Norway’s Anders Pedersen extended his lead at the Porsche Centre Brisbane 2026 Finn Gold Cup with two more race wins in somewhat hairy conditions on the second day of the event.
The top three remain the same with Alessandro Marega from Italy in second with Australia’s Anthony Nossiter in third.
Best British competitors were Lawrence Crispin with a 17 and 31 to place 16th, and Nick Craig with 27 and 28 in 22nd.
With a forecast of 15-25 knots, with gusts on the water of already 28 knots, the slightly reduced Finn Gold Cup fleet set sail for two more races in Moreton Bay. With a stiff 25 knots on arrival some boats turned around and went home.
Australia’s Kane Sinclair led the first race of the day in the longest first upwind in living memory at 2.2 nautical miles, rounding ahead after a big left shift from Pedersen and Australia’s Rob McMillan.
However, Pedersen took the lead on the second much shorter beat to lead into the finish from Marega and Australia’s Brendan Casey.
The second race was more normal with Pedersen starting well at the pin and building a sizeable lead round the course to win from Nossiter and Spain’s Rafa Trujillo.
Only 42 boats finished both races. However, the cold, wet weather has hopefully now gone and sailors were pleased to see the return of the sunshine and temperatures in the mid 20s.
Pedersen has now won all four races, two after playing catch up and two by a significant margin.
The event now moves into a new phase with the winds expected to become lighter over the coming days as the temperature creeps back up towards 30 degrees.
Finally, a shout out to Valerian Lebrun, from France, who risked his boat and himself to help a fellow sailor in trouble, who had capsized 400 metres downwind of the course area and was unable to right his boat.
With a support boat helping in the waves and high winds, Lebrun traded places, righted the boat, and switched back to his own Finn just in time to make the start of Race 4. Bravo Valerian! He is currently in seventh overall.
The event is being very ably hosted by the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, in Brisbane, Australia.
Robert Deaves
Finn Gold Cup Leaders after four races (72 entries)
1st NOR Anders Østre Pedersen – – 1 1 1 1 – – 4 pts
2nd ITA Alessandro Marega – – 2 3 2 5 – – 12 pts
3rd AUS Anthony Nossiter – – 7 2 8 2 – – 19 pts
4th AUS Brendan Casey – – 3 8 3 7 – – 21 pts
5th ESP Rafael Trujillo – – 8 5 10 3 – – 26 pts
6th AUS Rob McMillan – – 14 6 4 4 – – 28 pts
7th FRA Valerian Lebrun – – 4 7 13 8 – – 32 pts
8th NZL Joe Spooner – – 6 24 14 6 – – 50 pts
9th AUS James Bevis – – 25 10 6 10 – – 51 pts
10th POR Filipe Silva – – 12 9 11 19 – – 51 pts
11th USA Rodion Mazin – – 11 14 12 15 – – 52 pts
12th AUS Ian McKillop – – 15 18 15 9 – – 57 pts
13th AUS Marcus Whitley – – 18 11 24 11 – – 64 pts
14th NZL Mark Perrow – – 13 19 23 13 – – 68 pts
15th NED Peter Peet – – 9 23 20 17 – – 69 pts
16th GBR Lawrence Crispin – – 5 21 17 31 – – 74 pts
17th USA Nikita Mazin – – 29 13 21 23 – – 86 pts
18th GER Thomas Schmid – – 22 12 25 30 – – 89 pts
19th NZL Richard Hawkins – – 24 16 16 33 – – 89 pts
20th AUS Lucas Prescott – – 17 25 29 18 – – 89 pts
21st AUS Lewis Davies – – 19 37 22 12 – – 90 pts
22nd GBR Nick Craig – – 21 15 27 28 – – 91 pts
Full results available here . . .
