Peter Peet, from The Netherlands, will go into the final day of the 2023 Finn European Masters, at Campione del Garda, with a nine-point lead over Britain’s John Greenwood, while Olof Lundqvist, from Sweden, moves up to third. Race wins on the third day went to Greenwood and France’s Valarian Lebrun on what was another very hot day on Lake Garda, with the wind increasing during the day from 6 to 9 knots.
It was another extremely tricky day on the water with the Ora developing late and slowly. After a few delays the first start under black flag removed around 20 boats, but the wind was not fully established and there were a lot of new faces at the front. Maintaining anything like consistency here has been near on impossible, with pretty much all sailors picking up high points at some point.
In Race 5, Greenwood started near the pin and tacked straight to the right. A big right shift near the top left the fleet reaching in from the cliffs with Greenwood rounding first from Spain’s Xavier Penas, Otto Strandvig from Denmark and Britain’s Stewart Mitchell. The wind was a bit more stable on the second upwind with Greenwood protecting and slightly extending his lead to win from Penas and Strandvig.
There were a couple of other standout performances. Juan E Maegli, from Guatemala sailed an excellent race to cross fourth, while the only super legend here, 87-year-old Joop Wuijts, from The Netherlands, finished 44th after rounding the top mark mid fleet. He was pretty happy about that, as were the Dutch team.
The wind increased for a much better second race with Lebrun tacking early to the right and leading the fleet round from Lundqvist and Spain’s David Terol. Lebrun was never headed, sailing away on every leg, making a huge gain at the gate and winning by a substantial margin. Terol came through for second with Sweden’s Peter Overup in third. Lundqvist dropped to fifth, but had done enough to move up to third overall.
Lebrun said, “The weather for today was almost like every other day, pretty light, a little bit stronger for the second race. For me the first race was terrible like the last two days but fortunately I was able to win the second one, so good for the for the overall and to save the championship. I am having a good time here and I think that the level has increased quite a lot in the master class, so it’s pretty close at the front. As with many sailors we’ve been training quite a lot this year.”
Maegli said, “I came back to the Finn after 57 years, so I’ve been sailing fir a few days, today I had a very good race for me. I haven’t had very good results, but I found myself remembering my old times in one race, and the second race I wasn’t able to start well and then ended up at the back of the fleet again. But I’m happy now. I know I can do it if I start properly.”
Friday is the final day of the Finn European Masters with two more races scheduled.
Results after 6 races
1 NED 148 GrM Peter Peet 30
2 GBR 5 GGM John Greenwood 39
3 SWE 32 GrM Olof Lundqvist 46
4 SUI 59 Mst Simon Bovay 51
5 ITA 115 Mst Roberto Strappati 56
6 NED 29 GrM Bas De Waal 60
7 AUS 22 GrM Paul Mckenzie 68
8 SWE 72 GrM Peter Overup 72
9 FRA 111 Mst Valerian Lebrun 74
10 GBR 2 GrM Allen Burrell 75
Results here: https://www.campioneunivela.it/regate/2023/campionato-europeo-finn-master/finn/
