Budzien wins second Finn World Masters with a day to spare

In the first heat, defending World Champion, Andre Budzien (GER) continued to lead the scoreline, but tainted his copybook with a third place finish behind Thierry van Vierssen (NED) and Han Bergma (NED). In the second heat, Ilias Hatzipaulis (GRE) won in front of Gerko Visser (NED) and Eric Bakker (NED).

The Dutch home fleet are having a great regatta with no less than 9 boats inside the top 20. Many have been training here for months in preparation for this regatta.

On Thursday, the wind started at around 15 knots but soon dropped to about 10 knots once the starts got underway, and at times during the races dropped to 4-5 knots. It was very tricky sailing at times.

Wide pressure differential across the course also caused a few upsets, but Budzien assured himself of his second consecutive title by placing second in his heat behind Hatzipaulis who won his second race in a row. The other heat was won by Mihail Kopanov (BUL) in a race plagued by large wind shifts and patchy holes across the course.

The final race will be sailed tomorrow at 11.30, and although the winner is assured, everyone else in the top 10 is already discarding a high score, so the other medal places are wide open.