France to the fore

Laurent Hay early leader at the Finn World Masters

Andre Budzien (GER) opened the defence of his Finn World Masters title with a solid second place on the Lac de Carcans-Hourtin, near Maubuisson in south western France. The breeze was fitful at times, and left many an experienced sailor fighting back after a challenging windshift or pressure change, but most of the favourites fared well on day one. The first race wins went to Laurent Hay (FRA) and Jan Willem Kok (NED).

The 2009 Finn World Masters was officially opened Sunday evening with a beautiful ceremony in front of the club with all sailors parading in their national teams. Last of all came the host nation, France. All sailors had signed the now traditional flag, which was hoisted to the top of the flagpole to symbolise the opening of the championship.

Maubuisson is a popular venue for the French Finn fleet and ten years ago was the venue for the 1999 edition of the Finn World Masters. Back then the
148 entries was the largest the championship had ever achieved its 30 year history to that point, but that record has been dwarfed this year by a staggering 268 Finn sailors from 24 nations. This enormous fleet has been split into two, each racing on two separate courses.

At start time the wind was very shifty from the NNE and up to 12 knots, but with big holes. Andre Budzien was racing on course area A which frequently experienced big shifts, and dumping those that had gone the right way. After an intense race, Laurent Hay crossed the line first, with Budzien second and 2006 World Masters Champion Michael Maier (CZE) in third.

On the other course, conditions were not much different. After two attempts to start the race, the PRO went for the black flag and some 15 boats were pulled out. Initially those on the right looked good, but then the breeze faded and a big left hander brought all those on left into first mark. Jan Willem Kok won the race followed by last year's runner up Mihail Kopanov (BUL) and David Potter (GBR) in third.

The patchy conditions were highlighted by a number of surprises at the front of the fleet, while a few of the favourites picked up some high scores. In addition, on course B the first nine boats were reported to have rounded the wrong bottom mark so protests were lodged and the current results are only provisional.

Two more races are scheduled for Tuesday at the slightly earlier time of 11.00.

Results after one race (top 20 out of 268):

1 FRA 75 HAY Laurent
1 NED 780 KOK Jan Willem
3 GER 711 BUDZIEN André
3 BUL 24 KOPANOV Mihail
5 GBR 672 POTTER David
5 CZE 1 MAIER Michael
7 NED 39 ZOMER Hans
7 GER 8 EIERMANN Jürgen
9 GBR 664 TORRANCE John
9 NED 81 VISSER Gerko
11 GER 3 MAI Walter
11 NED 5 SALA René
13 HUN 51 RUTAI Stvan
13 NED 27 KAMPHORST Paul
15 DEN 208 LINDHARDTSEN Jørgen
15 GBR 8 CARVER Tim
17 FRA 7 ALEXIS Stephane
17 GER 146 MÜLLER Friedrich
19 ITA 5 CINQUE Francesco
19 GER 155 GAST Edwin