Filipe Silva, from Portugal, has won the 2023 Finn World Masters at Nea Iraklitsa, Kavala, Greece, after no more races were possible on Friday. Laurent Hay, from France is second with Peter Mosny from Slovakia in third.
While the weather remained hot and humid, low cloud prevented the sea breeze becoming established. The fleet was towed out to the race area and though the race committee kept the fleet afloat as long as practical there was no wind before the 15.00 deadline, so the fleet was towed back to the beach.
At least everyone here has become an expert in towing this week.
It has been a very difficult week for wind, with various weather systems across Europe in the past weeks, and only one day of the weather that was expected this week. However, there was not a sad face on the beach, or the bars or the tavernas. Every has had an amazing time and at the prizegiving, a promise was made to invite the fleet back in the future. There will be a lot of takers for that.
Just four races were completed, and Silva sailed very well to finish with just over one third the points of second placed Hay, never placing worse than fifth in the 145 boat fleet. However, there was no discard and that may have changed everything.
The prizegiving was held where the event started, back on the beach but without the threat of heavy rainstorms passing over, and on a warm sunny evening.
There were two Super Legends here this week with Howard Sellars from Britain placing 102nd overall to take the title from Jan-Eric Floren, from Sweden in 144th overall.
There were also 18 Legends taking part and this category is getting more and more competitive with sailors remaining in the Finn for longer than ever. Jiri Outrata, from Czech Republic took the title in 19th overall from Peter Vollebregt of the Netherlands and Finland’s Derek Breitenstein.
Antal Szekely took the Great Grand Masters, the largest age category group this week, while Laurent Hay again won the Grand Masters and Filipe Silva took the Masters category title.
So that’s it from the beautiful beach at Nea Iraklitsa.
In 2024 the championship heads back to another beach, this time in Italy at Punta Ala, for an event that was delayed three years because of the pandemic. Again, as this week, it is a welcome return to a popular venue and it is hoped the class will start to return to pre-pandemic entry levels with at least 300 boats expected.
Final results
1 POR 21 Filipe SILVA 13
2 FRA 75 Laurent HAŸ 31
3 SVK 1 Peter MOSNY 49
4 HUN 7 Antalo SZÉKELY 50
5 NED 148 Peter PEET 62
6 HUN 30 Kantor ZSIGMOND 76
7 AUS 98 Lucas PRESCOTT 82
8 CZE 43 Ladislav HYRS 86
9 HUN 50 Akos LUKATS 93
10 GBR 18 Nick CRAIG 94
Super Legend
1 Howard Sellars GBR 777
2 Jan Eric Floren SWE4
Legend
1 Jiri Outrata CZE 8
2 Peter Vollebregt NED 39
3 Derek Breitenstein FIN 70
Great Grand Master
1 Antal Székely HUN 7
2.Philippe Lobert, FRA 66
3 Valentyn Klymentyev UKR 10
Grand Master
1 Laurent Hay FRA 75
2 Peter Mosny SVK 1
3 Peter Peet NED 148
Master
1 Filipe Silva POR 21
2 Kantor Zsigmund HUN 30
3 Lucas Prescott AUS 98
Lady
1 Tina Weinreich AUR 330
Classic Boat
1 Giancarlo Pelosi ITA 1101
Golden Crutch (11th)
Simon Percival GBR 635
Sailing Club Trophy
Thunsersee YC (Christoph Burger, Philippe Raemy, Till Klammer)
Nations Trophy
Hungary (Antal Székely, Kantor Zsigmund, Akos Lukats)
Full results here: https://www.manage2sail.com/en-US/event/FWM2023#!/results?classId=FWM23
Full gallery here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/finnclassphotos/albums/72177720308764150
