Open Europeans Helsinki 2011

12.07.2011 Open Europeans Helsinki 2011 – Olympic Sailing Classes European Championships Rain, wind and close racing in Helsinki! Varying wind speeds ranging from 13-20 knots challenged the sailors in Helsinki. While Mat Belcher and Malcolm Page (AUS) in the 470 men and Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) in the Finn keep their earlier lead on their respective fleets, the 49ers and the 470 women saw today a change at the top with Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen (AUS) skeezing into first place before tomorrow's 49er's last day and Brazil's Fernanda Oliveira/Ana Luisa Barbachan taking the lead in the women 470. 470 Women Race 6 was a procession behind Brazil's Fernanda Oliveira/Ana Luisa Barbachan who dominated from start to finish and gave themselves the impetus to take the overall lead from the Spanish by the end of today's three races. Smiled Oliveira after racing, “It was a great day for us. A first, fifth and seventh. It doesn't matter for me that we beat the Spanish. We just worry about us, our work, and not for the others. We are sometimes training together with the Spanish girls so it is good to be together. They are very special sailors. We have a lot of races until the end of the event, so we are just concerned to keep going.” Standing nearby, the Spanish helm Pacheco commented on the battle in race 6, “We were trying to catch them, but it was impossible!” Moving on up to join Brazil and Spain in the top three are Denmark's Henriette Koch/Lene Sommer after a consistent 7,4,8 posting puts them in third overall. Gold Fleet – Men The Australians look to be unstoppable as Mat Belcher/Malcolm Page (AUS) produced another race win in race 8 to extend their points lead over the rest of the fleet. Chasing hard and moving up to second overall with a 4,2 are Luke Patience/Stuart Bithell (GBR). Bithell summarized the British team's day, “It was alright, a lot of pressure differences, a lot of oscillating wind shifts. For me on the wire doing tactics it was brilliant. It was an opportunity to gain on the fleet. It was good fun.” Race 7 looked to be a win in the bag for Americans Stuart McNay/Graham Biehl who led for much of the race, but ultimately finished second as McNay explained, “There were a lot of wind shifts out there and a bunch of competitors close behind us. You can't cover everyone. We played the wind as we thought was best and one guy got around us but we are well happy with second.” Israel's Gideon Kliger/Eran Sela drop from second to third, and Kliger reflected, “It was a big mess and very different from the other days. The wind was really shifty and it means everything comes really fast and quickly. The other days it was the opposite and very slow. We made mistakes. We just didn't sail good today but we have confidence to get back.” A further four races are scheduled, before determining the top 10 boats going through to the Medal Race on Friday 15 July 2011.