Sizzling start to 2025 Finn season with Open & U23 Finn European Championship in Naples
by Robert Deaves 6 Apr 20:17 BST
5-12 April 2025
Defending champion and World No. 1, Alessandro Marega, ITA - 2025 Open & U23 Finn European Championship © Robert Deaves
Under the imposing shadow of Vesuvius, the 2025 Open and U23 Finn Europeans opens this week in the Bay of Naples, Italy, for the first time in 58 years, with 125 entries from 20 nations.
Naples has a special place in Finn Class history, as it was here, way back in 1960, that Paul Elvstrøm won his third Olympic Gold Medal in the class. The last time the Finn class had a major event in Naples was the 1967 European Championship, which included legends such as Willy Kuhweide, Hubert Raudaschl and Valentin Mankin. The second ever European Championship was also held in Naples in 1957.
So it is with excitement that the championship returns to Naples for what looks lkke being a great week of competition. The event also incorporates the European Masters titles and the inaugural U29 European Championship. The organising authority is the Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia with the Reale Yacht Club Canottieri Savoia, the Club Nautico della Vela and the Tennis Club Napoli in conjunction with the Italian Finn Association and the International Finn Association. The event is organised under the patronage of the Comune di Napoli.
Predictably the large fleet includes a sizable and very competitive Italian group, led by the current European Champion and World No. 1, Alessandro Marega. He is joined by the World No. 2, Peter Peet from The Netherlands, and World No. 3 Christoph Burger, from Switzerland. Long time, former World No.1 and current World Masters champion, Laurent Hay, from France, is also competing.
There are also some notable returns to the fleet. Double Olympian Deniss Karpak, from Estonia is back, having not competed since the 2016 Rio Olympics.
In a recent Finntalks Karpak said, "I decided to come back because I missed sailing too much. Sailing is in my DNA and I had a long pause after the Finn Gold Cup in Porto in 2021 and since then I haven't sailed much. Hopefully my body will remember how to do this all over again. I am also excited to see everybody on the water again and to feel everything that there is to feel again. I am not too sure I missed the competition, but I really missed the splashes, feeling the wind and everything that I loved about that."
Also, Italy's Arkadiy Kistanov is sailing his first major event for five years, having won the Mandelli Trophy on Garda a few weeks back.
It's a big fleet and there is a host of talent from all over Europe, including Britain's Nick Craig, Spain's David Terol, Hungary's Kristóf Kaiser who won the bronze in Cannes last year, Britain's Lawrence Crispin who has figured well at many events this year already, Portugal's Filipe Silva, and France's Valerian Lebrun, last year's runner up.
After a change to the youth events last year, this event also marks the first U29 European Championship, with several sailors taking part, including some who recently took part in an IFA supported training camp under the eye of Florian Raudaschl as coach.
The fleet has also benefited from two enlightening and educational webinars from former Olympian, Nicholas Heiner, which has hopefully boosted the level of the fleet.
The 2025 Open Finn Europeans takes place between 5-12 April, with a 10-race series over five days. The opening ceremony and practice are on Monday 6 April before racing starts in earnest on Tuesday 7 April. It has all the hallmarks of an awesome start to what is lining up to be an incredible 2025 season for the class.
The event website is here with media updates and more information also published on the Finn Class page here.