Sailing at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Finn

Mixed Finn[1] at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Line drawing of the Finn
Venue	Qingdao International Sailing Centre
Dates	First race: August 9, 2008 Last race: August 16, 2008
Competitors	26 from 26 nations
Medalists
Ben Ainslie   Great Britain   Zach Railey   United States   Guillaume Florent   France

Sailing at the  2008 Summer Olympics
RS:X		men		women
Laser Radial				women
Laser		men
Finn			open
470		men		women
49er			open
Tornado			open
Yngling				women
Star		men

The Finn was a sailing event on the Sailing at the 2008 Summer Olympics program in Qingdao International Sailing Centre.^[2] Eleven races (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]

Race schedule^[1][5]

●

Practice race

●

Race on Yellow

●

Race on Pink

●

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	●

Course areas and course configurations ^[6]

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.

• 
  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 lead up 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.^[7]

Final results^[8][9]

Rank	Country	Helmsman	Race 1		Race 2		Race 3		Race 4		Race 5		Race 6		Race 7		Race 8		Medalrace		Total	Total – discard
			Pos.	Pts.	Pos.	Pts.	Pos.	Pts.	Pos.	Pts.	Pos.	Pts.	Pos.	Pts.	Pos.	Pts.	Pos.	Pts.	Pos.	Pts.
	Great Britain	Ben Ainslie	10	10.0	1	1.0	4	4.0	1	1.0	1	1.0	10	10.0	2	2.0	2	2.0	1	2.0	33.0	23.0
	United States	Zach Railey	2	2.0	5	5.0	2	2.0	2	2.0	7	7.0	8	8.0	7	7.0	19	19.0	6	12.0	64.0	45.0
	France	Guillaume Florent	5	5.0	8	8.0	20	20.0	3	3.0	4	4.0	6	6.0	4	4.0	21	21.0	4	8.0	79.0	58.0
4	Sweden	Daniel Birgmark	14	14.0	17	17.0	1	1.0	6	6.0	12	12.0	3	3.0	3	3.0	5	5.0	7	14.0	75.0	58.0
5	Canada	Christopher Cook	8	8.0	3	3.0	7	7.0	10	10.0	23	23.0	5	5.0	15	15.0	3	3.0	8	16.0	90.0	67.0
6	Denmark	Jonas Høgh-Christensen	16	16.0	6	6.0	12	12.0	16	16.0	25	25.0	4	4.0	5	5.0	7	7.0	2	4.0	95.0	70.0
7	Slovenia	Gašper Vinčec	9	9.0	11	11.0	6	6.0	5	5.0	3	3.0	13	13.0	8	8.0	10	10.0	10	20.0	85.0	72.0
8	Croatia	Ivan Kljaković-Gašpić	7	7.0	10	10.0	10	10.0	8	8.0	16	16.0	9	9.0	1	1.0	13	13.0	9	18.0	92.0	76.0
9	Spain	Rafa Trujillo	12	12.0	4	4.0	3	3.0	14	14.0	20	20.0	20	20.0	OCS	27.0	1	1.0	3	6.0	107.0	80.0
10	Poland	Rafal Szukiel	3	3.0	2	2.0	19	19.0	12	12.0	10	10.0	14	14.0	22	22.0	12	12.0	5	10.0	104.0	82.0
11	Italy	Giorgio Poggi	17	17.0	7	7.0	14	14.0	21	21.0	6	6.0	12	12.0	9	9.0	9	9.0	-	-	95.0	74.0
12	New Zealand	Dan Slater	21	21.0	19	19.0	18	18.0	4	4.0	9	9.0	7	7.0	13	13.0	6	6.0	-	-	97.0	76.0
13	Brazil	Eduardo Couto	6	6.0	16	16.0	DNF	27.0	7	7.0	2	2.0	17	17.0	14	14.0	OCS	27.0	-	-	116.0	89.0
14	Netherlands	Pieter-Jan Postma	19	19.0	15	15.0	16	16.0	22	22.0	15	15.0	2	2.0	10	10.0	16	16.0	-	-	115.0	93.0
15	Greece	Emilios Papathanasiou	1	1.0	DNF	27.0	5	5.0	DNE	27.0	18	18.0	15	15.0	DNE	27.0	8	8.0	-	-	128.0	101.0
16	Australia	Anthony Nossiter	11	11.0	22	22.0	8	8.0	17	17.0	13	13.0	21	21.0	11	11.0	20	20.0	-	-	123.0	101.0
17	Russia	Eduard Skornyakov	24	24.0	20	20.0	17	17.0	13	13.0	8	8.0	18	18.0	12	12.0	14	14.0	-	-	126.0	102.0
18	Finland	Tapio Nirkko	18	18.0	9	9.0	9	9.0	9	9.0	19	19.0	22	22.0	16	16.0	22	22.0	-	-	124.0	102.0
19	Norway	Peer Moberg	23	23.0	DSQ	27.0	11	11.0	19	19.0	22	22.0	1	1.0	DSQ	27.0	4	4.0	-	-	134.0	107.0
20	Turkey	Ali Kemal Tufekc	20	20.0	21	21.0	13	13.0	18	18.0	14	14.0	19	19.0	6	6.0	17	17.0	-	-	128.0	107.0
21	Ireland	Tim Goodbody	22	22.0	13	13.0	15	15.0	15	15.0	17	17.0	16	16.0	21	21.0	15	15.0	-	-	134.0	112.0
22	Cyprus	Haris Papadopoulos	13	13.0	18	18.0	21	21.0	11	11.0	24	24.0	11	11.0	17	17.0	OCS	27.0	-	-	142.0	115.0
23	India	Nachhatar Singh Johal	4	4.0	24	24.0	23	23.0	24	24.0	11	11.0	24	24.0	18	18.0	24	24.0	-	-	152.0	128.0
24	China	Zhang Peng	25	25.0	23	23.0	24	24.0	20	20.0	5	5.0	26	26.0	23	23.0	11	11.0	-	-	157.0	131.0
25	Czech Republic	Michael Maier	15	15.0	14	14.0	22	22.0	25	25.0	21	21.0	23	23.0	19	19.0	23	23.0	-	-	162.0	137.0
26	Venezuela	Johnny Senen Bilbao Bande	26	26.0	12	12.0	25	25.0	23	23.0	26	26.0	25	25.0	20	20.0	18	18.0	-	-	175.0	149.0

Legend: DNE – Non excludable disqualification; DNF – Did not finish; DSQ – Disqualified; OCS – On the course side of the starting line; QUA – Qualified for next phase; Discard is crossed out and does not count for the overall result. Gender: – male; – female;

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". Olympic.org. 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. Official Report of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games • Volume III Preparation for the Games: New Beijing Great Olympics (PDF). Retrieved 21 March 2014.
6. "The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Sailing Competition: Sailing Instructions" (PDF). International Sailing Federation. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
7. "Qingdao Report - Luke Van Der Kamp" (PDF). Team GBR. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
8. Official Results book Part 3 (Sailing) (PDF). Retrieved 21 March 2014.
9. "Sailing at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games: Mixed One Person Dinghy". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 24 March 2014.