Finn World Masters in Medemblik - Day 1
by Robert Deaves 16 Jun 22:29 BST
15-20 June 2025
Racing at the 2025 Finn World Masters began in Medemblik, The Netherlands, on Monday with eight races over two course areas in four groups. It was a big day on the water with a shifty 8-12 knots offshore breeze and a lot of racing. 307 Finns from 27 countries are taking part.
There was an early postponement of about an hour to wait for the wind to arrive, building through the morning from 8-10 knots in the first race to 10-12 in the second and gradually clearing skies to leave another very warm and pleasant day in Medemblik.
Both races in each of the four groups group were won by the same sailor, so there is a four-way tie at the top after the first day. Laurent Hay, Fabian Lemmel, Eric Bakker and Pieter-Jan Postma all won both their races. Perhaps of greater interest is that in fifth place is the 1996 Olympic bronze medalist, Roy Heiner with two solid second places. Other standout performances came from Zdenek Gebhart with a 3,2 and Marco Buglielli with a 2, 4.
Buglielli said, "It was a very good day for me. I was a bit lucky, and we also had light wind, which is my favourite condition. Today I scored a second and a fourth, so I'd say it's a very good beginning of the championship. Being here is wonderful. This year I managed to attend two championships, the Europeans in Naples and the Finn World Masters in Medemblik and it's very good, you know it's a wonderful atmosphere. We're also having some nice weather and some light wind conditions which is very good for me."
The 2022 champion, Pieter-Jan Postma is undoubtedly the home favourite and made it look easy today.
He said, "A good first day here in Medemblik. It was a great day today with two races, we have two courses for fleets and the breeze was around eight till ten knots and we had some really great racing, with 80 boats on the starting line.
"For me, it was a really good day. I scored two bullets, but at the same time you know because you have four fleets you never know where you stand, so the hard thing will be staying consistent through eight races. So, I'm really happy about today and it's great to be amongst some good friends."
Two more races for the four groups are scheduled for Tuesday with a slightly stringer wind on the forecast but the same good weather and high temperatures. Racing continues until Friday.
Results after Day 1: (top ten, 2 races)
1 FRA 75 Laurent HAŸ 2pts
1 GER 501 Fabian LEMMEL 2pts
1 NED 703 Eric BAKKER 2pts
1 NED 842 Pieter-Jan POSTMA 2pts
5 NED 844 Roy HEINER 4pts
6 CZE 2 Zdenek GEBHART 5pts
7 ITA 2 Marco BUGLIELLI 6pts
8 DEN 7 Søren HOLM 9pts
9 NED 98 Nanno SCHUTTRUPS 10pts
10 GER 488 Andreas FRANKE 10pts