DAY 3
RACE 1
The tricky weather conditions outside Tallinn continued as the Melges24 Nordic Championships 2009 started its’ third and final day of racing. Dark clouds passed over the course but rainshowers kept back at the mainland.
The first start was delayed by a good half an hour due to lack of wind. When the start shot went off the wind was a south-westerly breeze of about 7-9 knots.
Points board leader EST- 790 helmed by Tõnu Tõniste got off to a great start, whereas other Estonian favourite EST-791 helmed by Peter Saraskin made a fault and had to take a penalty rounding.
At the first windward mark EST-790 was in a good lead, followed by SWE-537 helmed by Jonas Svensson and EST -791 who had made a great recovery from a bad start. Teams were forced to tack to make the spreader mark which caused placements to change as boats were stuck behind each other with no wind in sails. At the run the wind shifted slightly towards the right, and Tõniste was quick to react at the leeward mark and tacked accordingly. He had now gained a significant lead to the Swedes, who were ahead of Saraskin in third place.
Top positions were held steady to the finish line, where Tõniste got the disappointing news that he had been OCS, and his win was disqualified, giving the race win to Svensson.
RACE 2
Thunder could be heard over the mainland as the second race started at about 1.30 pm. The wind had shifted radically to a north-western direction but was still a weak 7-9 knots. This time the RC boat end was a popular place to be and the crowding resulted in several penalties right at the start.
On the first beat the right side of the course proved stronger, and first at the windward mark was SWE-537 helmed by Jonas Svensson, with EST-761 helmed by Tiit Vihul in second place and FIN-651 helmed by Kristian Raij in third. The situation at the second windward mark was repeated from the first race as teams had to tack to make the spreader mark and places changed again.
First at the leeward mark was EST-761 who had overtaken the Swedes SWE-537, and EST-790 was now in third place.
The right side of the course was still favourable for the second beat, and EST-761 got to the second windward mark by a huge margin to SWE-537. Third was now FIN-529 helmed by Sami Ekblad.
Vihul finally crossed the finished line first in front of the Swedes SWE-537, well ahead of the rest of the fleet.
RACE 3
For the third and last race of the day and the Nordics, the calm wind kept a north-westerly direction.
The pin end of the start line was again the favourite, and intense crowding at the flag resulted in several individual recalls.
Again choice of the side of course proved crucial to the teams, and in this race FIN-650 with Samuel Thesleff helming did an excellent job in reading the tricky puffs and taking the right side.
He was first at the top mark with FIN-437 helmed by Patrick Bäck and Tiit Vihul right behind him. On the run positions were kept except for Peter Saraskin’s EST-791 who stole second place from Bäck at the first leeward mark, dropping Vihul to fourth place. Thesleff kept his head and arrived first to the second windward mark, with Saraskin standing in second place but now FIN-645 helmed by Freddy Markelin in third place.
At the second leeward mark Thesleff was still in the lead with Saraskin behind him. Amazingly EST-790 with Tõnu Tõniste helming had now caught up to third place, an excellent catch up after getting a bad start of the race.
First to cross the finish line was happy Thesleff with crew, second Saraskin and Tõniste a great third.
Not to mention Tiit Vihul and crew (Tiit Vihul in photo below) coming in as fourth, thus taking the overall win of the Nordics 2009!
So congratulations to the winner "Rock City" and the winning crew: Tiit Vihul, Indrek Ulla, Lauri Kärner, Triin Sarapuu, Martin Muur.
Silver to EST 791 "Zuxu" helmed by Peter Saraskin and bronze to EST 790 "Lenny" helmed by Tõnu Tõniste.
The racing continues for 4 Finnish and 5 Estonian boats just 3 weeks from now in Hyeres France. Hyeres will host The Melges 24 European Championship starting on Monday the 24rd of August.
Photo by: Finnish Melges 24 Fleet / Petri Korteniemi
Final results - click here
Super amount of pictures in different galleries:
- Kalev Yacht Club gallery 1 gallery 2 (in total over 800 pictures!)
- Finnish Melges 24 Fleet / Vesa Lindqvist and Paul Andersson (in total over 700 pictures!)