Finn Open Europeans - Cannes it be any closer?

The fourth day of the 2024 Finn Open Europeans was, and is, filled with drama and uncertainty after a day of waiting for wind, then multiple restarts and finally multiple hearings in the jury room. As this report goes out the results are not yet updated, so things could change. Though the results show Alessandro Marega maintaining his lead from Valerian Lebrun and Nick Craig up to third, this may change soon after an evening of protests and scoring enquires.

The fleet was held on shore while the wind built, but it was never as strong as forecast. The first race of the day in 6-9 knots was initially won by Craig, after race leader Laurent Hay was black flagged. Hay was later reinstated after a hearing, as were several others. Then the second race took seven attempts to get away, with half of the top 10 also black flagged, including Craig, Lebrun and Hay. The race was led from start to finish by Paul McKenzie. Again, hearings are pending. It will be a long night for the jury. In the silver fleet the race wins went to Andreas Francke and Tangi Capitaine.

For the first race in gold fleet there was 6-7 knots from the east, and wind kept on turning left through the day, leading to several general recalls. Hay had a good start near the pin and sailed a nearly flawless race. Behind him Nick Craig, Peter Peet, Valerian Lebrun and Kristof Kaiser were all contenders for the first three spots, with Craig rounding in fourth place after the first upwind, behind Hay, Peter Mosny and Lebrun. Peet and Kaiser quickly caught up on the downwind but Hay managed to extend his lead on the outer loop, followed by Craig and Lebrun, who then finished the race in first and third, with Peet squeezing in a second. Hay crossed the line reading his sail number on the black board, so Craig crossed thinking he had won.

In the second gold fleet race, after multiple generals recalls, which eliminated 23 boats in an ever-shifting wind, the race finally started with Paul McKenzie starting by the pin and immediately taking the lead, increasing his lead throughout the race. Nicola Capriglione rounded in second at the top mark, with Akos Lukats in third, but at the end of the first downwind, Lukats was up to second, with Peter Boje in third, after sailing a very nice downwind. The trio managed to play with the shifts well and hold their position, Marega and Kaiser managed to close the gap from behind but not enough to pass the leaders.

Alessandro Marega - ITA — Alessandro Marega – ITA

McKenzie, now in sixth overall (which may change) commented, “I mean, it was a fantastic day. I won one race, it was all about starting good, hitting the left and from there on I was in the lead, and it was pretty easy. The first race wasn’t so good. I finished 21st. It was hard to get off with a good start today. Everybody knew which was the good way to go. Everybody knew which end was the favourite one which was about 20 degrees favoured so it was really hard to get off the line.”

“I honestly don’t know what to expect from tomorrow because every day the forecast is telling us something and then we end up with different sailing conditions, so we will see.”

Kristof Kaiser is in fourth, maybe fifth, overall. “We had a light wind day and it was really tough. We had at least 12 starts under black flag and it was really hard to get off the line. The conditions in the end were OK.

“I think we had in between 5 to 8 knots and overall it was a good day. Finally, we had a good racing day with two races after two days with a lack of wind. Maybe tomorrow we are going to have a windy day, and I think that’s going to be tough.”

There is one day left in the championship and two races are scheduled on Friday from 11.00. Forecasts vary hugely from 10 to 25 knots. When the results are updated (and there could be many changes) we expect to see Hay with a one point lead, so it is all coming down to the final day in Cannes.

Cannes it be any closer?

Results after 6 races (subject to change)

1 ITA 1103 Alessandro MAREGA 11
2 FRA 111 Valérian LEBRUN 14
3 GBR 790 Nick CRAIG 16
4 HUN 808 Kristóf KAISER 20
5 POR 21 Filipe SILVA 23
6 AUS 22 Paul McKENZIE 26
7 HUN 5 Tibor PALLAY 29
8 SUI 7 Christoph BURGER 37
9 NED 6 Martijn van MUYDEN 40
10 POL 6 Bartosz SZYDLOWSKI 46