Record breaking Finn Europeans opened in Cannes
by Robert Deaves 21 Oct 2024 16:03 NZDT
18-25 October 2024
The 2024 Finn Open European Championship was opened in sunny Cannes Sunday evening with more than 150 boats completing registration and equipment inspection. This makes it the largest Finn European Championship of all time and heralds the start of what looks like a challenging week on the waters off Cannes.
The huge fleet is split into two groups with the opening day split based purely on World Ranking positions, followed by a final series after a minimum of four races have been completed. With a challenging forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday, three races have been scheduled for Monday.
A warm-up regatta over the weekend was thwarted by lack of wind on Sunday meaning that Saturday's results stood. World No. 1 Laurent Hay, from France, took the win from Valerian Lebrun and Finland's Kristian Sjöberg.
In the evening the competitor's briefing and opening ceremony was held on the club's terrace overlooking the bay of Cannes. Jean-Pierre Gailes, Commodore of the Yacht Club de Cannes, said, "It is with great pleasure and great pride that I welcome you to the 68th Finn European Championship. It is a great honour to welcome your prestigious class to our beautiful town of Cannes.
"Your presence here illustrates your spirit of competition and your dedication to our beautiful sport, and we are looking forward to seeing how the competition unfolds on the water and to witness the exceptional talent of each sailor."
The IFA Vice President, Andy Denison, responded by thanking the club, the volunteers and all those who had taken the time and effort to organise the championship, and drew attention to the fact that this was the largest Finn Europeans of all time, highlighting the expanding class numbers worldwide. Finally, Hervé Brilland, replied on behalf of IFA France to thank the club and IFA for organising the championship.
Racing is scheduled to start at 12.00 on Monday and continues through until Friday.
Results from warm up regatta:
1 FRA 75 Laurent HAŸ 3pts
2 FRA 111 Valérian LEBRUN 4pts
3 FIN 201 Kristian SJOBERG 10pts
4 BEL 18 Sigurd VERGAUWE 12pts
5 SUI 7 Christoph BURGER 14pts
6 SVK 1 Peter MOSNY 15pts
7 GBR 5 John GREENWOOD 17pts
8 GER 164 Claus WIMMER 23pts
9 FIN 50 Freddy MARKELIN 25pts
10 ITA 11 Paolo CISBANI 25pts
Full results available here.
Gallery from Sunday available here.