Sailing at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Finn

The Finn was a sailing event on the Sailing at the 2008 Summer Olympics program in Qingdao International Sailing Centre.^[2] Eleven races (the last one a medal race) were scheduled. Only nine races were completed, including the medal race, due to lack of wind. 26 sailors, on 26 boats, from 26 nations competed.^[3] Ten boats qualified for the medal race.^[4][5]

Mixed Finn^[1] at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Line drawing of the Finn
Venue	Qingdao International Sailing Centre
Dates	First race: 9 August 2008 (2008-08-09) Last race: 17 August 2008 (2008-08-17)
Competitors	26 from 26 nations
Medalists
Ben Ainslie  Great Britain Zach Railey  United States Guillaume Florent  France
← 2004 2012 →

Race schedule

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Practice race

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Race on Yellow

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Race on Pink

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Medal race on Yellow

Date	August
	7 Thu	8 Fri	9 Sat	10 Sun	11 Mon	12 Tue	13 Wed	14 Thu	15 Fri	16 Sat	17 Sun	18 Mon	19 Tue	20 Wed	21 Thu	22 Fri	23 Sat	24 Sun
Mixed Finn	●		2	2	2	Spare day	1	No wind	1	No wind	●

^[1][6]

Course areas and course configurations

For the Finn course areas A (Yellow) and E (Pink) were used. The location (36°2'23"N, 120°23'12"E) points to the center of the 0.6 nm radius Yellow course area and the location (36°2'44"N, 120°28'9"E) points to the center of the 0.75 nm radius Pink course area. The target time for the course was about 75 minutes for the races and 30 minutes for the medal race. The race management could choose from several course configurations.^[7]

•  

  Course areas

•  

  70° trapezoid outer course (O)

•  

  70° trapezoid inner course (I)

•  

  Windward-leeward course (W)

Outer courses

• O1: START – 1 – 2 – 3s/3p – 2 – 3p – FINISH
• O2: START – 1 – 2 – 3s/3p – 2 – 3s/3p – 2 – 3p – FINISH
• O3: START – 1 – 2 – 3s/3p – 2 – 3s/3p – 2 – 3s/3p – 2 – 3p – FINISH

Inner courses

• I1: START – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – 2 – 3p – FINISH
• I2: START – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – 2 – 3p – FINISH
• I3: START – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – 2 – 3p – FINISH

Windward-leeward courses

• W2: START – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – FINISH
• W3: START – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – FINISH
• W4: START – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – FINISH

Weather conditions

In the leadup to the Olympics many questioned the choice of Qingdao as a venue with very little predicted wind. During the races the wind was pretty light and quite unpredictable. Due to lack of wind (< 1.6 knots) one racing day had to be cancelled and the medal race needed to be postponed to the next day.^[8]

Final results^[9][10]

Results of individual races

Pos	Helmsman	Country	I	II	III	IV	V	VI	VII	VIII	MR	Tot	Pts
	Ben Ainslie	Great Britain	10^†	1	4	1	1	10	2	2	1	33.0	23.0
	Zach Railey	United States	2	5	2	2	7	8	7	19^†	6	64.0	45.0
	Guillaume Florent	France	5	8	20	3	4	6	4	21^†	4	79.0	58.0
4	Daniel Birgmark	Sweden	14	17^†	1	6	12	3	3	5	7	75.0	58.0
5	Christopher Cook	Canada	8	3	7	10	23^†	5	15	3	8	90.0	67.0
6	Jonas Høgh-Christensen	Denmark	16	6	12	16	25^†	4	5	7	2	95.0	70.0
7	Gašper Vinčec	Slovenia	9	11	6	5	3	13^†	8	10	10	85.0	72.0
8	Ivan Kljaković Gašpić	Croatia	7	10	10	8	16^†	9	1	13	9	92.0	76.0
9	Rafael Trujillo	Spain	12	4	3	14	20	20	OCS 27^†	1	3	107.0	80.0
10	Rafał Szukiel	Poland	3	2	19	12	10	14	22^†	12	5	104.0	82.0
11	Giorgio Poggi	Italy	17	7	14	21^†	6	12	9	9		95.0	74.0
12	Dan Slater	New Zealand	21^†	19	18	4	9	7	13	6		97.0	76.0
13	Eduardo Couto	Brazil	6	16	DNF 27^†	7	2	17	14	OCS 27		116.0	89.0
14	Pieter-Jan Postma	Netherlands	19	15	16	22^†	15	2	10	16		115.0	93.0
15	Aimilios Papathanasiou	Greece	1	DNF 27^†	5	DNE 27	18	15	DNE 27	8		128.0	101.0
16	Anthony Nossiter	Australia	11	22^†	8	17	13	21	11	20		123.0	101.0
17	Eduard Skornyakov	Russia	24^†	20	17	13	8	18	12	14		126.0	102.0
18	Tapio Nirkko	Finland	18	9	9	9	19	22^†	16	22		124.0	102.0
19	Peer Moberg	Norway	23	DSQ 27^†	11	19	22	1	DSQ 27	4		134.0	107.0
20	Ali Kemal Tüfekçi	Turkey	20	21^†	13	18	14	19	6	17		128.0	107.0
21	Tim Goodbody	Ireland	22^†	13	15	15	17	16	21	15		134.0	112.0
22	Haris Papadopoulos	Cyprus	13	18	21	11	24	11	17	OCS 27^†		142.0	115.0
23	Nachhatar Singh Johal	India	4	24^†	23	24	11	24	18	24		152.0	128.0
24	Zhang Peng	China	25	23	24	20	5	26^†	23	11		157.0	131.0
25	Michael Maier	Czech Republic	15	14	22	25^†	21	23	19	23		162.0	137.0
26	Jhonny Senen Bilbao Bande	Venezuela	26^†	12	25	23	26	25	20	18		175.0	149.0

Scoring system: low-point system;
Legend:   – Qualified for medal race(s); BFD – Black flag disqualification; DNE – Non excludable disqualification; DNF – Did not finish; DPI – Discretionary penalty imposed; OCS – On the course side of the starting line; † – Discarded race not counted in the overall result;

Daily standings

 

Graph showing the daily standings in the Finn during the 2008 Summer Olympics

Further reading

• "Digital Library Collection (Official Olympic Reports 1896 - 2008)". Digital Library Collection at la84.org. la84foundation. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
• "Beijing 2008". Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee.

References

1. Official Report of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games • Volume II Ceremonies and Competitions: Celebration of the Games (PDF). Retrieved 21 March 2014.
2. Official Report of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games • Volume I Bid Documents and Analysis: Passion behind the Bid (PDF). Retrieved 21 March 2014.
3. The 2008 Olympic scoring system was used.
4. For the medal race the top ten boats qualified. Each position scored double points. All medal races were sailed on course area Yellow in front of the Qingdao International Sailing Centre.
5. "Sailing at the 2008 Summer Olympics: One Person Dinghy (Finn), Open". Olympedia. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
6. Official Report of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games • Volume III Preparation for the Games: New Beijing Great Olympics (PDF). Retrieved 21 March 2014.
7. "The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Sailing Competition: Sailing Instructions" (PDF). International Sailing Federation. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
8. "Qingdao Report - Luke Van Der Kamp" (PDF). Team GBR. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
9. Official Results book Part 3 (Sailing) (PDF). Retrieved 21 March 2014.
10. . Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 24 March 2014.