JNOM report day 2
Light breezes for the juniors
The weather was glorious with soft breezes kicking up a small chop on Kronberg bay where the Zoom 8-class had its races. The local clubs NJK and BS ran the arrangements at a good clip. It was almost wall-to-wall rubber duckies as all the team leaders and supporters crowded in.
The boys started first, followed five minutes later by the girls. The trapezoid race course split the field nicely. The boys beat up the middle of the bay, while the girls crept up along the Helsinki Zoo shoreline. When the groups came together at the finish, the fastest girls had often overtaken the slowest guys.
As the day grew hotter, so did the temper of the sailors. There was a lot of shouting at the start and the marks: Room! Water! Plats! Tilaa! In the beginning, it sufficed with individual recalls, but towards the end both groups were shown the black flag after general recalls. The umpires on the water were watching the fleet with hawk’s eyes. Although it was not blowing much, a total of seven sailors were shown the yellow flag for pumping. The penalty was an immediate 720 turn. The culprits spun like lightning, clearly they had been training intensively in advance.
The blue and white colors were defended well by Victor Silén and Juulia Toroi, with clear leads in their groups. Victor was followed by David Sander from Denmark and Eirik Gramnäs from Norway. Juulia was shadowed by the Dane Helene Melde Gjerde and Julia’s teammate Noora Ruskola.
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The Optimist races were run off Skifferholmen (Slate Island). The day began with a fresh wind, but in the afternoon the wind began to die. Quite a few sailors lost concentration. The committee had to use the black flag at most starts, causing the disqualification of eight boats. At the end, it took quite a while to get all boats over the finish line. The Swedes kept up the fighting spirit, grabbing the top spots in both groups.
After the strenuous drifting matches, Oliver Österberg and Emma Fridolfsson were the category winners of the day. The Finnish felt that the going was boring. This could clearly be seen in the results of the day. The first Finnish boy, Jacob von Koskull, came in 16th, while the first Finnish girl Jemina Lehto took a 17th place. For Thursday, the team hopes for more wind and more "extreme stuff."
Henry Clayhills Ericsson, press officer
