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NORDIC FOLKBOAT - GOLD CUP 2017 - Kerteminde, Denmark
Monday 7th August – Thursday 10th August 2017
M
onday 7th August saw the start of the Nordic Folkboat Gold Cup, however this
year was particularly special as it commemorated 75 years of what is one of the
worlds most popular and enduring small keel boats.
Nearly 80 boats gathered from Estonia, Sweden, UK, Finland, Germany and Denmark,
the latter two countries providing some exceptional talent.
The format of the event has not changed over the years with a six race series and one
discard. The event location of Kerteminde in Denmark, added special significance as
the majority of boats built post 1976 when GRP was introduced had come out of the
Folkbad Centralen yard based in Kerteminde, under the guidance of Erik Andreasen
who had also won the Gold Cup six times, and for the 2017 event had been appointed
race director.
The large Kerteminde bay area provided a great race track, allowing 1.8nm beats
into the gate marks and subsequent two sail runs, something for the British teams of
Madelaine [Edward Donald, Rob Reed and Rich Bell], and So! [Simon and Gemma
Osgood and Magnus Strom] had to quickly adapt to, as the British fleet adopted
spinnakers back in the 60’s, so using a 2.8m whisker pole on the jib required a whole
new skill set.
The opening race laid a marker down by the Danes on their home turf, occupying
the top nine positions with the exception of 2nd which went to the German boat 1095
driven by Michael Fehlandt; this proved to be their best result of the week. So! secured
a 39th which, considering they hadn’t sailed the boat for eight years and this was the
first time of being in it since purchase four months prior, wasn’t too horrific. Madelaine
had a slightly slower start adapting to the bigger fleet psychologies.
Day two started with extremely light winds and the morning race being abandoned
on the first beat. After a couple of hours waiting for the breeze to fill, it finally came
in south westerly and built to 10-12 metres per second. Trying to get the fleet away
proved typically difficult with pent up frustrations of the delay. After two attempted
starts and 16 boats black flagged the race committee finally got the fleet away in
overcast conditions. So! was a victim of the dreaded black flag, as were several other
top boats from the previous days racing. This being said, nothing should be taken
away from Madelaine the other British boat, as they went on to score a 12th from
the only race of the day, and really kick start their regatta. Per Buch from Denmark in
DEN926, took the race win followed by a fellow Dane Soren Kaestel DEN873 and the
German Siegfried Busse GER1101 in 3rd.
Due to the cancellation of race two on the schedule and only one race sailed on the
Tuesday, the race committee decided to fit in three races on the Wednesday. This was
a big day for all competitors, breaking the back of the event.
