Ainslie by two minutes

The Brit has taken race one of the Finn European Championships in Italy

After a three hour delay to wait for the wind to arrive, the 2008 Finn Open and Junior European Championship got underway in Scarlino, Italy with a single race in six to eight knots of patchy breeze. Ben Ainslie (GBR) made his intentions quite clear, with a clean race win, after leading at each and every mark. Piotr Kula (POL) was the best of the juniors finishing in 11th place.

Following last night's spectacular opening ceremony and yesterday's fantastic weather it was with some disappointment that sailors arrived at the Club Nautico Scarlino this morning, Monday, to find intermittent showers, and very little wind. However by 13.00 the rain had started to dry up and by 14.00 the sun was trying to break through the low cloud and a light breeze was starting to develop. The fleet was sent afloat at 14.15 for a single race at 15.30. A double windward/leeward course was set.

Conditions were quite trying for some with a flat sea and a light wind that tended to reward the middle left. On the first beat a large difference in pressure across the course left those on the right stranded and brought the left to the front. However, right in the middle of the pressure in the middle left was Ben Ainslie (GBR). After a clear start near the favoured pin end he led round the first mark by 50 metres from Guillaume Florent (FRA), Piotr Kula (POL), Ismael Bruno (FRA) and Jonas Høgh-Christensen (DEN).

On the first downwind, the majority of the fleet favoured the right with little chance of any comebacks. Ainslie extended his lead to nearly a minute at the first leeward gate, and there was very little place changing behind him. During the second upwind, Ainslie played the middle ground again, taking little gains with each tack. At the top mark he had extended his lead to one minute 20 seconds. Florent maintained his second place, but behind him Daniel Birgmark (SWE) had moved from around 20th at the first mark to 11th at the gate to third place at the second windward mark. Also making a sizable gain was Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) who went from ninth to fourth on the second upwind.

The last downwind produced few changes as by now the fleet was quite well spread out. Ainslie gradually extended his lead to win by nearly two minutes from Florent and Birgmark. These three were followed across the finish in the dying wind by Kljakovic Gaspic, Høgh-Christensen and Italy's 1992 Olympic representative, Emanuele Vaccari (ITA), making a comeback for this regatta.

After the race, Vaccari, who finished 14th in the 1992 Olympic Regatta said, “This was the kind of race where even the amateurs can have their say because of the light winds. It was great for me to come back into the world of international sailing and kick it off with this kind of a race. It truly made me happy and I'm ecstatic. I stopped sailing in 1996 and I think I can definitely say that I've had my moment of glory here, although I hope to keep on sailing this way.”

Ainslie commented, “It was great to finally get a race after the light winds. It was actually a very difficult race with the breeze shifting about and a long one at that. I managed to pick the right side of the course and kept the lead throughout the race. Having been here for a few days, I know this is not the typical weather conditions for here, so we are hoping for a stronger breeze to return in the days to come.”

Last year's Junior European bronze medalist Piotr Kula (POL) had a great race rounding the first mark in third but finally dropping to 11th at the finish. The junior sailors here are expected to fight as hard for the Junior title as the seniors are for their event, and it is always encouraging to see juniors challenging for the front of the fleet. Second placed Junior today was Tomas Hrncal (CZE) in 29th and third placed was Viacheslav Sivenkov (RUS) in 30th.

Two races are scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, and the forecast is for the 10-15 knots breeze that welcomed the sailors to Scarlino and the Gulf of Follonica, Maremma to return. Many are hoping that it does.

Results:

Pos	Helm	Nationality	R1	Tot
1	Ben Ainslie	GBR	1	1
2	Guillaume Florent	FRA	2	2
3	Daniel Birgmark	SWE	3	3
4	Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic	CRO	4	4
5	Jonas Hogh-Christensen	DEN	5	5
6	Emanuele Vaccari	ITA	6	6
7	Gasper Vincec	SLO	7	7
8	Ismael Bruno	FRA	8	8
9	Ed Wright	GBR	9	9
10	Pieter-Jan Postma	NED	10	10
11	Piotr Kula	POL	11	11
12	Giorgio Poggi	ITA	12	12
13	Dennis de Ruiter	NED	13	13
14	Marko Kolic	ITA	14	14
15	Christopher Cook	CAN	15	15
16	Rafal Szukiel	POL	16	16
17	Gaszton Pal	HUN	17	17
18	Rudolf Lidarik	CZE	18	18
19	Roberto Bosetti	ITA	19	19
20	Conrad Brolon	USA	20	20
21	Tapio Nirkko	FIN	21	21
22	Riccardo Cordovani	ITA	22	22
23	Jonathan Lobert	FRA	23	23
24	Peer Moberg	NOR	24	24
25	Anthony Nossiter	AUS	25	25
26	Andriy Gusenko	UKR	26	26
27	Ed Greig	GBR	27	27
28	Timothy Goodbody	IRL	28	28
29	Tomas Hrncal	CZE	29	29
30	Viacheslav Sivienkov	RUS	30	30
31	Florian Raudaschl	AUT	31	31
32	Mark Andrews	GBR	32	32
33	Dan Slater	NZL	33	33
34	Tomas Vika	CZE	34	34
35	Nanno Schuttrups	NED	35	35
36	Rafael Trujillo	ESP	36	36
37	Geza Huszar	HUN	37	37
38	Jan Kurfeld	GER	38	38
39	Marton Beliczay	HUN	39	39
40	Haris Papadopoulos	CYP	40	40
41	Kenneth Boggild	DEN	41	41
42	Francesco Lubrano	ITA	42	42
43	Maciej Pezala	POL	43	43
44	Marco Buglielli	ITA	44	44
45	Gert Van der Heijden	NED	45	45
46	Carlo Recchi	ITA	46	46
47	Karel Van Hellemond	NED	47	47
48	Alexandros Dragoutsis	GRE	48	48
49	Matt Johnston	CAN	49	49
50	Simone Mancini	ITA	50	50
51	Bjorn Allansson	SWE	51	51
52	Diego Fructuoso	ESP1	52	52
53	Michael Maier	CZE	53	53
54	Jan CaJCIC	CZE	54	54
55	Eduard Skornyakov	RUS	55	55
56	Lorenzo Podestà	ITA	56	56
57	Sebastian Kaule	GER	57	57
58	Andrea Bianchi	ITA	58	58
59	Michal Strusinski	POL	59	59
60	Peter Haidekker	HUN	60	60
61	Vasily Kravchenko	RUS	61	61
62	Branislav Erac	SRB	62	62
63	Ali kemal Tufekci	TUR	63	63
64	Zach Railey	USA	64	64
65	Tomek Kosmicki	POL	65	65
66	Constantinos Gnafakis	GRE	66	66
67	Davourlis Panagiutis	GRE	67	67
68	Frederico Melo	POR	68	68
69	Piero Romeo	ITA	69	69
70	Srdjan Volarevic	SRB	70	70
71	Dmirtry Tereshkin	RUS	71	71
72	Mauro Merlini	ITA	72	72
73	Mihail Kopanov	BUL	73	73
74	Paolo Cisbani	ITA	74	74
75	Abe Torchinsky	CAN	75	75
76	Eirinaios Gnafakis	GRE	76	76
77	Darko Burcul	SRB	77	77
84	Alexey Selivanov	RUS	84.0 OCS	84
84	Michele Tognozzi	ITA	84.0 DNC	84
84	Andrew Mills	GBR	84.0 OCS	84
84	Aimilios Papathanasiou	GRE	84.0 DNF	84
84	Francesco Cinque	ITA	84.0 OCS	84
84	Eduardo Couto	BRA	84.0 OCS	84