Németh stays consistent to move closer to U23 Finn title
Domonkos Németh moved into a 14 point lead at the U2 Finn World Championship for the Finn Silver Cup at Tihany on Lake Balaton on Wednesday after two more races were sailed. Levente Rácz and Bence Rácz are separated by just four points in second and third. There is just one day left to sail.
After a very hot and windless Tuesday, it was slightly cooler for Day 4 with a south-westerly breeze down the lake later in the day. An earlier attempt to start failed with no wind and the fleet went back to shore.
Race 7 started in 10-12 knots, quite shifty and cloudy with the pressure up and down. The right looked good but Németh and Bence Rácz worked well through middle left with boats on either side of them. At the top Németh led from Mikhail Yatsun, from Russia, Andres Ivan Lloret Pérez, from Spain and Sjoerd Hofland, from The Netherlands.
Németh pulled away downwind with the free pumping with the rest following in a close group. On the second beat there was more pressure on the left and most of the fleet went that way, but Lloret Pérez tried the right and lost a lot of ground.
Németh led from Yatsun, Levente Rácz and Bence Rácz and with no free pumping on the last downwind, the positions stayed the same.
Special mention to Noémi Rátosi, the only girl in the fleet, sailing her first Finn event. She sailed very well tactically to record her best result of the event so far, a 16th.
The breeze had dropped to 8-10 knots for Race 8, but was less shifty with more steady pressure.
Everyone wanted to go left and all the leaders came off the line and kept going into more pressure. In the end some had trouble coming back and the ones that tacked early came out best and a few boats further right also did well.
At the top it was Németh from Levente Rácz, Ábel Szűcs and Panagiotis Iordanou, from Cyprus.
Not much changed downwind except Zoltán Veisse sailed to the right and made big gains to move up to second.
The second beat was quite tight, with the fleet not as far left as the first beat. Németh rounded first to lead down to the finish to win from Veisse, Levente Rácz and Iordanou.
Németh commented, “When I went out I was a bit wary as there was not much breeze then some wind came down at 10 knots. Actually I wanted to sail consistently and not risk anything and I did two pretty good starts, and got two firsts, so a really good for me today.”
He has been training a lot with the other Hungarians at the club.
“These guys are really light so they could pull me up in lighter wind. I have to be really patent and my patience has improved a lot because of them, so it was actually really good to train with them and do everything. The guys are doing are super great. I cannot say anything bad about them.
“I have had a lot of help from Stefi [Istvan Rutai, from Tihanyi Hajós Egylet]. He’s my biggest support, as well as my sponsor, Be Light!”
The Finn U23 World Championship concludes on Thursday. Up to four races are possible on the final day, but the forecast is not overly optimistic.
Results after 8 races
1 HUN 80 Domonkos Németh 7
2 HUN 9 Levente Rácz 21
3 HUN 18 Bence Rácz 25
4 HUN 42 Ábel Szűcs 39
5 RYF 14 Mikhail Yatsun 46
6 HUN 88 Zsombor Majthényi 48
7 HUN 4 Zoltán Veisse 54
8 HUN 58 Dénes Ujváry 54
9 CYP 1 Panagiotis Iordanou 58
10 ESP 888 Andres Ivan Lloret Pérez 62
Full results at: http://2021.finnsilvercup.org/results/
Photos by Marcell Mohácsi
