Team Denmark helmed by Mads Elber has claimed their place at the Nations Cup Grand Final to be held in Porto Alegre Brazil, March 23-28th 2009. It was the weather that won out today at the Nations Cup Regional Final in Kinsale, Co.Cork. International Race Officer Alan Crosbie held a skippers briefing at 0930hrs this morning to inform the fleet that racing would be postponed until 1200hrs when a further decision would be made. A low pressure system coming from the Atlantic brought gale force winds and heavy rains to the south coast of Ireland. As the morning progressed it was clear the there would be no break in the weather as winds increased to storm force at times. As no race could be sailed after 1600hrs the event organizers ony decision was to cancel racing.
To calculate the final results, the series of races sailed to date would be taken into account. It was a clear winner in Mads Elber from Denmark taking the ISAF NAtions Cup 2009 Regional Final Europe (Open) II. Mads who has had an excellent season this year, displayed top class skill at the event dominating from the very beginning. However second place came down to the wire between Finland and Slovenia. It was Finland’s Jon Eriksson who took second as a count back was applied to the last race between the two teams in which Finland won. Slovenia’s Orel Jure was placed in third. It was Irelands John Sheehy an unranked match sailor who displayed great potential in the match racing circuit with a fourth beating Holland’s Jelle Roos ranked 35th and Germany’s Max Gurgel ranked 55th in the world.
