Someone forgot to order the wind. The third day of racing for Finns at the Aquece Rio 2015 Test Event was beset by light winds and by the time the fleet had been released to race, what breeze there was had already started to shift and drop. The event was supposed to be at its half way stage by now, but the Finn class still has just three races on the board after three days.

Someone forgot to order the wind. The third day of racing for Finns at the Aquece Rio 2015 Test Event was beset by light winds and by the time the fleet had been released to race, what breeze there was had already started to shift and drop. The event was supposed to be at its half way stage by now, but the Finn class still has just three races on the board after three days.

It was a day of musical chairs. Initially scheduled to sail on the Sugar Loaf course area, late Monday the decision was taken to send the fleet out again to Copacabana for three races today. However the day started with the fleet being held onshore while the race committee headed out to the course area to wait in vain for four hours. Then an amendment was posted moving the fleet back to the Sugar Loaf area for racing once the 49erFX fleet had finished its racing. However almost as soon as the racing area became clear the breeze started to clock right and drop significantly with a calm patch working its way off the corner of the bay. The calm air was only broken by the incessant roar of planes taking off from the airport located at the harbour entrance.

It was soon clear nothing much was going to happen and sailing was quickly abandoned for the day and the race was on to get back to the slipway to beat the crush.

Now seriously behind schedule, the Finns will be using the reserve day on Wednesday. Three races are scheduled on Niteroi course, outside the bay on the opposite side to Copacabana. Some forecasts show very little wind, but most, if not all of the forecasts for the past two days have been more fantasy than forecast, so the sailors live in hope. Certainly the amount of cloud that arrived Tuesday afternoon could indicate a change in the weather, though some forecasts also show a lot of rain Wednesday evening and that may bring its own problems on Thursday.

The Aquece Rio 2015 Test Event continues until Saturday 22 August when the medal race for the top 10 will be held. The qualifying series is scheduled to be 10 races and will conclude on Friday 21 August.

Result after 3 races:

1 NED Pieter-Jan Postma 3
2 FIN Tapio Nirkko 6
3 FRA Jonathan Lobert 6
4 NOR Anders Pedersen 7
5 SWE Max Salminen 7
6 NZL Josh Junior 11
7 SLO Vasilij Zbogar 13
8 GBR Giles Scott 13
9 HUN Zsombor Berecz 15
10 DEN Jonas Hogh-Christensen 16
11 BRA Jorge Zarif 16
12 RUS Egor Terpigorev 19
13 AUS Jake Lilley 19
14 USA Caleb Paine 20
15 CHN Lei Gong 23
16 GRE Ioannis Mitakis 25
17 CRO Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic 26
18 TUR Alican Kaynar 28
19 POR Frederico Melo 36
20 CZE Ondrej Teply 36

Useful links

Finn Class photos (free for editorial use): www.flickr.com/finnclassphotos

Finn Class Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Finn-Class/110408332633

Results: http://www.sailing.org/olympics/rio2016/results/index.php

ISAF Olympic Website - http://www.sailing.org/olympics/rio2016/home.php

Online Notice Board - http://www.sailing.org/olympics/rio2016/results/notices/index.php

Race Areas - http://www.sailing.org/olympics/rio2016/about/race_areas.php

© 2024, International Finn Association, Inc