Budzien secures victory

The Finn Masters World Championships have been won with a day to spare in the 229 boat fleet

The final two qualification races have been sailed in the 229 boat Finn World Masters in Medemblik in general light to moderate conditions.

Wednesday's race brought lighter winds with a few upsets, however after five races the discard had an equally large effect, bringing to the top many sailors who had picked up a high score in the first few races. In the first heat, defending World Champion, Andre Budzien (GER) continued to lead the scoreline, but tainted his copybook with a third place finish behind Thierry van Vierssen (NED) and Han Bergma (NED). In the second heat, Ilias Hatzipaulis (GRE) won in front of Gerko Visser (NED) and Eric Bakker (NED).

The Dutch home fleet are having a great regatta with no less than nine boats inside the top 20. Many have been training here for months in preparation for this regatta.

On Thursday, the wind started at around 15 knots but soon dropped to about ten knots once the starts got underway, and at times during the races dropped to just five knots. It was very tricky sailing.

Wide pressure differential across the course also caused a few upsets, but Budzien assured himself of his second consecutive title by placing second in his heat behind Hatzipaulis who won his second race in a row. The other heat was won by Mihail Kopanov (BUL) in a race plagued by large wind shifts and patchy holes across the course.

The final race will be sailed tomorrow at 11.30, and although the winner is assured, everyone else in the top ten is already discarding a high score, so the other medal places are wide open.

Results:

Pos	Helm	Sail Number	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Tot
1	André Budzien, M	GER 711	1	1	1	1	-3	2	6,0
2	Mihail Kopanov, M	BUL 24	5	4	2	3	-33	1	15,0
3	Han Bergsma, M	NED 100	-21	3	2	5	2	3	15,0
4	Ilias Hatzipaulis, GM	GRE 1	10	2	8	(dns)	1	1	22,0
5	Bas de Waal, M	NED 29	3	9	10	4	(ocs)	4	30,0
6	Cees Scheurwater, M	NED 804	10	4	11	2	4	(dnc)	31,0
7	Thierry van Vierssen, M	NED 747	6	5	16	6	1	(dnf)	34,0
8	Jan Willem Kok, M	NED 780	8	6	3	2	20	(ocs)	39,0
9	Allen Burrell, M	GBR 2	-52	1	1	9	28	4	43,0
10	Luuk Kuijper, M	NED 888	11	2	5	6	-30	21	45,0
11	Adrian Brunton, M	GBR 669	-51	7	15	1	25	2	50,0
12	Allain des Beauvais Marc, GM	FRA 99	16	16	6	5	-38	7	50,0
13	R. Phillip Ramming, GM	USA 808	23	6	7	9	6	-58	51,0
14	Laurant Hay, M	FRA 75	15	8	9	8	(ocs)	11	51,0
15	Eric Bakker, M	NED 703	12	7	13	-20	3	18	53,0
16	Lars Hall, M	DEN 196	-61	17	3	12	13	9	54,0
17	Tim Carver, M	GBR 8	-25	11	4	14	18	7	54,0
18	Ed van der Steene, M	NED 897	2	-24	11	16	14	13	56,0
19	Conrad Brown, M	USA 24	4	-17	17	10	13	12	56,0
20	Alex Breuseker, M	NED 62	-40	5	8	11	19	13	56,0