Hungary Finns

The Finn European Championships begin this weekend in Lake Balaton, Hungary

Lake Balaton in Hungary has been the scene for many Finn regattas in the past and next week it is set to host the 2007 Finn European Championships. The venue for this year's championship is Spartacus Sailing Club, located in the town of Balatonföldvár on the south shore of the lake.

At 77 miles long and covering an area of 600 square miles, Lake Balaton is the largest lake in central Europe and is viewed as the cultural home of the Hungarian Finn fleet, which is looking forward to once again welcoming Finn sailors from across the world. In recent years Lake Balaton has also played host to the 2006 Finn World Masters and the 1995 European Championship.

The provisional entry list is very encouraging for a pre-Olympic year. So far there are 107 pre-entries from 32 countries, including many new names and even a few new nations.
Predictably, most sailors are expecting a light weather regatta, and certainly at last year's Masters event held at the same time of year, the wind was not very cooperative. However, while in most years light winds would be considered bad news the venue for the 2008 Olympics is prone to produce similar conditions, so some sailors could well be using this regatta to try or new gear or techniques.

World Ranked No. 8 Daniel Birgmark (SWE) said, "They say it's likely to be light wind conditions, but the Europeans is always a important regatta, so it could also be a good opportunity to test light wind skills in the preparations for Qingdao." World ranked No. 2 Dan Slater (NZL) is more optimistic, "I'm a Kiwi from the other side of the globe. I have never been to Hungary nor do I have any expectations of conditions. I have been told of some regattas at the same venue that have been really windy and really light so who knows we'll get." Having just won the ISAF Grade 1 Breitling Regatta on the medal race, Slater is among the top favourites for the title.

One of the most un-European sailors competing this year is top US Finn sailor Zach Railey (USA). He said, "Tis the one event I am really looking forward to this year. The US trials are going to be in the same conditions so I am really looking forward to using this event to prepare and learn for my trials. My training has been focusing on light air sailing and learning the feel for the boat in light air. I have lost some weight and am looking forward to the event. Of course, the entire focus will be to try different things to see what works and what doesn’t work. That way I can leave the event with a lot of knowledge to help me at my trials."

Favourites

Most sailors are listing the same group of sailors for possible victory at Balaton including current world champion Jonas Hoegh-Christensen, current European Champion Ed Wright, Princess Sofia winner Marin Misura and Hyeres winner Emilos Papathanasiou. However, some are also predicting a few upsets to the established order.

Slater said, "Jonas and Emilios have to be the favourites given their form in Hyeres. However the return of the America's Cup sailors will strengthen the fleet. Ed Wright has been improving since Palma but Peter-Jan Postma (NED) won the last three races in Hyeres and is in really good form." He also finished a very close second to Slater at the Breitling Regatta.

The America's Cup sailors are of course the boys from +39, including Athens silver medalist Rafael Trujillo (ESP), Anthony Nossiter (AUS), 2006 World Masters Champion Michael Maier (CZE) and previous Junior World and European Champion Chris Brittle (GBR). These sailors had actually hoped not to be in Balaton but after being knocked out of the Louis Vuitton Cup after the round robin stages, could be a force to be reckoned with. Nossiter said, "of us had entered the Holland regatta before the LV, but after a few days of the fleet racing (Act 13), we were quietly hoping we would be loosing our deposits on the bungalows. The first race of the fleet racing we were leading around every mark until the wind did a 360. In the second race we were in the top group when we lost our rig. ITA 85 had wheels in a breeze I must say. However, we're all excited to be hiking again."

He continued, "We've done no Finn sailing for the last month, with the Louis Vuitton action being a little distracting. But up to race one of LV, we had sailed Finn 25 days out of the last 65...38% of our time in preparing for LV was in the Finn! It was a great event, we out performed teams with much larger budgets and did it with a bunch of Finn mates. Mixing up the AC class with the Finn Class was CLASS! My hot tips for the European Championships is Michael Maier, who won the Finn World Masters at the same venue last year. The big CZE tells me more to expect more light than fresh airs on Lake Balaton and a fair sized shift or two."

Current World Champion Jonas Hoegh-Christensen has been putting in some consistent results of late including losing Hyeres on the final race. He said, "We are expecting light winds, but as Cascias (ISAF Worlds) is the main focus for everyone this year, I think no one has made special preparations for this event. With that in mind you might see sailors that are starting to work on their light wind set-up for the games.

Of course this event will favour some of the light and experienced sailors. Experience goes a long way in the light. Knowing how to get what becomes a very heavy boat sailing fast is much more important than the crew weight. I think the winds will be shifty as well, so maybe speed won't be of the essence, but you always look smarter if you are a little faster. would look out for Emilios, Dan Slater, Ed Wright and Daniel Birgmark as the typical favourites, but as outsiders I see some of the former eastern Europeans countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic because they sail on lakes on a regular basis."

Dan Slater added, "I think for most sailors this season Cascais will be the main focus. However for some nations the Europeans and some of the Grade 1 regattas will be Olympic selection events as well as funding for next year." Railey added a further name into the mix, "My dark horse for the event is Brendan Casey (AUS)", a recent addition to the Finn fleet, who is starting to make a name for himself on the water with a 15th in Hyeres and a 10th in Holland. Other names to keep an eye on are Peer Moberg (NOR), winner of this year's Miami OCR and Gasper Vincec (SLO).

This year the senior event is also combined with the Juniors, a format that has been successfully incorporated for a number of years. Last year's Junior European Champion Mark Andrews (GBR) will be back, but he is now too old to defend his title. However there are a number of new and untested juniors entered for the championship, so the outcome is by no means certain.

Measurement and registration takes place from 1st to 3rd June. The first race of what is planned to be a nine race series commences on Monday June 4th with the final race on Saturday June 9th.

Entries:

Sail Number	Helm
AUS 221	NOSSITER, ANTHONY
AUS 241	CASEY, BRENDAN
AUS 54	QUIRK, NATHAN
AUT 271	RAUDASCHL, FLORIAN
BRA 10	SIGNORINI, JOAO
BRA 109	ZARIF, JORGE
BUL 24	KOPANOV, MIHAIL
CRO 11	OLUJI, JOSIP
CRO 16	TOMASEVIC, EMIL
CRO 25	MISURA, MARIN
CRO 524	KLJAKOVIC GASPIC, IVAN
CZE 1	MAIER, MICHAEL
CZE 21	CAJCIK, JAN
CZE 22	BABICKY, ROMAN
CZE 3	LIDARIK, RUDOLF
CZE 52	VIKA, TOMAS
CZE 9	HRUBY, MICHAL
DEN 2	H. CHRISTENSEN, JONAS
DEN 22	SVARE, SOREN
DEN 9	LAURSEN, THOMAS
ESP 100	TRUJILLO, RAFAEL
ESP 836	VADELL, ALBERTO
ESP1	FRUCTUOSO, DIEGO
EST 7	LIIV, HARLES
FIN 216	NIRKKO, TAPIO
FRA 69	LOBERT, JONATHAN
FRA 73	FLORENT, GUILLAUME
FRA 9	PONSOT, PIERRE-ALEXIS
FRA 972	BRUNO, ISMAEL
GBR 541	BRITTLE, CHRIS
GBR 550	HOWARD, MATT "POPEYE"
GBR 625	GREIG, ED
GBR 628	CRAIG, NICK
GBR 631	HART, RICHARD
GBR 88	ANDREWS, MARK
GBR 99	BAGNALL, HENRY
GBR111	WRIGHT, EDWARD
GER 108	MUNCK, SEBASTIAN
GER 12	GUMINSKI, DAVID
GER 174	BOHN, MATTHIAS
GER 71	SCHREIBER, ANIAN
GER 711	BUDZIEN, ANDRé
GER 717	KAULE, SEBASTIAN
GER 771	KURFELD, JAN
GER 92	GUMINSKI, DETLEV
GRE 2	GNAFAKIS, EIRINAIOS
GRE 3	GNAFAKIS, CONSTANTINOS
GRE 71	DAVOURLIS, PANAGIOTIS
GRE 8	DRAGOUTSIS, ALEXANDROS
HUN 128	HAIDEKKER, PETER
HUN 15	SZÉLL, PÉTER
HUN 2	SIPOS, PéTER
HUN 24	PAY'R, EGON
HUN 270	HUSZáR, GéZA
HUN 3	BüKI, GáBOR
HUN 5	PALLAY, TIBOR
HUN 50	ANTAL, GÁBOR
HUN 6	PáL, GASZTON
HUN 68	MESTERHáZY-NAGY, ÁKOS
HUN 7	SZéKELY, ANTAL
HUN 8	BELICZAY, MáRTON
IND 1	MONGIA, NITIN
IND 11	JOHAL, NACHHATAR
ITA 101	CORDOVANI, RICCARDO
ITA 117	POGGI, GIORGIO
ITA 40	KOLIC, MARKO
ITA 660	BORTOLETTO, DAVIDE
ITA 69	POLO, ANDREA
ITA 941	CISBANI, PAOLO
NED 43	VAN HELLEMOND, KAREL
NED 6	VRIES, DE, STEFAN
NED 64	ZETZEMA, WIETZE
NED 80	WILLEMS, SANDER E.
NED 842	POSTMA, PIETER-JAN
NED 842	POSTMA, PIETER-JAN
NOR 1	MOBERG, PEER
NZL 1	SLATER, DAN
POL 1	STRUSIńSKI, MICHAł
POL 12	SZUKIEL, WACLAW
POL 17	KULA, PIOTR
POL 41	CZARKOWSKI, GRZEGORZ
POL 45	FLAK, BARTOSZ
POL 7	SZUKIEL, RAFAL
POR 310	QUINA, RODRIGO
POR 5	MELO, FREDERICO
RUS 1	KRUTSKIKH, VLADIMIR
RUS 49	LARIONOV, EGOR
RUS 9	SKORNYAKOV, EDUARD
SER 70	BALUNOVIć, MILOS
SLO 5	VINCEC, GASPER
SLO 99	MOZE, TINE
SRB 89	STAVROV, MARIO
SUI 496	GAUTSCHI, THOMAS
SUI70	FüRER, ANDY
SWE 6	ALLANSSON, BJÖRN
SWE 736	TILLANDER, JOHAN
SWE-11	BIRGMARK, DANIEL
TUR 7	MUSLUBAS, AKIF
UKR 1	BORYSOV, OLEKSIY
UKR 5	GUSENKO, ANDRIY
USA 11	EWENSON, GEOFFREY
USA 1140	BOYD, BRYAN
USA 1213	NADY, ANDRAS
USA 150	NADY, LOUIE
USA 4	RAILEY, ZACH
USA 55	CASEY, ANDREW
USA 9	COOK, IAN
VEN 69	BILBAO, JOHNNY