2024 Finn Gold Cup at Sailing Aarhus - Day 1
by Robert Deaves 3 Sep 2024 19:45 BST
31 August - 7 September 2024
There is gold in the waters of Aarhus this week, Finn gold, and the 104 sailors who made it out to the start left everything on the water fighting for every metre, for every point, for every boat, for every chance of winning a piece of that gold.
After the opening day, Hungary's Domonkos Nemeth leads from World No. 1 Laurent Hay, from France and Finland's Oskari Muhonen. For six hours on the water, only one race was completed as the forecast 15-20 knots never materialised and then what was left died away.
Race 1 started in 8-9 knots under the black flag after two recalls but was a clear start. Italy's Alessandro Marega led round from Nemeth and Miguel Fernando Vasco. With Oscar raised for free pumping at the top mark, Muhonen moved into the lead from Nemeth and Britain's Cameron Tweedle. The wind decreased on the second upwind and then down to 5 knots or less in places on the final downwind. Many fell out of the pressure and lost places, including Muhonen, who lost the lead to Nemeth and then Hay sailed past to cross second, with all three boats crossing close together.
After a long wait, the cloud cleared and there were hopes of a second race. Two starts were attempted, but then the wind died again and swung round the compass, and the sailors were sent back to the shore to much needed sausages and beer on the deck.
Sjoerd Hofland, from The Netherlands, said, "The wind looked quite nice today, and when we went out it was around 10-12 knots. We had a nice downwind with the Oscar flag, but just after that, the wind dropped to around 4-5 knots and I think the whole fleet was struggling a bit to reach the finish line. We waited a bit under AP, but unfortunately the wind died out completely. Looking forward to tomorrow."
Race winner, Nemeth sad, "We only had one race today, which wasn't that tricky as the second one, if it would have started. I had a good start, free air, and around the second downwind Oskari passed me. We sailed together in the second upwind with some good breeze, but the second downwind was definitely trickier, the wind dropped a lot, we had to make smart choices about the pressure left. We saw Laurent coming from the back, he was passing everyone, but I managed to hold on the pressure and I managed to win the race, so I am very happy. I expect a good battle for the upcoming days. Not much wind is forecasted, so we will see.
"I am happy to be here. Aarhus is a really nice venue. I love it here."
Racing in Aarhus continues until Saturday with nine more races to sail.
Results after Day 1:
1 HUN 80 Domonkos NEMETH 1pt
2 FRA 75 Laurent HAY 2pts
3 FIN 8 Oskari MUHONEN 3pts
4 ITA 1103 Alessandro MAREGA 4pts
5 ITA 40 Marko KOLIC 5pts
6 GBR 5 Cameron TWEEDLE 6pts
7 ESP 7 David TEROL 7pts
8 FRA 111 Valérian LEBRUN 8pts
9 ESP 161 Miguel FERNÁNDEZ VASCO 9pts
10 NED 148 Peter PEET 10pts