The U23 Finn World Championship for the Jorg Bruder Finn Silver Cup concluded today in Canet en Roussillon, France, with three more races to complete the series. Defending champion, Oskari Muhonen, from Finland, wrapped up an almost flawless week with three more race wins to take a record third Silver Cup title. Taavi Valter Taveter, from Estonia had the next best of the final day to take silver, while Guillaume Boisard, from France, took bronze.
For the first time all week, the races started on time at 12.00 with 10 knots of breeze building up to 15-10 at times, but was up and down all day.
Muhonen led the first two races from start to finish even though it was quite close. Meanwhile Taveter was really strong in the hiking conditions and fast downwind and was looking good from the first race onwards.
The nerves from Thursday had also disappeared and today both Boisard and Taveter sailed much better and for Races 2 and 3 there was a match race before the start as Bosiard had a better drop. In race 2 this tactic worked well for Boisard as they got round the top mark in fourth and fifth. But in the end Taveter made it through with strong hiking and better downwind pumping.
After the second race, with Domonkos Nemeth, from Hungary, getting two thirds, Boisard and Taveter were on equal points. So the silver came down to the final race.
The last race was a match race from the five-minute gun. Taveter led back to the start and Boisard tried to get the overlap several times. It was pretty close with several calls to the jury and there was a protest afterwards which was dismissed. But they had a really good start with Boisard holding Taveter out to the left side of the course trying to sail him back through the fleet, but when they came back in, they were one and two at the top.
The downwind was really tight with wind from 9-10 knots and huge waves. Muhonen made it round just ahead of Taveter and Nemeth and that was pretty much the end of Boisard’s chances to take the silver. However both sailed really well and were worthy of the podium places
Nemeth said, “I came third in all the races today, though in the second race I was second but over the layline, but that was OK. Overall it didn’t change anything. I won the U19 and overall fourth, It was really good week and I enjoyed the regatta. We had every kind of condition, so it was the best kind of regatta we could have.”
New U23 World Champion, Muhonen said, “Today was pretty nice day with light breeze but building through the day. We started with 10 and ended with 14-15 and really big waves with nice downwinds.”
“I had decent speed so it was quite easy to stay close to the fleet and use the speed. Really good day for me.”
“I think the whole regatta was really nice we had all conditions from really light to really strong, shifty days and some stable breeze as well. I performed pretty well all week, especially with upwind speed. It made it a bit easier for me tactically.”
“I am pretty happy about the results. It was good racing and nice to get the third title. It was also pretty good preparation for the Europeans, which start in two week’s time.”
Final results after 12 races
1 FIN 8 Oskari Muhonen 12
2 EST 1 Taavi Valter Taveter 32
3 FRA 9 Guillaume Boisard 34
4 HUN 80 Domonkos Nemeth 42
5 GER 723 Nicolas Thierse 45
6 ESP 888 Andres Juan LLoret Perez 75
7 FRA 85 Aubert Lerouge 82
8 FRA 49 Kevin Maurin 83
9 FRA 98 Thomas Piotrowski 83
10 FRA 1 Descriaud Lucas116
Full results: http://2020.finnsilvercup.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/silver_cup_2020_g-2.htm
Photo album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/finnclassphotos/albums/72157715536147498
– Robert Deaves
