(Submitted by Rolf Zachariassen - Nyländska Jaktklubben)

The second race in the tour was sailed in Helsinki, on waters outside Nyländska Jaktklubben the Organisers.

NJK the biggest yacht club in Finland has an active match race Center sailing j80.s converted to match racing. The Center has 8 woman match teams!

The ambition with the race was to make a high class race attracting, all the best women skippers in Scandinavia. By creating a Grade 2 race.

The initiator of the tour Anna Kjellberg, was the first to enter... The tour had even got the status of Nordic Women’s Match Racing Championship. To the disappointment for the organisers many of the top Swedish and all Danish teams dropped out because of an open regattas.

Anyhow with the 3 Swedish teams Anna Kjellberg.. Karin Hagstrom, and Charlotta Thorelius plus the top Finnish skippers Martina Karlemo , Mikaela Fors and Maija Saijonmaa, plus 2 lower ranked teams the organisers had a good group for a high quality international race.

The Chief Umpire Lorenz Walch from Germany had an experienced team of umpires to work with IU:s Leif Nybom , Lars Nyqvist and Tom Schubert from Finland , Karelina Buitenkorb, Holland and Tom Bjorklund , Sweden, Michael Rollich, Finland.

In the experiences shared Program Jens Hahlbrok and his wife ardent match race organisers from the Hamburger Segel Club acted as race committee members n the Starting vessel..

The 8 teams had an ambitious program for the 3 days of sailing: The aim to sail 2 full Round Robins and semis plus finals/petite finals meant everyone could sail 14 matches and the best 18!Friday started with sunny match race weather The wind, mainly south easterly shifted a lot and the new 3W marks system worked perfectly. Despite a late start we got nearly the total first RR sailed. After 9 flights the RC called it a day and the girls could freshen up before going to Ye Olde Club House in the middle of the Helsinki South Harbour, for a glass of bubbly and a delightful meal.

The Clubhouse is an interesting old building built orig9nally for the visit of the, then Finland’s Chief executive the Tsar of Russia Nikolaev II s visit to Helsinki in 1900, hosting among others the largest collection of sailing boat half models in Scandinavia.

Saturday started with a fresh southerly, which cleared the fog in the heads of even the latest disco queens..
We sailed first the missing flight from RR1 and started immediately with the Round 2. The wind was steadier and the sun was shining from a cloudless sky.. Perfect for match racing in Finland., as it almost always is Local Martina “Peppi” Karlemo had a nearly perfect first day with on loss out of 8 matched. She continued with her experienced crew and achieved 10 wins out of 10 matches on the second day.
Anna Kjellberg was second loosing only the matches against Peppi . Mikaela and Karin Hagstrom shared the third place. 11 flights on the second day made was a tough program for the sailors and umpires and he evening ended early with some take out pizzas.

As the Swedish girls wanted to get to the ship in time the Sunday day started with a skipper’s meeting 9 o’clock. The wind did reappear despite PRO: Zaccas prediction, and now from a mote standard South West direction.

Peppi Karlemo had chosen Karin Hagstrom as her opponent in the semi finals and sailed to a 2-0 result fairly quickly. Anna Kjellberg had some problems with Mikaela but racked up 2 comfortable wins to meet Peppi in the finals..

Karlemo and Kjellberg fought it out both in the pre starts and tacking on the windward courses, but Peppi won both races to win the Tour race 2. Anna Kjellberg, the originator of the tour came second and Hagstrom had a comfortable win over Mickaela Fors, who led but sailed the wrong W mark, and despite a furious down wind spurt lost with a boat length or so.

Results:
1. Martina Karlemo FIN
2. Anna Kjellberg SWE
Karin Hagstrom SWE
Mikaela Fors FIN
Charlotta Thorelius SWE
Maija Saijonmaa FIN
Susanne Lindroos FIN
Irene Heinonen FIN