Valerian Lebrun of France, has taken the early lead at the 2025 Open Finn Europeans in Naples.
Italy’s Arkadii Kistanov and Estonia’s Deniss Karpak took a win each and sit in second and third. 111 boats from 20 nations are taking part.
The northerly offshore wind produced a minefield of a race course with big holes, big shifts, gusts, lines and patches all over the Gulf of Naples. While the wind was slightly more stable in the first race, in the second it ranged from 5 to 12 knots. However, many of the same names featured at the top mark in better condition than others.
Race 1 eventually started with the wind up to 12-15 knots. Kistanov started well and played the right to lead round the top from Portugal’s Filipe Silva and the defending champion, Alessandro Marega from Italy.
Marega eventually pulled through to second with Lebrun having a fast final downwind to cross third.
Race 2 started in a reduced breeze than fluctuated all over the course and produced some big comebacks and drops. This time Karpak, starting at the boat, rounded first from Kistanov and Australia’s Rob McMillan, and led all the way.
At the gate he tacked into some approaching new breeze and built a substantial lead. Behind him, Lebrun emerged to cross second with Laurent Hay in third. Racing concludes on Saturday.
Leading Results after Day 1, two races
1st FRA 111 Valerian Lebrun 3,2 – 5 pts
2nd ITA 51 Arkadii Kistanov 1,5 – 6 pts
3rd EST 2 Deniss Karpak 6,1 – 7 pts
4th FRA 75 Laurent Hay 5,3 – 8 pts
5th GER 323 Jonas Jung 9, 6 – 9 pts
6th ITA 1103 Alessandro Marega 2,15 – 17 pts
7th HUN 808 Kristóf Kaiser 11,7 – 18 pts
8th HUN 50 Akos Lukats 8, 14 – 22 pts
9th SUI 7 Christoph Burger 13, 9 – 22 pts
10th GBR 74 Lawrence Crispin 12,10 – 22 pts
Other GBR:
17th GBR 790 Nick Craig 20,21 – 41 pts
28 GBR 18 Jonathan Pyke 41,29 – 70 pts
