Legend Hart leads Master Budzien. Image copyright Tosca Zambra.
by Robert Deaves
One race was all he needed and that was the way it turned out. A fifth race win for Michael Maier (CZE) gave him his second Finn World Masters title, after first winning it back in 2006. Silver goes to the defending champion André Budzien (GER) and a last minute charge from Christen Christoph (SUI) gave him the bronze.
Michael Gubi (AUT) wins the Grand Masters after a great last day while local hero Luksa Cicarelli (CRO) pulled out all the stops to snatch the Grand Grand Masters title on the final race and Richard Hart (GBR) continued his absolute dominances of the 15 Legends to take the title that all Finn sailors aspire to win.
On the final day, the last two races were sailed in an ESE wind in front of Sustipan hill, close to shore on course Alpha. The wind increased during first race from 10 to 12 knots,and later in race 7 to more than 12 knots so Oscar was displayed for free and fun pumping.
RED group started on time with Cees Scheurwater (NED) the early leader. Maier soon worked his way to the front to take his final winner's gun and the title. Scheurwater finished second with Christen Christoph in third. In the BLUE group HUN5 rounded first ahead of Felix Denikaev (RUS) and Richard Hart. Budzien, who had rounded fourth took the lead on the next leg to record his first win of the championship with Allen Burrell (GBR) moving up to second and Francesco Cinque (ITA) in third.
The final race started soon after. With Maier heading in for an early shower, the next nine places were still wide open, as were the Grand Master and Grand Grand Master titles. The BLUE group was off first with Burrell leading Budzien and Bernd Moser (AUT). However Budzien was soon back in the lead to record his second win of the day. Burrell picked up another second place with Peter Mosny (SVK) in third.
The final RED group race was critical as it was here that the bronze medal and the Grand Masters title was decided. Of the five sailors fighting for the bronze, Christoph came off the best leading round the first mark to take his first win of the championship, ahead of Michael Gubi (AUT) and Attila Szilvassy (HUN), to secure the bronze medal.
Grand Master Michael Gubi. Image copyright Tosca Zambra.
Gubi's third place was enough to take the Grand Masters title from Marco Buglielli (ITA) at the last possible moment. Until the final day Buglielli had never being below second overall and had to settle for seventh overall and second Grand Master.
One gold medal and Grand Grand Master title (60-69 years old) will stay in Croatia. Luksa Cicarelli (CRO) from YC Labud picked up a sixth in the final race to take the title from Wouter Molenaar (NED), who had also led the most of the week.
Grand Grand Master Luksa Cicarelli. Image copyright Tosca Zambra.
Cicarelli said, "I was not able to fully concentrate on sailing, however conditions were excellent so I could catch and overtake opponents in my category. And I have to say that this year the competition was stronger than before."
Richard Hart capped a remarkable week with a 9-23 to end up 44th overall and take the Legend category (70+) by a country mile. Second Legend Victor Kozlov (RUS) finished in 101st place with more than twice Hart's points total.
The prizegiving giving held outside YC Labud on Friday evening brought to an end the Finn classes long and fruitful occupation of Split. With the Europeans and then the Masters, the club has been a Finn base for most of the last month and the club members will no doubt be pleased to get their dinghy park back. YC Labud has been the perfect host and has put on some great and fair racing in perhaps some trying and unusual conditions over the past three weeks.
In the end it turned into a week of two halves. The start of the week was light and favoured one part of the fleet, while the end of the week was windier and favoured the heavier and stronger sailors. With sailors of Maier's calibre now a fixture at the regatta, the standard is improving all the time.
Buzien leads Burrell. Image copyright Tosca Zambra.
Budzien continues to make records - he has now taken the podium eight years running - four times second, three times winner and now silver again, while Christen Christoph takes the bronze at his first Finn World Masters.
This year, as ever, there were many new and old faces and the nature of the competition is that more sailors qualify every year just by being a year older. Next year the championship is being held in Punta Ala in Italy and that is sure to be a very popular venue.
Brigitte Devillers. Image copyright Tosca Zambra.
Final results (top 20 out of 167)
1 CZE 1 Michael Maier 7
2 GER 711 Andre Budzien 18
3 SUI 5 Christen Christoph 22
4 AUT 7 Michael Gubi 25
5 HUN 211 Attila Szilvassy 26
6 GBR 2 Allen Burrell 27
7 ITA 2 Marco Buglielli 28
8 SVK 1 Peter Mosny 31
9 DEN 6 Lars Hall 35
10 CRO 6 Armano Zekan 37
11 NED 29 Bas de Waal 43
12 GBR 65 David Potter 46
13 GBR 61 John Heyes 54
14 AUS 3 Jake Gunther 55
15 HUN 7 Antal Szekely 63
16 ITA 5 Francesco Cinque 68
17 GBR 68 John Mackie 79
18 NED 27 Paul Kamphorst 70
19 HUN 5 Zsombor Majthenyi 71
20 ITA 4 Francesco Faggiani 72
Grand Masters (50-59yr)
1. Michael Gubi (AUT)
2 Marco Buglielli(AUT)
3. Lars Hall (DEN)
Grand Grand Masters (60-69yr)
1. Luksa Cicarelli (CRO)
2. Wouter Molenaar (NED)
3. Marin Mrduljas (CRO)
Legends (70+)
1. Richard Hart (GBR)
2. Viktor Kozlov (RUS)
3. John Ulbrich (SUI)
Finn Class
Finn World Masters
