Nordic Youths report, 4th day

DENMARK IS TEAM RACING BOSS

Team racing was on the agenda on the fourth day of the Junior Nordics in sailing. The light and fickle northwesterly winds trickled through southern Helsinki on their way to the sea. The team races were run for both Optimist and Zoom classes, separately for boys and girls. There was a lot of flag-waving and cheerleading in the best Superbowl manner. The team racers were really yakking it up on the race track. "Starboard! Room at the mark! Protest!" they yelled at their opponents. Tactical advice was continuolsy offered to the teammates: "Make him tack! Slow down the boat behind you! You go offshore, I will go inshore! ". Outside assistance is not allowed in regular fleet racing, but in team racing there is no limitation.

The Danes had clearly practiced a lot of team racing. They got going quickly, and started systematically improving the team’s position by irritating, braking and misleading the opposition. All very legal in team racing. After the dust settled on the course, the Danish steamroller had blasted through to three of a possible four gold medals. The Danish “roligans” (pleasant hooligans) really whooped it up at the prize giving, singing their national anthem in unison.

Finland pulled out a surprise to reach the boys’ finale, to great cheers from the local audience. This feat was last performed in 2002 in Kokkola. The blue-and-white team fought well, pushing the Danes all the way to  a third and decisive race. Anton, Casimir, Martin, Nuutti, Vili - how did you sail so well? - Our tactics for the day was to stay cool and avoid making mistakes. We let the others make the mistakes. It worked well, none of us burned any fuses. We beat the over-confident Swedes, they thought they had us in the bag, the Finnish boys figured.

In the girls’ optimist finale, it was Norway's turn to get trounced by Denmark. It was a bit surprising that Sweden, leading individually in both categories, had to settle for bronze or less in the team races.  
In the Zoom class, the Finnish sailors were individually very strong. But they lacked experience of team racing. In the finale, the boys lost surprisingly to Denmark, and the girls to Norway. Maybe the Zoom gang should practice more team racing? Norway took the men's Zoom bronze.

Out on the Gulf of Finland, off the shipping route to Tallinn, the larger dinghy classes continued their races. The treat of the day were some elegant port-tack starts right in front of the field. Michael Ravn-Jorgensen in the Europe class used this method to take an early lead, giving him a good second place at the end. The leading trio of Dane Lau Zachariassen in Europe, Estonian Anna Pohlak in Laser Radial and Finn Riku Vääriskoski in Laser 4.7 continued to pull away from their rivals in the point standings.

Henry Clayhills Ericsson, press officer, phone +358-500-433580.