list of the 44 regattas counting

towards the German ranking.

One of the biggest obviously is the ‘Nesselblatt’ Steinhude in early May - 55 Finn sailors competed in perfect conditions on the lake in Lower Saxony between Hannover and Osnabrück. The race was effortlessly won by Uli Breuer collecting only 6 points in 5 Races before the Dutch Bas de Vaal (already 20 Points on his account) – again a great Regatta with a long tradition (the longest in Germany).

Also, the Baltic Weeks: Kiel, Warnemünde and Travemünde Woche in far north were very popular this year. With a lot of sunshine and wind (Warnemünde was an exception regarding the wind here) the sailors enjoyed perfect conditions on and off the water.

The Kiel week as a World Sailing

Ranking event is always visited by the more serious sailors was won by the German young-star Phillip Kasueske from the Czech, Ondrej Teply.

Warnemünder Week was won by Fabian Lemmel, and the Travemünde Week, with a record-breaking 38 entries was also effortlessly won by Phillip from Uli Breuer.

So far the top ten in the German Ranking are: 1 Phillip Kasüske 2 Max Kohlhoff 3 Simon Gorgels 4 Uli Breuer 5 Fabian Lemmel 6 Dirk Meid 7 Michael Klügel 8 Jürgen Eiermann 9 Sebastian Kaule 10 Lars Haverland

225,93 211,36 145,64 132,98 127,42 121,15 118,03 117,22 114,15 112,39

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GREAT BRITAIN GAC Pindar UK Finn National Championships 2019 5-7 July, Brixham Yacht Club.

46 Finns travelled to Brixham, on the southern shores of Torbay, from as far afield as Japan, Abu Dhabi and Sweden. Sailing on the waters of the 1948 Olympic regatta, Torbay proved an ideal location for the Championship, providing racing on every day of the regatta despite a very light and variable wind forecast for the whole weekend.

James Skulczuk of the GAC Pindar U23 squad won his first Finn Nationals title. James, a product of the successful BFA initiative to develop a pathway for sailors over 85 kg who had outgrown youth classes, overcame a talented

fleet. Runner up was another rising U23 Squad talent, Callum Dixon who together with Skulczuk has been training and competing on the European circuit all year, building impressive fitness and a winning mentality.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

GBR 81 James Skulczuk, U23 13 GBR 38 Callum Dixon, U23 20 GBR 96 Hector Simpson 30 GBR 5 John Greenwood, GGM 38 GBR 29 Pete McCoy 46 GBR 635 Simon Percival, M 49 GBR 74 Lawrence Crispin, GM 52 GBR 2 Allen Burrell, GM 57 GBR 28 Jack Arnell, U23 63 JPN 6 Hajime Kokumai 70

ITALY

Photos: Fabio Cotroneo, Ernst Bruns

Coppa Italia 2019 Coppa Italia Finn is currently at mid stage with three events completed.

After Anzio in March, at the end of April, 57 Finns gathered in Caldaro for the classic Dr. Schaer Trophy.

On the first day the weather was nice and warm but the thermal breeze was never strong enough to allow racing. During the night a cold front arrived bringing snow on the mountains and a good northerly, which allowed three nice races, albeit with a very variable wind. Roberto Strappati was

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consistent in the difficult conditions and with a 4-3-2 was the well deserved winner.

Second was Tommaso Ronconi, winner of the second race, and third the local Peter Stuffer. Matteo Iovenitti won the first race and claimed the fourth overall place, while Harald Stuffer had line honours in the last race. As usual in Caldaro hospitality was awesome, with a wonderful buffet before races and a gourmet dinner on Saturday evening.

At the end of June the third event took place in Capodimonte on Bolsena lake, with 43 Finns participating.

On Saturday three beautiful races were sailed in a good northerly which

slowly increased from 10 to 15 knots.

The next day the wind was very light and both races were sailed in 4-5 knots with courses shortened at the end of the first downwind. Giacomo Giovanelli didn’t win races but was consistent enough to win overall, preceding young Matteo Iovenitti who is rapidly improving. Third was Enrico Passoni, winner of the first two races, fourth Roberto Strappati and fifth Marco Buglielli.

Roberto Strappati is leading the provisional Coppa Italia results with four point on Giacomo Giovanelli and 5 on Matteo Iovenitti.

Coppa Italia is supported by a pool of

NETHERLANDS

sPAIN

Open Dutch Masters Championships July 5-7 • Port Zélande

Mediterranean Finn Cup 17- 19 May 2019

Almost 60 talented Finn sailors took the chance to test the water, facilities and the surroundings of Port Zélande, the venue of the 2020 World Masters.

Driving to Port Zélande is a road trip itself: you will encounter the beauty of the south-west of the Netherlands.

During the thre days of racing we had wind NW 9-12 kn, often really shifty and difficult to read. There were 57 Finns from GER, BEL, SWE, POR and even CZE. Ages from youngsters to legends. As training for 2020 a couple of former Finn sailers re-entered the our class.

The races were very good: we had the best (no kidding) race committee in years, the water was warm, the waves were great and the wind was challenging. The best sailor won: Roy Heiner: as re-starter in the Finn he sailed a perfect series.

Organised by the Club Vela Calella and Club Nautic Llafranc and sponsored by Catalana Occident, the Mediterranean Finn Cup brought together 24 Finns.

On Saturday, it was only possible for one race, with difficult conditions of a north-east wind and rain. On Sunday, two more races were run with a wind of 3 bft from the south-east. During the regatta dinner there was a raffle for gear from the Helly Hansen. It is worth mentioning the great ambience that endured for the entire championship.

The harbour is close to the race area, there is enough space on the ground to prepare for the races, there is fresh water to rinse the boats, the organization is experienced and the beer was cold and tasty. There is more than enough accommodation to rent within walking distance of the boats and our spouse will definitely be entertained more than they can handle.

1 NED 93 Roy Heiner, GM 2 NED 94 Tijmen van Rootselaar, S 3 NED 64 Wietze Zetzema, S 4 NED 972 Tobias Kirschbaum, S 5 POR 51 Filipe Silva, GM 6 NED 98 Nanno Schuttrups, S 7 GER 707 Uli Breuer, GM 8 NED 81 Gerko Visser, GM 9 NED 27 Paul Kamphorst, GM 10 NED 29 Bas de Waal, GM

19 22 60 67 68 69 78 78 83 92

M: POR 51, Filipe Silva, 68 pnt; GM: NED 93,Roy Heiner, 19; GGM: NED 939, Peter Vollebregt, 107; L: NED 8, Rodrick Casander, 271

sponsors: Quantum Sail Design Group, 3FL Saildesign, WB-Sails, HitechSailing. com, Bertacca Sail Equipment, Residence Ca’ del Lago, Garnell, Behind the Cloud, Demetz Bolzano and Negrinautica.

Provisional ranking 1 ITA 115 Roberto Strappati 2 ITA 202 Giacomo Giovanelli 3 ITA 1071 Matteo Iovenitti 4 ITA 2 Marco Buglielli 5 ITA 89 Paolo Freddi 6 ITA 234 Tommaso Ronconi 7 ITA 191 Alessandro Cattaneo 8 ITA 33 Bastiaan Brouwer 9 ITA 77 Alberto Bellelli 10 ITA 6 Enrico Passoni

122 118 117 106 106 105 100 80 76 74

Italian Masters Championship The Italian Master Championship took place in Forio on beautiful Ischia island, in the gulf of Naples, from May 24 to 26.

All the seven scheduled races were completed in a range of conditions, with sun and light wind in the first two days and with a cold strong wind with rain on Sunday, in conditions unusual for the place and time of the year. Anyway everybody was happy with the venue and the organization and the fight for the championship was very tight, with the top three ending in just two points.

Enrico Passoni showed his pace, experience and tactical excellence winning with a string of top results (3-

1 FRA 49 Dorian Gachon, S 6 2 ESP 161 Miguel Fernández, S 8 3 ESP 77 Xavier Penas, GM 12 4 FRA 28 Sebastien Grall, GM 13 5 ESP 430 Jesús Pintos, GM 16 6 ESP 39 Josep M. Pujadas, GGM 21 7 ESP 86 Paco Castañer, GGM 23 8 FRA 96 Florian Faucheux, M 26 9 ESP 555 Joan Grau, GGM 27 10 FRA 27 Pierre Lallemand, M 30

3-4-1-3-1-4). Second was Giacomo Giovanelli who won three races and third Tommaso Ronconi, who became Master this year.

The Master meeting voted for the 2020 Italian Masters to be held in Talamone, Tuscany.

1 ITA 6 2 ITA 202 3 ITA 234 4 ITA 2 5 ITA 5 6 ITA 67 7 ITA 60 8 ITA 960 9 ITA 33 10 ITA 3

Enrico Passoni Giacomo Giovanelli Tommaso Ronconi Marco Buglielli Francesco Cinque Gino Bucciarelli Riccardo de Sangro Giorgio Ricci Bastiaan Brouwer Massimo Paccosi

FINNFARE SEPTEMBER 2019

15 16 17 26 30 33 35 40 55 74

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POLAND Polish-German Finn Masters Nationals Szczecin 1-4.08.19 Bob Nowakowski writes: The idea of organising the Polish Finn Masters together with Germans was suggested by the Finn sailor from Poznan, Marek Jarocki, a year ago at the Finn World Masters in Spain. Until now, Germans did not organize regattas exclusively for the Masters, so it seemed that this could work. Polish Finn Association, as the initiator, organised the first event in Poland in Szczecin, hoping the next year’s regatta will be held in Germany.

In 2015, at the Finn Masters Championship Friedrich Mueller, from Germany, took part. After the regatta, in his verbal and later written acknowledgment he said that “he came to the Szczecin regatta to meet Polish sailors and left with Polish friends”. We were very proud of his words. Then he became the ambassador of Polish sailing in all the regattas in he participated.

23 sailors took part in the regatta, including six from Germany and one from Slovakia. We think that after this year’s first experiences, next year’s regatta will be much more numerous.

On the first day, because of the wind silence, no race could be performed.

On the second day there were 3 races in very variable wind conditions. On this day, the German Fabian Lemmel from Berlin proved to be the best, but the fight for next places was very fierce. On the second day, Andrzej Romanowski won all races and he also became the winner of the regatta. Slovak Petr

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SWEDEN

Mosny came third in the international open classification. The setting was impressive. Both evenings were conducive to pleasant conversations and social gatherings. At the end of the regatta, everyone received commemorative diplomas, and the top six also gifts. In many open, national and age classifications, the winners received the medals made of crystal.

1 POL 73 2 GER 501 3 SVK 1 4 POL 100 5 POL 26 6 POL 38 7 GER 30 8 GER 175 9 GER 972 10 POL 23

Andrzej Romanowski Fabian Lemmel Peter Mosny Marek Jarocki Boguslaw Nowakowski Juliusz Reichelt Ralf Heim Michael Mockel Dirk Zilius Piotr Pajor

10 10 19 21 23 29 33 36 39 43

Polish Cup Andrzej Romanowski writes: Like previous years the Polish Cup consisted of 8 regattas. We started this battle in Wolsztyn in May with Season Opening Regatta where Bartosz Ptak (POL18) won from Andrzej Romanowski (POL73) and Oskar Adamiak (POL12).

Then we came to Krynica Morska where top 3 were: Łukasz Lesiński (POL8), Sebastian Kalafarski (POL116) and Piotr Mazur (POL14).

The next 2 events were on the sea.

The NORDCUP regatta in Gdańsk won Krzysztof Stromski (POL52) from Andrzej Romanowski (POL73) and Piotr Mazur (POL14). Three weeks after we met in Gdynia. The order was: Łukasz Lesiński, Andrzej Romanowski and Krzysztof Stromski. Next event was at Kiekrz Lake near Poznan where first was Oskar Adamiak, second Bogusław Nowakowski (POL26) and third Andrzej Romanowski. The last 3 events of the Polish Cup competition will be: Yacht Club Rewa Cup in Rewa, Polish National Championship in Gdańsk and Warsaw Championship in Zegrze near Warsaw.

Trying to find a way to make our regatta more attractive we decided to test sprint races lasting 5 minutes during the Yacht Club Rewa Cup with quarter finals, semi finals and finally races for place 16-13, 12-9, 8-5 for the best four.

Torsten Jarnstam writes: The Spring regatta was sailed in Träslövsläge from May 18-19, and attracted 19 Finns (Sweden Cup no. 1). On Saturday three races were sailed in light winds. Sunday started poor and the sailors had to wait but later two more races were sailed.

At the end of the last cross, the fog rolled over the race area, which made it difficult to find the top mark. But we finally managed to find it and were able to round down to the finish.

At the Masters in Denmark Sweden participated with 22 sailors. Of particular note, second Legend was Magnus Olin, a fantastic result after about 40 years absence from the Finn. Best Swedish was Peter Overup who in 15th.

The Swedish Championship (Sweden Cup no. 2) in Marstrand, on August 2-4, was sailed as usual with the OK Dinghy. The sailing was held in fantastic summer weather on the Marstrandsfjord. Swedish Champion 2019 was Fredrik Tegnhed (below), from Peter Overup and Johan Wijk. 29 Finns started.

The classic Ekoln regatta (Sweden Cup no. 3) in Uppsala was sailed August 17-18. “Where it all began.”

Very nice and warm conditions on both days. Saturday initially offered light southerly wind but it increased during the day. Day 2 offered lighter wind and somewhat clearer conditions. Fredrik Tegnhed mastered these conditions to perfection and nailed all races.

There was more struggle between the other sailors: Mikael Nilsson ended up second, with David Berg third closely followed by Daniel Miles. Mikael Brandt finished fifth (see pic above).

RUSSIA

the level of many athletes, both young and old.

SWITZERLAND

Open Russian Vasiliy Kravchenko writes: The 11th traditional international regatta Open Russian took place in Moscow from August 27 to September 1, with 41 athletes aged from 14 to 70 years from nine regions of Russia taking part.

It was nice to see that 17 juniors joined the competition. Young blood continues to enter the class. At the same time 22 Masters were competing for Russian Finn Masters.

Nature gave the participants and organisers some nice warm and sunny weather and a moderate wind with a complex picture of the gusts and shifts, which made the game very interesting.

The Race Committee was very fast and well organised as they managed to carry

1 Arkadiy Kistanov 2 Yuri Bozhedomov (M) 3 Deev Eugene (J) 4 Dmitry Petrov (M) 5 Alexander Laukhtin (M) 6 Alexander Kravchenko (M) 7 Ivan Gureev (J) 8 Alexander Kasatov (GM) 9 Felix Denikaev (GM) 10 Kyrill Kolyachenko (J)

Dominik Haitz writes: At the end of April we had 19 boats on the starting line at Mammern, Lake Constance.

It was still pretty cold and windy, with gusts up to 20 knots. Oliver Wirz won all five races, Thomas Bangerter was second and Andreas Bollongino, from Germany, third.

As usual, the Swiss representation at the World Masters Championship was quite huge, 16 boats made their way to Copenhagen. Christoph Christen had a great series and finished fifth overall and third in the Masters category. A super and welldeserved result.

out seven nice long races during first two days of the regatta. The next days did not allow any starts unfortunately due to an anticyclone which came to Moscow.

From the very beginning, the leader of the Russian national Finn team, Arkadiy Kistanov (Moscow), took the lead from the winner of 2018 Open Russian, Yury Bozhedomov (Sevastopol).

Both athletes showed very good technique, tactics and until the end of the regatta left no chance for other opponents to get close.

A struggle for the third place took place between Eugene Deev (Sevastopol) and Dmitry Petrov (Togliatti). The athletes ended equal on points after seven races, and the only the number of best results in races helped Deev to take third. In general, the racing took place with great competition, significantly tightened by

11 15 23 23 44 54 55 60 66 66

In the standings by age categories, the winners were as follows: Juniors: 1 Eugene Deev; 2 Ivan Gureev; 3 Kyrill Kolyachenko. Masters: 1 Yuri Bozhedomov; 2 Dmitry Petrov; 3 Alexander Laukhtin. Grand-Masters:1 Alexander Kasatov; 2 Felix Denikaev; 3 Anatoly Voschennikov. Grand-Grand-Masters: 1 Michael Petriga; 2 Sergey Bolotin; 3 Alexey Borovyak. Legends: 1 Yury Polovinkin

The open Russian regatta was also the final of the Andrei Balashov Cup. According to the results of 102 entries over 18 regattas held in Russia, the results were added up for the Andrey Balashov Cup for 2019 was Kirill Kolyachenko.

Second place was taken by Felix Denikaev, and third was Alexander Kravchenko.

At the end of the regatta a race dedicated to the memory of outstanding yachtsmen Viktor Potapov, Andrei Balashov, Valentin Danilov and Alexander Chumakov was held separately. The winner of the race was Kirill Kolyachenko.

The most important race in Switzerland, besides the Swiss Championship is the Niederhornkanne in Thun. The Lake of Thun is situated in front of the famous mountains Eiger, Moench and Jungfrau and has a nice thermical wind, if the weather is nice.

At the end of June, we had a very hot weekend. Finally, we were able to sail six races in three days, with Christoph Christen first (17 points), 2. Peter Ganzert (GER, 20) and 3. Franz BĂźrgi (23).

Besides the many local races on different lakes, we had the race in Siskon at the lake of Lucerne, in a remote arm. People may know it from travelling to the Gotthard on the way to the south. This is also a lake that has perfect thermical wind, if the weather is nice. We had six races in a steady breeze and a very tight race. The two Christophs, Burger and Christen, had both 3x1st, 2x2nd and 1x3rd. Christoph Burger won the series, as he finished the last race first. Third was the Spanish, David Terol.

Valery Isaenko

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The Winner’s Choice

AGM AND ACCOUNTS INTERNATIONAL FINN ASSOCIATION 2019 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Athens, Greece MINUTES 12th of May 2019 • 9.30 am Athens International Sailing Centre. Agenda and all reports can be found on finnclass.org 1. National Class Associations 15 country secretaries are present to reach the quorum and validate the votes.

It is noted that the Greek Finn class position on its secretary is not clear. IFA asks the Greek Finn Association to clarify the secretary situation and election process.

2. Minutes from the last meeting The minutes from the 2018 IFA AGM are approved.

3. Accounts The 2018 accounts are approved The 2019 / 2020 budget is approved 4. Executive Committee Reports a) the President b) the Vice-President Sailing c) the Vice-President Development d) the Vice-President Masters e) the Treasurer f) the Chairman of the Technical Committee g) the Chairman of the Media and Marketing Committee 5. Elections of Members to IFA Committees The following members of the Executive Committee are re-elected. i) The President ii) The VP Sailing iii) The VP Development iv) The Treasurer The members of the Technical Committee are re-elected. Dan Slater is added to the Technical Committee. The members of the Marketing Committee are re-elected.

6. Events a) Finn Major Events update: the dates are confirmed for the 2019 and 2020 major events It is proposed that the Masters fleet be invited to

Palma and race at the same time as the FGC. The VP Masters will propose the idea to the Finn Masters committee. The VP Sailing indicates that the organisers in El Arenal have already considered this option and are favourable. b) The Executive Director gives an update on the SLL rankings and partnership through their special events. She asks the secretaries to communicate all their events results in order to integrate them in the SSL rankings c) 2024 Olympic Games update An update is given on the diverse initiatives led by the class and other parties to reinstate the Finn Olympic status. The IFA Executive underlines that the sailors must play a greater role as they are the stakeholders and have a direct link to their federation and NOC. The sailors ask for more regular feedback on the evolving situation and some guidance from IFA with a standard letter to send to their respective MNA and NOC. It is also requested that different ways of communication are used in order to reach the younger sailors which communicate more naturally through social media. An # should be created to liaise and push the initiatives.

The Hon. Treasurer thanked the HSF on behalf of the IFA for all their hard work and support; both in organising such an accomplished 2019 Finn European Championship at short notice and in actively supporting our lobbying with WS and the IOC. 7. Technical Committee a. Technical matters arising from the TC Chairman report.

8. Development: plan for 2019 -2020 This has been discussed during the VP development report. Focus will be given to Continental qualifiers.

9 Any other business Andy Denison reports some written comments from the BFA, which have been addressed earlier in the meeting, one of them being to consider having the AGM during the Masters worlds from time to time, in order to allow NFA secretaries to attend more easily

President’s Report – Balazs Hajdu On the occasion of the 2019 IFA AGM let me reflect on some of the Finn Class related developments in 2018 and forthcoming challenges in 2019.

Olympic future beyond Tokyo 2020 Since our last year’s AGM there have been many changes in the world of sailing. World Sailing set up a procedure the review the 2020 Olympic events and equipment for the Games in 2024. In the framework of this process in February 2018 the men’s singlehanded dinghy – heavyweight event (which is currently filled by the Finn as equipment) was, with four other events, selected for review in May 2018 by the WS Council. In May 2018 a controversial decision was made by World Sailing by creating a list of new mixed Olympic sailing events, including a one-person mixed event where (according to the submitter) the Finn as equipment was proposed to be the male equipment. In November 2018 to the surprise of the sailing world the WS Board came forward with a late submission (at the beginning of the 2018 WS Conference) which proposed the replacement of the oneperson mixed event with a new mixed-gender two-person offshore keelboat event. The WS Council vote involved a voting scandal never seen at WS before and many remain concerned about the mixed two-person offshore keelboat for high costs, rich country participation, lack of universality, actual media appeal if winds light, timing, training, selection of equipment, serious allegations of a financial nature, as well as whether actually the event would be truly offshore, as well as a long list of further issues.

The November WS decision was a shock to many and not only to members of the international Finn community. Never in the past was the Finn targeted by the WS Board itself with an aim to have the Finn lose its Olympic status and never in the past had the Finn fought against equipment manufacturer lobbies wanting a slot on the Olympic programme.

Since last November the Finn Executive and other Finn stakeholders have been working hard to showcase to the sailing world, the IOC and WS stakeholders how important a dinghy event for larger sailors is on the Olympic sailing program. The IOC will make its final decision on the 2024 Olympic events as late as 2021 but in the coming months and years

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we will have to work relentlessly to put the Finn back to where it belongs, the Olympic Games.

As already stated on many different occasions the male population worldwide is developing towards taller and stronger people at a much younger age than in the past. At the same time the Olympic sailing regatta has seen a constant decrease of classes and quota for men over 85 kg. With the removal of the Soling and the Star over the last 16 years from the Olympics, for 2020 we are down to only the Finn. Based on a recent calculation as a result Olympic sailing quota for men over 85 kg went from over 100 athletes in 2000 to only 19 for 2020 (less than 6% of the total number of sailors in the Olympics).

In summary, we strongly hope that wise decisions- especially by the IOC -on the future of Olympic sailing will allow the Finn to continue its Olympic presence and unmatched history. Other areas of the IFA Executive’s work over the last year will be reported on by the IFA VP in charge of the given area.

May I wish you all the best and fair winds for 2019 and thank you very much for your support over the many years in the past.

Vice-President Masters Report Andy Denison The Masters in Skovshoved, Denmark is looming and as of end of April we are at 235 entries, which is ahead of the entries this time last year. Because we voted for the medal race to be dropped, we have had to come up with a way of finishing the series with a winner and with the 300 strong, multiple age category fleet there is a danger of a tie that Appendix A cannot take care of. Fortunately, with a big help from Ray New, together with Richard Phillips and Steve Hayles we have a random selection programme in place and a way of curing this problem. Copenhagen will be the trial. The fleet is in a healthy financial position. We have five years medals in place, a successful magazine, and a new category trophy for the super legend 80 + years of age. The way the fleet is going I’m thinking how long it will be until we have to purchase a super XXL Legend Trophy, 100 years plus. Looking forward, we have our 50th birthday celebration, in 2020 in Holland. We recommend booking accommodation early as the feeling is this will be a complete sell out with the largest fleet turn out ever.

TREASURERS REPORT – TIM CARVER KEY MESSAGES - We predicted last year that we would break even in 2018 after a couple of years of losses and despite exceptional costs incurred in defending our Olympic status this is pretty much the situation. We returned a small loss of €3,808 on turnover of €134,253.

We are still hoping to return a small profit in 2019 and 2020 although any surplus is likely to be consumed by further activity related to our Olympic status and the November conference.

From a budget perspective we cannot easily plan for 2021 and subsequent years while

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there is still so much uncertainty about our Olympic status. There is no need to act now because our income stream should stay firm throughout 2019 and 2020 but we need to keep a close watch on revenue from sails, hulls and spars throughout 2019 as this is likely to take the most immediate hit from the decision to remove our Olympic status.

Once we know if we have been successful in fighting for our Olympic status o not we can budget effectively again. If we are unsuccessful though, we will have some very tough decisions to make if we are to stay on an even financial footing.

INCOME - Membership has stayed strong, but we are already seeing a reduction in income from the sale of Hulls and Masts as the Olympic Classes decision begins to bite.

Fortunately, people are still buying lots of sails.

EXPENSES - Expenses are still under control but took a big hit in 2018 with increased costs at ISAF Meetings. We also paid our Executive Team a small additional amount to recompense them for the additional workload generated by the fight for our Olympic status.

ASSETS - Having made a big effort to reduce Accounts Receivable in 2017 the focus on lobbying for our Olympic Status meant that

we weren’t quite as effective at collecting our revenue in 2018 and Accounts Receivable has increased again. The good news is that overall our Capital position is still strong at €135,455.

Vice-President Development Report - Marc Allain des Beauvais In 2018 the key objective was to increase the number of countries competing at the World Sailing Championship in Aarhus.

IFA partnered with World Sailing and Aarhus 2018 to be included in the Emerging Nations Programme, which included eight nations (Cuba, Venezuela, Bermuda, Namibia, South Africa, Iran, Hong-Kong and Serbia).

Thanks to this initiative we were able to be the third class with the most nations.

IFA provided the equipment, with support from both Devoti Sailing and North Sails, while Aarhus provided the coach, coach boat and accommodation.

In 2019 and 2020, the scope will be on Continental qualifications to help campaigning sailors with no funding to be able to participate in their Continental qualifier.

Technical COMMITTEE Chairman Report - Paul Mckenzie Since our last AGM the Finn Class adopted new class rules mainly concerning equipment limitations for rudders, booms and masts. This seems to have been a success with simpler equipment inspection and some economies for sailors. No major equipment replacement issues or complaints have come to my attention since these changes.

Over the course of the year several equipment issues have come to the attention of the measurers and TC members. These requests or discussions must remain confidential, but they have been discussed within the TC to avoid future conflict or unfair racing. At present we feel our rules and measurement process are sufficient to ensure racing remains fair.

Hence we are not proposing any rule changes at this AGM.

IFA Accounts 2018 - Euros Revenue

Memberships Sail labels Mast labels ISAF Plaques for New Boats EC/FGC Entry Levy Interest Advertising Finn Shop Masters Consolidated Finnteam ISAF Worlds & EURO entries PhotoFINNish Sales Forex Gain TOTAL

2019 Budget 49500 30000 3000 4000 15000 0 10000 800 12000 0 0 0 0 124300

2018 2017 Assets 2018 2017 Actual Budget Actual Budget Petty cash 572 0 49406 49500 40796 42800 Accounts receivable 33070 22891 35052 30000 29470 30000 Prepayments 0 0 3630 6500 6785 2000 GBP Working Account 12019 24074 4387 12000 10542 15000 GBP Capital Account 26807 27059 6834 10000 5500 5850 FRA Working Account 61672 61443 24 0 5 0 GBP Masters Account 6745 5476 10508 7500 9887 7500 TOTAL 140885 140943 0 800 929 800 15333 12000 10550 12000 674 0 157 0 8205 9000 0 0 200 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 134253 137300 114645 115950

Expenses

Payroll (Executive Director) Payroll (Media) Office Equipment Inspection Personnel Measmnt. Equip & Transport Regatta Bank charges Finnfare expenses Postage Stickers (mast, sail, IFA hull) Development Promotion (Photo, Filming) Masters Admin Masters Consolidated Social Media (inc Web and host) ISAF meetings Finn Shop Forex Loss TOTAL

2019 Budget 39600 23000 500 0 500 10000 400 5200 800 2000 13500 4000 2500 13500 1200 8000 200 0 124900

2018 2017 Liabilities 2018 Actual Budget Actual Budget Amount Payable 5430 41600 39600 39600 39600 Salaries owing 0 23547 20000 21424 20000 TOTAL 5430 7747 4000 4362 3000 0 2000 1000 2000 -639 500 660 500 8005 7000 9689 4000 TOTAL CAPITAL 135455 398 300 371 300 3153 5200 7684 5200 882 900 666 900 377 0 2803 1000 12415 24000 10815 10000 0 4000 0 0 3729 2500 1954 2500 13925 13500 11600 13500 1092 1200 2412 700 20621 12000 8351 12000 707 1000 0 1000 502 0 2909 0 138061 137700 126300 116200

2017 1680 0 1680

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