Local Information
General:
Tuusulanjärvi is a small lake in Southern Finland. Distance from Helsinki, capital of Finland, is only 30 kilometers. The lake is situated between municipality of Tuusula in south and town of Järvenpää in north. The lake is approximately 8 km long and little bit more than one kilometer wide. Tuusulanjärvi is shallow with an average depth of only 3,2 meters. The deepest point is 10 meters. Most of the racing area's depth is more than five meters. Due to small amount of water in the lake the water temperature is varying greatly during the year. Tuusulanjärvi is the warmest lake in Finland in July. During the regatta you can expect temperatures round 25 Celsius.
Sailing conditions:
The fact that the lake is rather small makes it also quite unique place to sail in many sectors. As previously mentioned the water temperature rises much higher than for example in Gulf of Finland where you can hit 20 degrees mark but not much more. The shallowness keeps the waves very small even in heavy weather and because it is an inland lake the weather is very seldom a heavy one. Anyhow the distance to Gulf of Finland is so small and the terrain is quite flat so you can expect sea breeze from south west in certain weather conditions. Sea breeze rises only in the afternoon after two o'clock. During the regatta dates there is possibility for light sea breeze but because of small temperature differences between Gulf of Finland and ground the wind will not be as strong as during early summer. End of July is also mainly affected by high pressure from Baltic countries and Russia. This fact makes the wind conditions mostly light and variable. There is however always a possibility for a low pressure from Atlantic Ocean which in most cases gives us nice moderate winds from south west or rain and wind from south east. In all cases the winds are very shifty and you have to concentrate in the tactics. Even you think your position is definite you can not be sure before you are finished the race, so sudden and local the wind changes may be. Racing in Tuusulanjärvi can be challenging and also very much of fun!
Like our Olympic gold medalist said after winning gold in Sydney said: "sailing in Sydney Harbour is like sailing in Tuusulanjärvi".
Written by: Jukka Jaskari,
38 years of experience in Tuusulanjärvi and still learning...
More information about the lake: