2025 Open Finn European Championship at Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia - Day 3
by Robert Deaves 11 Apr 05:42 BST
5-12 April 2025
Italy's Federico Colaninno made the best of the third day at the 2025 Open Finn Europeans in Naples, Italy, with a first and a second, in a gradually veering breeze through the day. Championship leader Valerian Lebrun, from France, responded with a third and a first to maintain a narrow lead with just two days to go. Italy's Arkadii Kistanov is back up to second with Estonia's Deniss Karpak in third.
The inversion layer over the very hazy Gulf of Naples took a while to lift, and while the start time was already pushed forward to 13.00, the fleet was held ashore when the sea breeze was slow to build. It finally came and expected shifted clockwise during the day leading to mark changes on both second upwinds.
Race 5 took a while to get away with three starts and ten boats pulled out under the black flag. In 9-11 knots, Colaninno led at the top from Switzerland's Simon Bovay ad Italy's Roberto Strappati. Colaninno extended away for a comfortable win with Kistanov and Lebrun recovering well to cross second and third.
Britain's Nick Craig executed a perfect port tack start in Race 6 to cross to the right side, but with the wind all over the place he still rounded in the 20s. Filipe Silva, from Portugal, eventually rounded first from Lebrun and Switzerland's Christoph Burger. Lebrun quickly took the lead downwind and held it all the way to the finish, though had problems finding the second top mark after it was moved close under the shore. Colaninno closed the gap, but didn't have the pace downwind to pass the championship leader, who took his first win of the championship. Colaninno crossed second with Burger in third.
Colaninno, who was the wing trimmer on the Youth America's Cup winner, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, is back for his first Finn regatta in more than two years.
"Today I finally had a much better day compared to the other days. I was probably just a bit rusty since I haven't sailed the Finn for a couple of years, so now I'm warming up and understanding how it's done, so yeah I'm feeling much better and hopefully tomorrow the wind conditions will be the same.
"Today the wind was shifty, but not as bad as the first day, but it was really shifty, especially on the upwind mark, which was very close to the shore today, so it was an all to play for situation getting closer to the upwind mark today. I'm happy on how I managed the regatta and hopefully I will do the same tomorrow."
Lebrun complemented the race committee. "I think the race committee did an amazing job today. We started today with some waiting on the shore and then when the breeze started building, we went on the water and we had just another perfect day of racing here in Naples, with two races and with the wind ranging in between 10 to 15 knots. We had two races with free pumping.
"The wind was shifting a bit and some boats were always trying to head for the shore to get the better shift so it was definitely an interesting day. Thankfully, in these conditions, I was pretty fast downwind, it was free pumping, with a bit of waves, so I was able to have a good first race and then the second race was a bit more tricky, because we had a mark changing for the last upwind leg and to be honest at first, I couldn't find the mark so I tried to stay in the middle, and then I finally found the red mark and I was able to win the race.
"There are still four races to go with less wind forecasted for the next two days. So let's see what happens, but I must say the race committee did a fantastic job and we managed to sail nice races and I think that's what we're looking for in the Finn class. The start line is huge because we're all sailing in the same fleet and every race is more than an hour long, so it's very good racing."
There are just two days left in this championship. Racing is scheduled to continue at 12.00 on Friday with a similar forecast expected. The championship concludes on Saturday.
Results after Day 3: (top ten, 6 races)
1 FRA 111 Valerian Lebrun 11pts
2 ITA 51 Arkadii Kistanov 14pts
3 EST 2 Deniss Karpak 22pts
4 ITA 71 Federico Colaninno 32pts
5 ITA 1103 Alessandro Marega 32pts
6 GBR 74 Lawrence Crispin 39pts
7 FRA 75 Laurent Hay 44pts
8 AUS 2 Rob McMillan 44pts
9 POR 21 Filipe Silva, 46pts
10 HUN 808 Kristóf Kaiser 56pts
Full results available here.
Full gallery available here.