Great Britain’s Iain Percy felt the sweet taste of victory and then bitter disappointment yesterday after winning the opening race of the 2000 Finn Gold Cup in Weymouth, England, only to be disqualified from the race after being classed OCS under a black flag start.

After several failed starts due to a shifting breeze and the tide edging people over the line, Dr Frank Newton started the 90 boat fleet under a black flag with six boats standing out including Percy. “It’s irrating and I can’t afford to make any more mistakes but that’s just life,” remarked Iain after racing.

Meanwhile Percy will draw strength from the fact he withheld the attentions of the other two top seeds, defending champion Frederik Loof (Sweden) who now heads the scoresheet and 1996 Olympic Champion Mateusz Kusnierewicz (Poland), despite sailing half the race without a tiller extension after breaking it during a tack.

Meanwhile, David Mellor made the best possible start to his world championship assault with a stunning second behind Loof. “I had a good start but I sheeted in about the same time as Percy and if he was over I thought I must have been very close,” explained David. After changing sails just before the start to one with greater depth, which gave him better speed in the 8-12 knot breeze, Mellor was second at the windward mark to Percy. He held his position throughout the six-leg windward/leeward course until the last two hundred yards when Loof managed to sail over the top of him after planting his decisive tack at just the right moment.

“You had to watch the numbers today and keep on the shifts but on the last beat I had my head in the boat too much and just lost the groove,” explained Mellor.

Racing continues today with a further two races.

Finn Gold Cup Results after 1 race (day 1)

1st Frederik Loof (Swe) 1pt

2nd David Mellor (GBR) 2pts

3rd Mateusz Kusnierewicz (Pol) 3pts

Other British Placings:

24th Andrew Simpson – 24pts

32nd Dan Dixon – 32pts

37th Chris Brittle – 37pts

38th Charlie Cumbley – 38pts

39th Richard Stenhouse – 39pts

40th Tim Carver – 40pts

International Finn website: http://www.finn.org