2014 Nordic Championships @Borstahausen, Sweden: Thomas Paasch 1st

Report & pics sent by Thomas Paasch -
"The Nordic Championships where held in Borstahusen/Sweden in the first weekend of August. 15 boats from Denmark and Sweden made the fleet, including Italian sailor Alberto Farnesi, who has joined the Swedish association and entered as SWE 59.

Some sailors went for a training session the day before and lots of seaweed were seen in the race area, but luckily most of it was blown away overnight, making the area sailable for Saturday.

The wind started in the light range about 8 knots, and was predicted to increase during the day. Occasional gusts made it possible for the foilers to get a few good downwind runs, which possibly where decisive in the first two races, seeing Peter Boldsen winning the first race on he’s DNA with J-foils and Thomas Paasch winning the second on he’s modified Nikita with Exploder J-boards.

3rd race of the day was won by Steffen Bay, after making a perfect port start in front of the fleet, taking full advantage of the shifting wind. The early lead proved to be unassailable for the chasing fleet.

The wind had increased during the day and in 4th and 5th race it was closing in on the upper class limit. The big boys Alberto Farnesi and Jens Lekland could put their weight to use, and showed an upwind pace second to non on their Marströms with C-boards. At the same time the foilers where struggling to keep it going in the increasing chop, and gusts in the last race where in the upper twenties, causing quite a few capsizes.

A 6th race was scheduled for the day, but didn’t happen due to strong winds.

Alberto Farnesi was leading after day one, just 3 points ahead of Peter Boldsen and Thomas Paasch sharing 2nd place.

Sunday was a different story. The wind had dropped totally which started the day with a 2 hours postponement. The forecast was wind coming from east, shifting to north, turn to west and end in south – a PRO’s nightmare. The first two steps happened before noon while the AP was up, so first race of the day was in a light breeze from west in just sub upwind trapezing conditions. Bo Ehrhard on he’s Flyer II with straight boards was the man to beat in these light conditions. He won the first race followed by Göran Marström.

During the second race of the day the wind dropped totally. 3 boats made it cross the finishing line of the shortened course, while the rest of the fleet didn’t have enough boat speed to overcome the current, as the wind decreased. Pretty frustrating for some to get within meters of the finishing line before starting to go backwards… The race was canceled later.

After a short break the wind came back, this time from the south. Strength was just enough for upwind trapezing, but still flat downwind “ getting friendly with your forestay” – style. A photo finish gave Bo Ehrhardt he’s second win of the day, just in front of Thomas Paasch.

The Championships was won by Thomas Paasch, even though just winning a single race, showing best all-round performance through the variety of conditions. Bo Ehrhardt (the light wind specialist) followed in second ahead of Alberto Farnesi (the strong wind specialist) in 3rd.

1. DEN 1, Thomas Paasch, 16 pts.
2. DEN 007, Bo Ehrhardt, 20 pts.
3. SWE 59, Alberto Frenesi, 25 pts.

See the complete list here: http://a-cat.dk/sites/default/files/resultater_nm_acat2014.png