5. Gold Cup 1960
Torquay, England, June 4-10 38 entries from 7 countries In accordance with the sponsor’s wishes the event had to be staged in Great Britain in 1960. The date was in conflict with Kiel Week and the preparation of many nations for the Olympics. Vernon Stratton took advantage of the circumstances and won the Cup against 19 foreigners from 6 nations and 18 British competitors. Elvström did not defend his title but concentrated upon his preparations for the Olympics.
Final Results Gold Cup 1960
6. Gold Cup 1961 Travemünde, Federal Republic at Germany, August 14-19 109 entries from 17 countries Wind conditions in the Bay of Lübeck were excellent but the political climate frosty. The organiser did not allow the participants from the German Democratic Republic to fly their flag and therefore they remained ashore. The Russians took advantage of that misery and borrowed the unused boats, because their own crafts had gone astray somewhere between east and west. With Paul Elvström absent, the victory of Andre Nelis was certain by the end of the 4th race. Hans Fogh, silver medalist in the FD in Naples, established himself by winning the practice race. He convinced the fleet, that he had no intention to leave without the cup. Fred Miller, the first editor of FINNFARE, was the first participant in any Gold Cup from the US and finished third. He had the best equipment and speed of the entire fleet but poor tactics. Andre Nelis used a very simple plastic boat, the first plastic boat to win the Gold Cup. The fact, that the first three boats were made from GRP shocked the Class.
Final Results Gold Cup 1961
7. Gold Cup 1962 Tonsberg, Norway, August 6-11 133 entries from 16 countries In 1962 the Finns gathered once again in Sweden for a Gold Cup. 133 actual starters from 16 countries lined up, the biggest fleet up to that time in any yachting event. The Swedish dominated the fleet, winning four of the five races. Arne Akerson had bought the plastic Newport which Fred Miller had brought from the US and sailed to 3rd place in Travemünde in 1961. Arne even used Fred’s sail, mast and boom. Measuring that boat the committee had found several kilos of lead built into the bottom and forced Arne to take it out and place it under the deck. For the rest the top positions were dominated by Elvström boats. The Finn fleet was shocked by the outstanding performance of the GRP hulls. As a result the newly elected president of the IFA Harald Bredo Eriksen of Norway initiated a Technical Committee, which was supposed to work out a new set of rules, controlling wooden boats as well as plastic GRP hulls. The winds at the Gold Cup were strong, the waves tremendous, the committee boat not anchored, the starts a battlefield, but the racing great. The winner was not decided until the last beat of the last race.
Final Results Gold Cup 1962
8. Gold Cup 1963 Medemblik, Holland, August 12-19 162 entries from 22 countries The Gold Cup in 1963 brought another record with 162 boats from 22 nations. The weather was wet and the wind was always very shifty. All the five races suffered from a constant change of speed and direction of the wind. Success was mainly a question of a good start in front of the crowd and an instinct for the next windshift. Many of the old favourites ended up low down in the final results and some new faces appeared in top positions. Hardly anybody managed to sail consistently. The measurement was poor and the newly created Technical Committee was not yet in control of the situation. Twenty year old Willy Kuhweide became the young winner of the Gold Cup. He had acquired a brand new Elvström boat just before the event. But generally results were so topsy-turvy, that no general pattern emerged. All sorts of boats, masts, sails and people turned out to he successful.
Final Results Gold Cup 1963
9.Gold Cup 1964 Torquay, England, July 18-26 65 entries from 20 countries In 1964 the Cup had to be organised again in Great Britain. Because of the transport problems and a new entry system - in response to the problems at the starting line the previous year - only 65 participants entered. For the entire series there was hardly enough wind for gunwhale sitting, let alone leaning out. Every race suffered from big wind shifts, Sometimes these were so sudden and at such a magnitude that they turned the race into a game of chance. But whenever there was some rhyme and reason to them, there was Austria’s 21 year old skipper Hubert Raudaschl in his homemade 1961 wooden boat with his homemade sail to take cool advantage of them. He even had the Cup in his bag before the last race and came out on the last day as a spectator. He had won the first and sixth race, placed sixth, fifth and fourth and finished only once with a two digit result. The measurement under chief measurer Vernon Forster was very strict. A newcomer from Brazil named Jörg Bruder ended up fifth.
Final Results Gold Cup 1964
10. Gold Cup 1965 Gdynia, Poland, July 22-29 93 entries from 21 countries For the first time in its history the Gold Cup was held in an East European country The racing was held in DanzigBay. World measurer Vernon Forster took care of the strict measurement of 93 Finns. In the practice race a gate start proved to be unsatisfactory and the real racing was conducted with conventional starts. The wind was generally very strong causing many capsizes and much gear failure. The event was won by Jürgen Mier from the German Democratic Republic by consistent sailing in the difficult conditions. His countryman Bernd Dehmel won two races and finished second. Richard Hart from the UK won two other races. But the moral winner was Miroslav Vejvoda from the CSSR who had won one race, abandoned one whilst leading because of a minor collision and capsized twice in the windy last race after twice regaining the lead.
Final Results Gold Cup 1965
11. Gold Cup 1966 La Baule, France, August 21-29 150 entries from 26 countries 150 participants from a record 26 countries had to face a strict measurement in accordance under the new set of rules. This Gold Cup brought about a renaissance of wooden boats made by Raudaschl. Willy Kuhweide was a lucky winner followed by Jörg Bruder, both with boats, masts and sails from Hubert. There was general agreement that the Newport Finn of Ed Bennett from the USA was the finest plastic boat by far, but it was very close to tolerance at the sheer - extremely narrow. Willy Kuhweide did not win any races but always had fairly good results. In very difficult shifty wind conditions he proved to have an outstanding knowledge of meteorology. He was always looking around at the other boats, the sky and the weather and water conditions to gather information on which way to go. At the same time he sailed very fast while not giving boat speed his absolute attention. Germany with 1/3/4/5 dominated the fleet, but Jörg Bruder 2nd and Henry Sprague going top speed into the wrong direction indicated the awakening of a young continent for Finn sailing.
Final Results Gold Cup 1966
12. Gold Cup 1967 Hanko, Finland, August 6-12 130 entries from 22 countries A force 9 gale on the first scheduled day of racing gave Vernon Forster one more day of telling 130 sailors what rules are made for. Hardly any boat had a rudder narrow enough to fit into the then 20 mm slot of Vernon’s template. Most of the booms had hard wood extending further than 560 mm from the leading edge of the mast. The biggest deal however was the planing ceremony of the famous Raudaschl Finns (including those of Kuhweide, Mares and Bruder) at station 1 to get them straight and not concave. The event was dominated by wooden Raudaschl hulls, wooden Bruder masts and Raudaschl sails. The plastic GRP hulls had lost their glory which they had gained at the beginning of the sixties. The Germans Dehmel, Kuhweide, Mares and Mier lead 4 out of the 6 races from start to finish. The surprise was the Japanese sailor, Matsyuama, who won one race but was disqualified for a PMS and almost won another. After two races with light shifty wind the 3rd race was blessed with a steady force 5. Before the last race Mankin was leading by two points over Kuhweide. But Willy won because of his incredible speed and his steel nerves and Mankin ended up sixth.
Final Results Gold Cup 1967
13. Gold Cup 1968 Whitstable Kent, England July 8-13 138 entries from 38 countries The commodore of Whitstable Yacht Club summed up the event in his speech at the prize giving by starting: “Companions in disaster, at least nobody was drowned”. The regatta just didn’t work out. By deed of gift the Gold Cup had to be organised every Olympic year in Great Britain. Many British Finn sailors themselves debated the wisdom of going to Whitstable. The small size of the Yacht Club, the crowded dinghy park, the lack of hotels, restaurants and mainly pubs, and the high tide were deplorable. Finally the actual racing was so unsatisfactory. At times some skippers had to sail with unshipped rudders. Others - less scrupulous - went overboard and dragged their boats towards the next mark. At the end of one race the crew of a rescue boat reported to have been able to walk across the finishing line without getting his knees wet. And the competitors had to pull back their boats over miles of mud because of the outgoing tide. At the end of the week only four races still stood and two of them had to survive protests to be abandoned. The best thing about this unhappy troubled week was that Henning Wind, the Danish Tokyo Bronze Medalist, was the best sailor and the winner. He won the first race, came fifth in the second and afterwards lost neither his hair nor his points average, though all about him were losing theirs. Raudaschl hulls, Bruder masts and Raudaschl sails dominated the fleet. But during the week it was found that Raudaschl’s 1968 sails contravened the rules, inserting 4 oz cloth in the prevalent 3 oz sail.
Final Results Gold Cup 1968
14. Gold Cup 1969 Hamilton Bermuda October 2-10 132 entries from 27 countries For the first time the Finn Gold Cup was organised outside Europe. A very generous invitation for food and lodging and vast support for transportation of the boats attracted a large number of entries. Even Paul Elvström decided to return to the Finn at age 41. All competitors agreed, that this was one at the best organised world championships ever. The only disruptions were Hurricanes Inga and Kara, pushing wind velocity as high as 30 to 40 knots. Because of Inga racing was postponed from October 3 to 7. Andy Zawieja was delivered by a crane from a Polish freighter, which did not enter Bermuda’s territorial wafers, and paddled with all his gear ashore, to be picked up again by the same freighter two weeks later in the middle of the ocean after he had cleared through customs. Lundquist, a 22 year old Student at Gothenburg University, won the Gold Cup. Jörg Bruder became runner up for the second time. Peter Barrett could have still won the trophy while leading in the last race, but capsized and ended up third. To any sane man the last race should not have been sailed with gusts up to 30 knots and above. But there is something mad about Finn sailors anyway. That last race Henry Sprague III was leading all the way but had a PMS. Finally Walter Mai got line honours, with Bruder second. Bruder masts with Raudaschl sails still dominated the fleet. Jack Knights introduced the first aluminium mast into the Gold Cup scenery.
Final Results Gold Cup 1969
|