Saturday: racing in the rain 
photos by
Protest Committee Chairman, Henrik Rasmussen
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Doesn't this make Furesøen look like the open ocean on a windy day.
Henrik with his wide angle lens at water level and a camera that is obviously water-proof.
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The only thing worse than having to race in rain all day was being on the Committee where you didn't even have the excitement of the racing to take your mind off the rain. A fine day - for ducks, as they say.
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Do you think Farum Kommune would pay good money to use this shot to lure tourists to Furesøen??!!
No photos from race 4 in which I seem to recall Anders and Sune coming from behind to win once more in a fairly close finish over Poul Ammentorp and Mogens Just. With the winds dying near the finish, it turned into a very close battle among half a dozen boats over the next few spots. That master of the light airs, Joel Bøgh edged out Søren Jensen and Per Larsen for 4th place. Also overlapped with these three on the finish line was Stephan Nandrup-Bus but he managed to hit the committee boat and had to do a 360 which allowed Uncle Al and Anders to complete an amazing come-back in 7th place after being almost last around the first mark. Stephan crossed in 8th place ahead of Bo Christensen who turned in his best finish of the series, and Christian Bovet who again took 10th.
Best races: Other crews making this race their best of the series were
  • Ib Lykke with Per Zeuthen in 13th
  • John Friis and Mary Jakobsen in 15th
  • the Dutch crew of Ton Jaspers and Giel Bloks who were 16th
  • Kim Petersen and Helene Madsen in 21st
Race 5 took forever to get underway as there were a number of General Recalls. In this race, Uncle Al finally learned his lesson and was determined to go left from a pin end start. Sadly, Al could not find the gas pedal upwind in this race and had to rely on Anders P. to power a nice come-back into the top 10 - only to discover that he had been over early along with Stephan Nandrup-Bus. Meanwhile the man who really didn't need it, had one of those races where everything seemed to fall into place. Anders Friis started in Uncle Al's backwind and tacked away early winds of 5-8 m/sec. He crossed the fleet and was never seen again as he seemed to get his own slant of stronger breeze across the middle of the course. Another decisive factor may have been that while people like Uncle Al were used to relying on a mainsail leech telltale to fine tune the mainsheet tension upwind and that telltale was often stuck to the sail in the heavy rain, Anders doesn't use one and was less "upset" by the rain.
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Here they come out of the rain down the first run was Anders and Sune (blue spi, far left) already well ahead.
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The rescue boat is on duty as the fleet comes closer.
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A lonely rounding...
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... onto the second beat...
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... for Anders and Sune. Note the flawless upwind form!! A photo worth studying.
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Mogens Just rounds a comfortable second ahead of...
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... Per Larsen (9733) and Søren Jensen (10212). Note the raindrops on the lens.
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Not far behind are Stephan Nandrup-Bus (left), Poul Ammentorp (red spi, centre) and Joel Bøgh (right).
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Stephan (4898) reaches the leeward mark in 5th but will have to give room to Poul (239).
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Steen Madsen (pink spi) prepares to round 9th behind (l to r) Uncle Al (very wet without his waterproof red jacket), Joel and Stephan. No one wants to tack too soon after rounding because so many running boats are disturbing the wind and water.
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After a 4th-race OCS (over early), Elisabeth Geday and Ulla Riber have 6301 in 10th place, just behind Steen and Carina. Uncle Al meanwhile, has tacked to clear his air and hopes that he will hit a nice gap in the fleet coming down the run.
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Steen Schubert has his new Abbott Mk III (10249) in 11th place as he gets ready to round. Joel has also tacked to starboard (left) while Uncle Al, his crew, Anders and W9355 Whistle have been swallowed up by a giant raindrop.
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Flemming Nielsen about to round just ahead of the UKWA entry, Paul Knowlson,
with Per Christoffersen (4633) and Christian Bovet (5128) in hot - but wet - pursuit.
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Henrik gives us another very interesting low angle view as Christian Bovet and W-nyt editor, Lone Holm Hansen, complete a textbook rounding while Per (4633) has done too much sail trimming too soon. Since one should never overtrim one's sails, Per would be better off to luff up at the mark and then trim his sails if it comes down to choosing to do one or the other first. By luffing up right around the mark, and then trimming his sails to match, he not only doesn't end up slowing down as much, but he also ends up further to windward!
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Seconds later: Look how much Christian (5128) has gained on Per (4633)!! To be fair the wide-angle view has no doubt distorted the distances somewhat, but it seems pretty clear that Jacob Knudsen in 1130, who rounded some distance behind Per, is now ahead of him. This is my favourite of Henrik's low angle shots: It's perfect for those days when someone is not impressed when he hears that you sail on Furesøen, a small inland lake!!
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Even the raindrops are big on Furesøen!! "Rain - heavy at times" is a weather forecast we often hear in Canada and it's appropriate here. The rain really began to pour down as Jacob (1130) rounded nicely, with ...
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... Leif Jensen (8420) and Bo Christensen (2042) in close pursuit. Another example of Stuart Walker's advice: "Slow down and win!" If Bo (2042) had slowed down (centreboard down early, etc.) so as to round just astern of Leif (8420) instead of outside of him, he would have ended up with relatively clear air instead of ...
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... being blanketed and falling behind Thomas Raun-Petersen (6617).
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A few moments later, Thomas is about to make life even worse for Bo by taking his wind,
as the next group of downwind boats prepare to joust for position around the leeward mark.
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Not all that much later, Anders Friis and Sune Sigsgaard pilot Wassail across the short finish line
- "miles" ahead of everyone else.
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A big smile on the winners' faces: this victory virtually assured Anders and Sune of the Danish Wayfarer title
and they have a huge lead in the race to the free beer!
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The parade to the beer continues: After Mogens Just with Helle Emsvang in "anden plads"
it was Søren Jensen with Annette Hansen (left) taking 3rd...
... ahead of Per Larsen and Steen Ammentorp (9733).
Perhaps Steen in 9733 is thinking about wet T-shirts along with the free beer as he douses the spi,
and enjoys the thought of having placed ahead of his "far", Poul (239)...
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... who nonetheless completed a fine - if wet - Saturday with a satisfying 2-5.
6th place went to Steen and Carina Madsen (pink spi behind raindrop)...
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... ahead of Stephan Nandrup-Bus with David Magnussen who thought they had their best finish of the series
only to discover that they - like Uncle Al - had been disqualified for starting a touch too soon.
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This left Steen Schubert and Keld Forchhammer (10249, far right) in 7th just ahead of the ladies, Elisabeth Geday and Ulla Riber (third from left) whose 8th was their best result of the series. Uncle Al (4th from left) was OCS as mentioned while Bo Christensen and Thomas Anderson also shone in the rain with their series-best 8th place. Completing the top 10 were Joel Bøgh with Jon Kjartansson (9th) and Flemming Nielsen with Henrik Frengler in 10th just ahead of the British team of Paul and Andrew Knowlson who also got their best placing in this rainy race.
Best races: Other crews making this race their best of the series were
  • Leif Jensen and Bo Ejstrup who had easily their finest race with an impressive 14th
  • Thomas Raun-Petersen with Leila Jensen in 16th
  • Ole and Lennard Højlund who placed 22nd
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