Finn Gold Cup 2016 – Gaeta – Day 1

Phillip Kasüske nach Tag 1 auf Rang 7

7 26 GER259 Phillip Kasueske 18 9 27

22 35 GER25 Max Kohlhoff 5 41 46

30 69 GER772 Ulli Kurfeld 9 53 62

38 39 GER252 Eike Martens 10 59 69

42 50 GER771 Jan Kurfeld 36 43 79

53 42 GER595 Simon Gorgels 61 36 97

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Deniss Karpak masters light winds on first day of Finn Gold Cup in Gaeta

Deniss Karpak (EST) is the early leader at the 60th Finn Gold Cup in Gaeta, Italy, after winning the opening race and then following that up with a third in the second. Giorgio Poggi (ITA) is second, while Peter-Jan Postma (NED) is third. The second race was dominated by Jonas H¸gh-Christensen (DEN).

It was a hot and sunny day in Gaeta but the wind generally remained light. After a one hour postponement, the fleet was sent out for a start in 6-7 knots of breeze and it never got much above 10 knots all day.

Race 1 started under a black flag after a number of failed attempts. The right side proved heavily favoured with Matteo Savio (ITA) rounding from the right ahead of Fabian Pic (FRA) and Ulli Kurfeld (GER). Savio maintained his led until the start of the run when Karpak, who had made big gains on the second upwind, caught him and sailed past to take the win. Savio crossed in second with Pic in third.

Karpak said, „It was another beautiful day in Gaeta. It was an excellent day for me. I did great in both races, so I’m happy.”

On his plan. „My plan was just to go to the right. The sun was going right and the wind was going the same direction, and I managed to do that. I crossed to the middle of the first beat and the wind went more right, so instead of top three I was about 12th at the top mark. I caught up on the second beat. The second race was the same. When you are tactically good and fast, races are easy.”

On what the event means to him. „It is just for testing various things before going to Rio. It’s the last major regatta for all of us before going to Rio. Today was almost the same weather we will get in Rio.”

The wind built sightly for race 2 but still no more than 9 knots at the start. The fleet got away first time with the leaders starting at the pin and getting across to the right as soon as they could. Double world champion H¸gh-Christensen got it right to lead all the way round. The first downwind was free pumping but the wind dropped and so did Oscar flag. The Dane built a huge lead on the first downwind, but Piotr Kula (POL) clawed it back on the second upwind to round a close second. H¸gh-Christensen pulled away on the final downwind for the race win from Kula and Karpak.

H¸gh-Christensen said, „It was a tough day in light winds. The first race was going well for me. I got a good start, crossed the fleet and I was working to the left of the fleet, and the wind shifted 5-10 degrees. I tacked on and that was a mistake, as it went further, and I rounded in 65th so that was pretty bad. But I caught back up quite a bit.”

„The second race was similar. I had a good start at the pin, crossed the fleet and went a bit further right and just managed to be first at the top mark. Then on the run I managed to pull out quite a bit and from there I could control the race all the way to the finish.”

„Actually, I thought I had a good day. I missed that one shift on the first race, but otherwise I thought I sailed a really good day.”

On his downwind speed, he said, „I think it was a combination of speed and pressure. There’s no doubt I was fast downwind today but I put myself on the right side of the current and the pressure so that helped a lot. I think things are coming together. We have been working hard on getting back up to speed. We’ve changed a lot of things, actually we changed everything, and lately it has been going a lot better.”

On the week ahead. „Most of the top guys are here. It’s 10 years since I first won a world championships, so maybe it’s time I did it again!”

The defending champion Giles Scott (GBR) is down in 18th after choosing the wrong side of the first upwind to finish in 38th before having a better second race to cross fifth. He sits in 18th overall. In fact, many favourites picked up one or two high scores during the day.

Two more races are scheduled for Monday with light winds again forecast. Some of the races are being covered with live video on Facebook. Keep an eye on the Finn Class Facebook feed for updates about when we expect to broadcast.

Results after two races

1 EST 2 Deniss Karpak 4
2 ITA 117 Giorgio Poggi 18
3 NED 842 Pieter-Jan Postma 21
4 FRA 17 Fabian Pic 23
5 BRA 109 Jorge Zarif 25
6 POL 17 Piotr Kula 27
7 GER 259 Phillip Kasueske 27
8 ESP 7 Alejandro Muscat 28
9 DEN 2 Jonas H¸gh-Christensen 31
10 CZE 5 Ondrej Teply 31

Full results here.

Photos:
Top: Deniss Karpak and Matteo Savio
Below: Jonas H¸gh-Christensen, Deniss Karpak, Start race 2, Top mark Race 1

Yacht Club Gaeta
Finn Gold Cup 2016
5-13 May 2016
All Boats
Series Summary, Preliminary Pl B# Sail # Sailor 1 2 Tot
1 13 EST2 Deniss Karpak 1 3 4
2 12 ITA117 Giorgio Poggi 6 12 18
3 10 NED842 Pieter Jan Postma 4 17 21
4 32 FRA17 Fabian Pic 3 20 23
5 5 BRA109 Jorge Zarif 7 18 25
6 25 POL17 Piotr Kula 25 2 27
7 26 GER259 Phillip Kasueske 18 9 27
8 20 ESP7 Alejandro Muscat 13 15 28
9 3 DEN2 Jonas Hogh-Christensen 30 1 31
10 30 CZE5 Ondrej Teply 21 10 31
11 2 CRO524 Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic 23 11 34
12 8 GRE77 Ioannis Mitakis 29 7 36
13 29 CAN18 Tom Ramshaw 12 24 36
14 15 RUS57 Egor Terpigorev 14 23 37
15 45 ITA83 Matteo Savio 2 37 39
16 24 CRO52 Nenad Bugarin 35 4 39
17 22 ITA146 Michele Paoletti 28 13 41
18 6 GBR41 Giles Scott 38 5 43
19 21 ESP17 Pablo Guitian Sarria 8 35 43
20 18 RUS6 Arkadiy Kistanov 15 29 44
21 17 CRO1 Josip Olujic 17 27 44
22 35 GER25 Max Kohlhoff 5 41 46
23 14 GBR91 Ben Cornish 41 6 47
24 4 AUS261 Oliver Tweddell 22 26 48
25 19 CRO69 Milan Vujasinovic 37 16 53
26 66 ITA202 Giacomo Giovanelli 24 32 56
27 28 RUS2 Borisov Aleksei 27 30 57
28 1 AUS41 Jake Lilley 47 14 61
29 9 SWE6 Bjorn Allansson 54 8 62
30 69 GER772 Ulli Kurfeld 9 53 62
31 65 ITA94 Federico Colaninno 16 48 64
32 27 ITA123 Filippo Baldassari 46 19 65
33 44 POL13 Michal Jodlowski 43 22 65
34 7 GBR11 Ed Wright 40 25 65
35 81 ITA66 Enrico Voltolini 39 28 67
36 11 TUR21 Alican Kaynar 33 34 67
37 41 USA74 Henry Sprague 11 57 68
38 39 GER252 Eike Martens 10 59 69
39 34 CAN2 Kyle Martin 52 21 73
40 49 NZL64 Brendan McCarty 26 49 75
41 31 CZE1 Michael Maier 32 47 79
42 50 GER771 Jan Kurfeld 36 43 79
43 75 ITA234 Tommaso Ronconi 19 61 80
44 70 ITA70 Francesco Lubrano 20 63 83
45 77 ITA964 Roberto Strappati 31 52 83
46 37 FIN225 Mikael Hyrylainen 42 44 86
47 64 ITA5 Francesco Cinque 48 39 87
48 63 ITA2 Marco Buglielli 44 45 89
49 33 DEN24 Andre‘ Hogh Christiansen 60 33 93
50 78 SEY1 Allan Julie 56 38 94
51 52 ITA175 Alessandro Vongher 55 40 95
52 53 GRE21 Anotonis Tsotras 45 51 96
53 42 GER595 Simon Gorgels 61 36 97
54 46 IRL40 Oisin Mcclelland 67 31 98
55 57 ITA191 Alessandro Cattaneo 34 66 100
56 36 EST11 Lauri VÅ insalu 59 42 101
57 48 FRA93 Antoine Devineau 49 54 103
58 43 ESP717 Victor Gorostegui Arce 51 55 106
59 67 HUN911 Elemer Peter Haidekker 50 62 112
60 38 GBR29 Peter McCoy 58 56 114
61 80 ITA147 Simone Ferrarese 69 46 115
62 58 SLO99 Jan Orel 53 64 117
63 23 CAN110 Martin Robitaille 68 50 118
64 79 ITA11 Paolo Cisbani 57 71 128
65 71 FIN226 Jukka Partinen 63 65 128
66 68 HUN127 Peter Pal Haidekker 71 58 129
67 76 FIN227 Ronnie Roos 62 68 130
68 54 GRE4 Panagiotis Kotsovos 65 67 132
69 61 SWE9 David Berg 64 69 133
70 73 ITA97 Lorenzo Podesta‘ 74\DSQ 60 134
71 62 CAN3 Ian Bostock 66 72 138
72 51 USA32 Charles Heimler 70 70 140
73 72 ITA6 Enrico Passoni 74\DNC 74\DNC 148