The 2024 Finn World Masters at PuntAla Camp & Resort is going down to the wire for an epic finish to an epic event.
After six races Laurent Hay of France leads with 7 pts from Valérian Lebrun France and Martijn van Muyden of Holland who are tied on 9 pts. Immediatly behind the podium trio are Germany’s André Budzien and Nanno Schuttrups of Holland both on 11 pts.
Lebrun, van Muyden and Schuttrups plus Austria’s Florian Raudaschl, 24th overall, were the penultimate day race winners.
Leading British competitor is Nick Craig (-12) in 7th tied on 18 pts with John Greenwood (4). Lawrence Crispen (3) is in 10th and Allen Burrell (8) is 21st.
After a long delay on the beach, some rain and a thunderstorm, the fleet was released about 16.00 hrs in a building breeze, hot sunshine and blue skies. The breeze built very quickly to 14-18 knots for some amazing conditions with just one race sailed.
The key interest was in red group, starting on the South course. Florian Raudaschl started well and led all the way to win by a huge margin, with regatta Laurent Hay in second. Green group, just behind was won by Martijn van Muyden, who moves up to third overall.
On the North course area, Valerian Lebrun won his group quite easily to close the gap on Hay, while Nanno Schuttrups also won his second race of the week to end the day in fifth.
Hay just needs a top two placing to secure his first major Finn title, but with five more boats within 10 points, nothing is guaranteed.
The championship concludes Friday with just one race scheduled. The forecast is for light winds, but it will be an epic finale to an epic week here in Punta Ala.
2024 Finn World Masters – Leaders after 6 races, 1 discard (284 entries)
1st FRA 75 Laurent HAŸ – – 1 -4 1 2 1 2 – – 7 pts
2nd FRA 111 Valérian LEBRUN – – 3 -6 2 2 1 1 – – 9 pts
3rd NED 6 Martijn van MUYDEN – – 2 -3 2 1 3 1 – – 9 pts
4th GER 711 André BUDZIEN – – 1 -10 2 5 1 2 – – 11 pts
5th NED 98 Nanno SCHUTTRUPS – – 2 1 3 4 -10 1 – – 11 pts
6th NED 148 Peter PEET – – -23 2 6 1 1 5 – – 15 pts
7th GBR 790 Nick CRAIG – – 5 1 7 3 2 -12 – – 18 pts
8th GBR 5 John GREENWOOD – – 4 1 3 -72 6 4 – – 18 pts
9th HUN 50 Akos LUKATS – – 1 4 4 3 -33 7 – – 19 pts
10th GBR 74 Lawrence CRISPIN – – -7 3 7 6 2 3 – – 21 pts
11th BEL 7 Sebastien GODEFROID – – -14 3 3 4 7 6 – – 23 pts
12th ITA 788 Roberto BENAMATI – – 8 4 1 1 10 -14 – – 24 pts
13th POR 21 Filipe SILVA – – -16 14 1 3 4 2 – – 24 pts
14th CZE 3 Rudolf LIDAŘÍK – – 5 1 5 8 -39 5 – – 24 pts
15th NED 29 Bas de WAAL – – 4 8 2 4 -72 9 – – 27 pts
16th NED 117 Thierry van VIERSSEN – – 7 6 1 -35 5 9 – – 28 pts
17th NED 703 Eric BAKKER – – 10 -13 3 4 9 2 – – 28 pts
18th DEN 21 Otto STRANDVIG – – -26 5 8 5 5 5 – – 28 pts
19th NED 41 Karel van HELLEMOND – – -14 2 10 12 2 4 – – 30 pts
20th SWE 32 Olof LUNDQVIST – – -9 3 8 6 7 6 – – 30 pts
21st GBR 2 Allen BURRELL – – 4 8 -15 8 3 8 – – 31 pts
