OCTOBER 2004 - Finn

Future events
Over the horizon
As another Olympiad beckons, Finn sailors are looking ahead with
eager anticpation to some great events in 2005. This includes the first ever
Finn Gold Cup in Russia – on waters near Moscow – and the Europeans
in Kalmar. Meanwhile the Masters retutrn to the ever popular Bracciano.
Finn Gold Cup: Dates: 4 to12 June. Acommodation will be available
on the site. Coaches boats will be available. 100 Finns are being
provided by the organisers. A charter flight will operate from Hamburg
to Moscow. More information will appear on www.finnclass.org and
the event website as it becomes available. The event website is
www.finngoldcup2005.ru (only in Russian at present, but will be in
English soon.) Entries will to go through each National secretary, who
will need to request all the places for their country to IFA no later than
the 15th of March 2005.
Progress Report on the Regatta Format for FGC 2005
The Finn Gold Cup 2005 is scheduled for Moscow, and due to the
restricted size of the sailing water, it has been agreed that it is essential
to sail the fleet of approximately 100 boats in groups. Nobody wants
a system of selection races followed by a short series for Gold and
Silver fleets, and at Corinne’s request, Bill Bell and Richard Hart have
been considering better ways to run the races in groups. The Finn
Masters do this by splitting the fleet into groups A, B, C and D, then
racing AB, AC, AD etc throughout the regatta. A variation proposed
to the AGM at La Rochelle was to use the group system as do the
masters until the last day, when there would be a final shootout in
Gold and Silver fleets. The AGM was not satisfied with this, and in
particular wanted regrouping to be carried out on several occasions
during the process.
Bill and Richard went back to the drawing board, and Bill had a brain
wave leading to a far simpler system that we think is better, and
satisfies the requirements of AGM.
At the start of the regatta, the top ten sailors would be seeded into
‘Odd’ and ‘Even’ groups according to their places in the ISAF rankings.
Other sailors from each country would be placed into the Odd and
Even groups alternately.
The two groups would race separately until the final day. After each
day’s racing, the overall places would be worked out as usual, using
the low points system. The sailors would placed into Odd and Even
groups for the next day, depending on their position in the overall
points (with discard etc).
For the final day, the groups would be arranged into Gold and Silver
Fleets, based on their overall points. For the Gold Fleet, the points
scored would be half the points scored in the group races, so that
there would be not more than 0.5 point bonus on the last race result.
Consider two top sailors each winning separate group races: they
beat everybody else and get 1.0 points each. In the final they again
beat everybody else and one of them gets 0.5 point, the other gets
1.0 point.
On the final day, the Silver Fleet would also score in steps of 0.5
point, but a winner would have 0.5 more than the last of the Gold
Fleet (if they all finished). In a 100 boat fleet, a Gold Fleet winner
would score 0.5, the 50th could be on 25.0. A Silver Fleet winner
would score 25.5. At the back, a sailor finishing last in a group race
would score 50.0. If he then persevered to finish 50th (and last) in
a Silver Fleet race, he would score 25.0 + 25.0 = 50.0 points.
The details are still being worked out, but we are confident that we
are getting to a system that is fair and workable, without spoiling the
traditional Finn type of regatta where we are all in it together.
Finn World Masters 2005
The Finn World Masters 2005 will be held in Bracciano, a lake
located 40 km north of Rome in a nice country landscape. The
organising yacht club, Amici Velici Vigna di Valle (AVVV) has
already hosted the Finn Masters in 1985 and 1993 and is actively
working on organising the 2005 event.
The preliminary schedule for the championship is measurement:
May 13-May 15 followed by the practice race on May 15 and the
racing itself from May 16 to May 21
A web site is already active (www.avvv.it) and will be constantly
updated with the Notice of Race, and all the information on
accommodation, travel, etc.
Another useful source of information is the Finn Masters class
web site, available on line at www.finn-world-master.com..
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