Åländska Segelsällskapet conquer Finnish J/70 Sailing League
by J/Boats 9 Nov 2019 11:10 UTC
11-13 October 2019
Finnish J/70 Sailing League 2019 © Pepe Korteniemi
The Finnish Sailing League concluded their 2019 season from the 11th to 13th October in Åland, when the top twelve club sailing teams competed on their fleet of J/70 one-design keelboats for the Finnish Sailing League Championship. The competition took place in the West Harbor of Mariehamn, and a tough battle ensued for the title.
On Sunday, Åländska Segelsällskapet celebrated their third successive club championship in their home waters. The ÅSS 2 Team (Daniel Mattson, Staffan Lindberg, Mathias Dahlman and Jasper Karlsson) took the gold overall. The silver was taken by Nyländska Jaktklubben's number one team (Thomas Hallberg, Juhana Rintala, Robert Nyberg and Christoffer Silén). The bronze was awarded to the Xtra Staerk Ocean Racing Society (Thomas Hacklin, Kim Westman, Aleksi Lehtonen and Mika Malm).
"This win feels particularly good, as the final level was extremely tough thanks to two qualifying teams and a team of skillful sailors," said ÅSS skipper Daniel Mattson.
"We laid the foundation for the first two finals, as we did not sail well in the last three starts. It's hard to say why, but the victory tastes good," commented ÅSS tactician Staffan Lindberg.
ÅSS will thus be able to hold the handsome Sportklubbens Pokal from 1886 and once again represent Finland in the offshore competition Nord Stream Race. The top four club teams were ÅSS, NJK, XS and fourth-placed Brändö Seglare. In addition, these teams will be looking to participate in the SAILING Champions League qualifying event in 2020.
More information at spv.fi/purjehdusliiga