Finn European Masters Championship 2026 at Los Alcazares - Day 1
by Robert Deaves 19 Oct 17:24 BST
16-23 October 2026
Filipe Silva, POR - 2026 Finn European Masters at Los Alcazares - Day 1 © Robert Deaves
Filipe Silva from Portugal has won the opening race of the 2026 Finn European Masters at Los Alcazares, on the Mar Menor in Spain after a challenging day of light wind and threatening rainstorms.
Spain's Alejandro Cardona crossed second with Germany's Andreas Gillwald in third. 118 Finn sailors from 20 nations are taking part in Los Alcazares.
After several days of colder and wet weather, with the practice race cancelled after weather alerts, the first day of racing looked promising though heavy rain was expected later in the day. In actual fact, the area has got off very lightly compared to some areas of Spain, with hardly any of the forecast rain on Sunday and similarly, very little on Monday.
After an extensive morning briefing, the fleet launched into a light offshore breeze, with the entire horizon dominated by a looming black cloud, which approached during the race.
After one general recall the fleet got away under black flag with seven boats pulled out. Switzerland's Christoph Burger held a substantial lead at the top as the wind shifted 20-30 degrees to the right. It was a sign of what was to come. Akos Lukats, from Hungary, rounded the gate right behind Burger as the second top mark was moved 50 degrees to the right, with Spain's Adrián Bedoya Mey in third.
Filipe Silva rounded in the early teens and decided the wind was going to continue to veer toward the incoming black mass and held the right side to lead round with a huge margin after most of the fleet were more conservative in the middle. Cardona and Gillwald also moved up well to second and third and with the wind continuing to veer, it was a reach down to the finish where the race committee sent the fleet home to avoid the expected bad weather - which in the end cleared through without a drop of rain falling.
Silva, the 2023 Finn World Masters champion, said, "Tricky, difficult, but that's part of the game, so happy with the first place; we knew it was going to be light. The wind shifted to the right on the second upwind, so we had to really be looking at the game to know what was going to happen. It went well for me, so I'm really happy.
"It's great to be back, I mean I have good memories from the place. Last time I was here I was second in the world, so happy to be back and hopefully improve my results."
Cardona said, "It went super well even if the day was rather complicated with lots of shifts with different intensity. There were lots of wind holes on one side we had wind but not on the other. It was fun I had a bit of luck. I went to the right side because I saw a black cloud I thought there was more breeze and in the end, there was more breeze and well I was lucky.
"I think it will be a hard week with a lot of shifts also changes in intensity and I think it's going to be a tough week for the race committee."
Racing continues with two races scheduled for Tuesday and concludes on Friday.
Results after Day 1
1. POR 21 Filipe SILVA 1
2. ESP 76 Alejandro CARDONA 2
3. GER 334 Andreas GILLWALD 3
4. NED 7 Cees SCHEURWATER 4
5. USA 2 R. Phillip RAMMING 5
6. HUN 50 Akos LUKATS 6
7. HUN 5 Tibor PALLAY 7
8. SUI 7 Christoph BURGER 8
9. FRA 75 Laurent HAY 9
10. HUN 180 Gergely GERENCSER 10