Tõnu Tõniste’s Lenny EST790 – Melges 24 Finnish Champion for the sixth time
September 23, 2015 - Koivusaari, Helsinki, Finland - 2015 Melges 24 Finnish Open and Nordic Championships were held in club NJK (Nyländska Jaktklubben) in Helsinki, Finland on September 18-20. It was a great weekend with 8 races completed in pretty hard and changing conditions. 2015 Melges 24 Corinthian World Champion - Lenny EST790 with Tõnu Tõniste in helm and Toomas Tõniste, Andres Rohtla, Kalev Kaal and Maiki Saaring in crew won the championship in style with a race to spare and Pohjola Trophy was brought to Estonia, Kalev Yacht Club.
Melges 24 Finnish Open Championship 2015 - photo Piret Salmistu
Ten teams competing – six from Finland and four from Estonia – experienced very variable conditions during three days. Friday was a rough day even for the more experienced sailors. Average wind of 14 m/s increasing to 18 m/s with the gusts and the waves of 3,5-4m high was too much for PRO Lars Nyqvist to send the fleet out to the water. Saturday was better day. Instead of having the race area on the open sea it was decided to stay on more flat waters in archipelago. The wind velocity was of 10-12 m/s and made the boats “fly”. Rounding islands did not allow create a leg longer than 0,7Nm and the race course was set to be three laps. The fleet got four great 45-minutes long races. Since the beginning two Estonian boats started to control each other – Lenny and Ants Haavel’s Freddy. Tomi Hakola’s Fundanything.com was the one from Finland to interfere to the battle for the podium places. Lenny ended the day with the series of 2-1-1-2 and Freddy answered with 1-4-2-1 followed by Fundanything.com with the series of 3-2-3-3.
Melges 24 Finnish Open Championship 2015 - photo Piret Salmistu
For Sunday morning the wind was decreased and the fleet headed out to the open sea, where was no obstructions to build a longer course. Western winds of 4-5 m/s were stable until the end of the second race. After that a big rain cloud with stronger gusts and shifts forced to rebuild the race course. Still – two more races were added to the series of total eight by the end of the day. Lenny found its consistency and got three bullets out of three and decided not to sail the final race. Freddy made the same decision as the margin ahead of Tomi Hakola was big enough not to worry. With the victory from the final race Tomi Hakola secured its third position on the podium followed by the fresh newcomer in Melges 24 class, but well known on 49er – Tõnis Haavel’s Yes Sir, No Sir from Estonia. Starting the event with the fifth and sixth positions Haavel steadily reached to the better finishes and ended the event on fourth place.
Lenny EST790 with Tõnu Tõniste in helm - photo Piret Salmistu
Freddy EST826 with Ants Haavel in helm - photo Piret Salmistu
Fundanything.com FIN742 with Tomi Hakola in helm - photo Piret Salmistu
Congratulations to Top 3 boats at the 2015 Finnish Open Championship!
1. LENNY EST790 – Tõnu Tõniste, Toomas Tõniste, Maiki Saaring, Andres Rohtla, Kalev Kaal
2. FREDDY EST826 – Ants Haavel, Tiit Vihul, Martin Müür, Siim Ots, Triin Sarapuu
3. FUNDANYTHING.COM FIN742 – Tomi Hakola, Anssi Sallinen, Jonathan Barck, Pyry Itkonen, Henna Launistola
Top 3 of the 2015 Finnish Open Championship - photo Piret Salmistu
It was the best season for Lenny EST790
„Wind forecast for the weekend was a bit scaring because there were new not very experienced teams competing and it would have been stupid to break something during the final race of the season. Luckily two days were easier to get eight races completed. It’s great to see new teams competing and getting experience and knowledge from the more experienced teams. In Estonia we have a lot of good and competitive teams and it wasn’t an easy victory. Ants Haavel was tactically very good and so showed the better performance with every race sailed newcomer Tõnis Haavel. This all made a competition very intriguing and tight," commented Lenny's team with Tõnu Tõniste the latest successful regatta in Helsinki.
2015 season for Lenny was one of their best. They won every participated regatta either in overall or Corinthian division and are holding four perpetual trophies until next season – Henri Samuel’s Trophy for the Corinthian World Champion 2015 title (6th in overall), Pohjola Trophy from Finland, Estonian Champion’s trophy and Menno Meyer’s trophy for the Corinthian European Champion 2014 title (8th in overall). Lenny got the Pohjola Trophy for the sixth time already setting a new record with this achievement. Kenneth Thelen won the trophy for five times.
Pohjola Trophy - photo Piret Salmistu
Results https://finnishmelges24fleet.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/2015-melges-24-finnish-national-championship_results-day-3.pdf
Event’s website https://finnishmelges24fleet.wordpress.com/
Photo galleries by Piret Salmistu: Day 2 ; Day 3
All in all competition spirit was high and getting ready to the Melges 24 Worlds 2017 in Helsinki!
https://www.facebook.com/melges24worlds2017