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505 Nordics in Turku - so close ........
505 Nordic & Finnish Championships: Åbo/Turku, Finland
11-13 August, 2017
Final Results –
Photos plus
Photo Gallery: Studio Kukka (all classes 2017 Airisto Regatta)
It would not have looked good if the Nordic
region's largest Five-Oh-Five Nation had not been represented during
the Nordic Championship. Most people probably agreed.
As it happened, there was not a single regular
crew that had the opportunity to go. Plan B had to be launched and,
as usual, Lasse and Per-Eric sat like spiders in the net and managed
to puzzle myself with Ebbe and Galen with a, it would turn out,
potential but far from an experienced trapezing Finnish crew. Two
Swedish boats ended up on the ferry in Stockholm with destination
Turku.
Crewing with the class dominant
I must willingly admit that I was a little
excited about jumping into the same boat as the class dominant and
during the crossing I tried a little tentative fishing for how Ebbe
and Olle used to distribute the job in the boat and what expectations
he had of the man in the wire. Ebbe turned out to be very
cool and said something like that they used to discuss most things
and that it would probably work out well for the two of us as well.
Friday morning we finally arrived at the marina,
around the same time as the rest of Finland woke up. The harbor was
completely deserted, but it was a nice morning, warm and it promised
good things. Eventually both we and Galen got the boats in order and
finally Galen's crew also showed up and was introduced to the 505.
Speed - absolutely and especially on downwinds!
The first start was planned to 13.00.
Sunny, warm and moderate wind. Perfect! It struck me before the
start how incredibly safe Ebbe was with his boat speed. Where we
normally test our speed a little anxiously, it was obvious that I
was now sailing with a helmsman who knew exactly what was going on
under today's conditions. But we had the European Championships in
fresh memory and remembered Jukka Nieminen and Antti Salonen's fine
results at Warnemunde. Among the thirteen starting boats,
they also won both the first races and we thought well yes, we may
well try to be second in any case. In the third race, however, they
turned out to be human and instead 8678 nailed the third race. Ebbe
and I had the series second, fourth, third, which we were of course
super happy with. Good speed in the boat, not least on the downwinds
and a fairly conservative sailing was our tune. Galen and Joonatan
Hollmén retired from the first race and then came tenth and eleventh
respectively. Struggling with someone who has never been in a
trapeze.
Hospitable Finns
On land, the Finns, like Finns, were
expected to be a bit the opposite. Open and incredibly hospitable.
In the clubhouse, which was a bit reminiscent of
Arkösund's
NSS clubhouse, they had set up a generous buffet and after a mandatory
sauna, it was a hugely welcome event.
Jari and Tuomas with beating angles like a Starboat
On Saturday, it stormed all over Finland
except in the Turku archipelago. The day before it had been an
advantage to stay to the right but now the wind was a little more
southerly and instead it was important to find the pressure in the
rain showers that passed. 9069, Jari Hamström and Tuomas Laurila
(who btw feel like they have beating angles like a starboat, no one
wants shelter in the start…) won the day's first race, 8927 was
second, 9193 third and we came fourth. The second day started with
about 5 m/s, but gradually you had to start bending your legs in the
trapeze, then sit in the boat and finally down in the shelter. The
wind blew across the ridge, but on an island some distance from us a
flag fluttered again. We cut in that direction, got the new wind
first and finally reached the finish line. Unfortunately, the race
was then canceled, probably because the maximum time had expired.
Sour feeling.
Exemplary organizers
Must say that the organizer was exemplary
even out on the water. Short waiting times and good courses.
Considering that the regatta is the club's largest annual event with
lots of classes, everything worked very smoothly. Go there is my tip
if you get the chance.
Complete results for all classes at the 2017 Airisto Regatta.
Two nails the last day!
Time for the last day. Four boats were in
some kind of even pole position, of which we were one of these. Now
it had started to blow a little more. The first race we rounded
somewhere with a queue but we had found an interplay in the headwind
and now with a little more pressure it was where we had our tip.
Soon we were in the lead in that race and the fact is that we
managed to get two straight nails.
Hysterically even before the last race
Before the last race, it was hysterical even between four boats. In
the name of honesty, we did not really know how even it was and
which boats had which points but drove on as before and sailed our
own race. We finished fourth and that meant that we also finished
fourth in the regatta. 9069 won the last race why Jari and Tuomas
also became Nordic Champions, and also Finnish champions. Galen
together with Joonatan had struggled with the end result after a
retired race and a couple of jump starts.
Inspiration
Personally, it was very inspiring and
educational to sail with Ebbe. My impression was a very focused
helmsman who does not like to let go of his sails and who absolutely
knows how to make a Five-Oh go fast. At the same time, it became
very obvious that speed in the boat can not be set with a lot of
measuring or that it is in some other way a quick fix. It's
incredibly more complex than that.
Optimists with sisu
I also have to tell you one last
impression. You know, in a Swedish optimist regatta there is one Rib
per dinghy. A little exaggerated perhaps, but I do not think any
Swedish optimist has been rigged by the sailor himself on this side
of the millennium. In Finland, they load up to 30 optimists per
trailer and optician, hear and be amazed, both unload, rig and
reload without a single adult handle. I think even they had their
lunch sandwiches with them in their own boat. Would it even work on
Swedish water? What do I know, but maybe those are the details that
are that famous Finnish sisun?
Finally, thank you Ebbe for a lot of lessons and a
very nice regatta.
Lars Wester
FIN 9193 Jukka Nieminen and Antti Salonen
FIN 9069, Jari Hamström and Tuomas Laurila
The 505 Nordic Champions 2017, Jari Hamström and
Tuomas Laurila
True to tradition, the new Finnish and Nordic champions,
Jari and Toumas, had a trip to the harbor!
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