2025 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 European Championships at Thessaloniki, Greece - Day 2
by 49er & Nacra 17 Sailing 5 Jun 2025 06:14 BST
3-8 June 2025
2025 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 European Championships Day 2 © Nikos Pantis
Win the start, grab the first shift, consolidate and extend! The winning formula is easy, and those who got ahead took full advantage of an easy course once they got to the front. For everyone else, it was a day of tense battles where any interruption or mistake to initiate a downward spiral of doubt and stress.
The 49erFX and Nacra 17 fleets were first to race on day 2 of the 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 European Championships from Thessaloniki. On each course, it was British teams that took great races early.
Freya Black with Saskia Tidey (GBR) won the first two races by winning the pin, heading to the pressure on the left, and cruising around the course from there. It was almost the same for John Gimson with Anna Burnet (GBR), who followed the same formula for a 2, 1, 2 day.
"The pressure was on the left, sometimes it paid to hit the lay line, other times it was slightly better to even overstand a bit, but once out in front the track was pretty plain sailing," said Gimson.
"We wanted to work on our starting, and we are getting lots of practice here," said Tidey. "Light airs are the hardest to master for new teams, and it seems we're in for a whole regatta full of practice and testing in a critical condition that we don't always get on circuit."
"I think I lost a year of my life in that last race," claimed Antonia Lewellyn LeFrance (CAN), about her winning the third race of the day. "We must have been 1 or 2 cm from the start line, and then we had to defend our lead in a dying breeze for the whole last lap, still not knowing if we were over or not. So much stress!"
The thing about light air sailing is that while out in front, the sailing is just like in practice. However, for everyone outside of the few making up the front group, light winds are a constant battle to seek pressure, and it just isn't anywhere to be found. Every cross made or missed, every crowded mark rounding, every clearing tack or gybe takes excruciating patience to rebuild from.
"It's so much easier ahead," exclaimed Laura Farese (AUT), the Nacra 17 helm who moved up into second overall today. "We had a day in Hyeres that was a 2, 1, 1, and it felt like cheating. We just sailed around the course a few times and took home great scores. Today we had both the good and the bad, and the bad is so bad while the good is so good."
It was the same for Galen Richardson (CAN). "We led a whole lap in one race today for the first time ever. It was great! Then the brits got passed us on the second upwind and the Dutch got us with a couple hundred meters to go to the finish so we ended up third, but that was still a lot of fun!"
For the teams in the middle of the pack, that boat park chat was not quite as positive. Lots of complaints about fouls, errors and a group of competitors all going fast and making life hard. Hard, of course, is the Olympic standard, so nothing out of the ordinary.
The wind was fading out in the third FX/Nacra 17 race of the day, and by the time the 49er got to the course, it did not improve. After a couple hours of waiting, the day was canceled without any more racing for the men.
Follow along via the regatta website for results, photos, videos, and more.
There will be a very lightweight live broadcast each day featuring limited footage but consistent content from the venue so fans can get a feel for what's happening all week. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and ring the bell for alerts. Racing runs from June 3-8, 2025.