Beach day at Finn Gold Cup

Melbourne, Australia (December 18, 2019) – The temperature in Melbourne is getting almost as hot as the competition at the Finn Gold Cup, but the lack of wind on the third day meant all racing was cancelled by mid-afternoon. Three races are now scheduled for tomorrow.

New Zealand’s Josh Junior holds a 14-point lead after four races from Croatia’s Nenad Bugarin. Andy Maloney (NZL) is one point behind Bugarin. A fleet of 60 Finns from 22 nations are competing to win the 2019 Finn world championship.

Melbourne turned on the heaters today, reaching 40°C (104°F) by the afternoon. There were successive postponements as the sailors sought shelter out of the heat in the great facilities of the Royal Brighton Yacht Club. Some found iced refreshments by the beach and some went swimming, but the wind did not come. At 15.00 AP over A was raised to abandon for the day.

“Faced with challenging forecast winds on a hot Melbourne day,” explained Principal Race Officer Mark Taylor, “pressure never eventuated, and the race committee was forced to cancel all racing for the day with little likelihood of any better conditions during normal sailing times this evening.”

“However, the forecast is looking more positive and sufficiently positive to not bring forward the start time, but hopefully to get three races in a southerly breeze, currently forecast at 10-15 knots.”

An opening series of 10 races from December 16 to 20 is scheduled, to be followed by the final race and medal race on December 21. The ten boats ranked highest in the Opening Series will be assigned to compete in the Medal Race. The remaining boats will be assigned to the Final Race. The Final Race extends the Opening Series for those boats in it.

Event details – Results – Facebook

Day Three Results (Top 10 of 60):

North America: As 2016 bronze medalist Caleb Paine struggles to find form, Tom Ramshaw (CAN) and Luke Muller (USA) lead for their countries in 7th and 15th respectively. However, their consistently ‘okay’ scores will need to take a step forward to fulfill the hope of making the top ten for the final medal race.

Day Three Results – North America:
7. Tom Ramshaw (CAN)
15. Luke Muller (USA)
24. Caleb Paine (USA)
28. Kyle Martin (CAN)
40. Eric Anderson (USA)

Source: Finn Class, Scuttlebutt