Big changes but Laurent Hay remains Finn World No. 1 after major events
by Robert Deaves 18 Jun 2023 15:01 BST
Laurent Hay, FRA - 2023 Finn World Masters in Greece - Day 4 © Robert Deaves
After placing as runner up at both the Open Europeans and the Finn World Masters, France's Laurent Hay remains at the top of the Finn World Ranking List for issue No. 3.
Marc Allain des Beauvais, also from France, moves up two places to second while European Champion Domonkos Nemeth, from Hungary, moves up 12 places to third.
With 15 more events on the World Tour for Finns added since the last ranking list, there are now 1,209 sailors from 40 countries with world ranking positions. This equates to around 60 per cent of the global fleet taking part in at least one ranking regatta.
New World Masters champion, Filipe Silva, from Portugal, moves up two places to fourth overall. The biggest climber into the top 10 though is Bartosz Szydlowski, from Poland, climbing from 61st to sixth.
As well as the two major championships this ranking list includes the Mandelli Trophy in Torbole, the Copper Cup in Belgium, The New Zealand Nationals, Masters and North Island Championship, the Campeonato in Brazil, the Nesselbatt in Germany, the North American Championship, the Dutch Masters, the UK Masters, the Bourgas regatta in Bulgaria, the Victorian championship in Australia and the German Nationals.
It's interesting to note than in May over 400 Finns were taking park in different regattas across Europe including the Dutch Masters, the German championship, the Open Europeans and the UK Masters.
The class is looking forward to an exciting few years ahead after some significant decisions on were taken at the annual meetings of the IFA and the Masters during May.
The major championship calendar for 2024 is now set with the Finn World Masters returning to Punta Ala, Italy, in June, the Finn Gold Cup goes to Aarhus, Denmark in August and the Open and Masters Europeans will be in Cannes, France, in October. Then for 2025 the Finn Gold Cup was awarded to Cascais, Portugal, the same venue that attracted the largest ever Finn Gold Cup fleet of 180 boats in 1970.
In 2026, both the Finn Gold Cup and the Finn World Masters were awarded to the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron in Brisbane, Australia. This will be the first time the Gold Cup has been in Brisbane since 1976 and the first time ever the Finn World Masters has been held in the southern hemisphere.
There is a lot to look forward to in the coming years. Further details can be found here.
The next World Ranking release will be in October after the traditional championship season across Europe and the Europeans Masters in Campione del Garda has concluded.
Finn World Ranking List Issue No. 3 - June 2023
Top 20 from 1209 sailors
1. Laurent Hay FRA 75 997.37
2. Marc Allain Des Beauvais FRA 99 881.78
3. Domonkos Németh HUN 80 835.28
4. Filipe Silva POR 21 829.55
5. Kristian Sjoberg FIN 201 799.75
6. Bartosz Szydlowski POL 6 740.47
7. Lawrence Crispin GBR 74 719.64
8. Peter Mosny SVK 1 682.89
9. Miguel Fernandez Vasco ESP 161 682.06
10. Christoph Burger SUI 7 674.26
11. James Bevis AUS 330 664.07
12. David Terol ESP 7 664.02
13. Bas De Waal NED 29 662.47
14. Lukäts Akos HUN 50 661.15
15. Peter Peet NED 148 627.66
16. Pedro Lodovici BRA 32 612.83
17. Michel Audoin FRA 38 609.48
18. Zdenek Gebhart CZE 2 608.67
19. Taras Havrysh UKR 8 604.93
20. Tomas Mihalik SVK 271 603.19
See full ranking here