Moi moi
A very early start on Monday morning to start the return journey
from Helsinki to Riva del Garda via Turku, Stockholm and Milano.
Not the quickest way to get home… but it works.
After several big days of sailing and late nights, we crashed and
burned pretty hard when it came to the final regatta in Helsinki
over the weekend. Lauri & Miika sailed well, and at times I was
so angry I was ready to get on the first flight to Australia… but
we won’t go into that…
Now its time for a few days off, with a weekend regatta in Italy
before some time-out in Amsterdam.
The Scandinavians have been so incredibly hospitable during our
trip… absolutely amazing. I think I’ll have to come back and
visit in the future…
Here is a quick report which I will add to 29er.org soon
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Finnish Grand Prix
The 29er fleet is warming up in Helsinki, with two Grand Prix
regattas over the last two weekends attracting the biggest 29er
fleet yet seen in Finland. Raced in coordination with Finnish 49er
Grand Prix, the events saw 8 and 12 races sailed over short courses
in close proximity to the shore and spectators.
Visiting entrant Hitachi-Harken sailed by Dave O’Connor & Scott
Babbage took the honours in the first event held at Espoo. The
Australians ran away with a few wins in the shifting offshore
breeze to take out the series with Audi sailed by Silja Lehtinen
& Sijla Kanerva sailing well to defeat the reigning Finnish
Champions Arcada, sailed by Lauri Lehtinen & Miika
Pennanen.
Along with hundreds of other spectators, the 29er competitors
watched the 49er racing, where Olympic Gold Medallist Thomas
Johanssen and Jukka Piranien sailed well to win the day in an
exciting final race. With on-shore commentary and television
coverage, the Finnish Grand Prix series demonstrates a successful
formula allowing teams to generate important sponsorship
funds.
The second weekend of the series was sailed across two venues, with
offshore racing in very cold and wavy conditions on Friday,
followed by two days of sailing in light and wet conditions in
Helsinki. Sailing well in the varied conditions, Arcada raced away
to an insurmountable lead from Audi, with Hitachi-Harken struggling
to find form. At the end of the series Lehtinen/Pennanen walked
away with a 10 point lead.
Lauri Lehtinen sailed both the 29er and 49er on the final Sunday of
the event, upstaging experienced 49er helms to take out the B-final
and advance to the next round. Lethinen was not so fortunate in the
A-final, with tricky conditions allowing the well practiced teams
to shine through, with visiting Dutch combination of ?? defeating
Johanssen/Piranien.
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