VIDEO: Dealing with the extreme

At 40 years of age, Ed Wright (GBR) won his second Finn European Championship title at the 2018 edition held March 12-17 in Cádiz, Spain.

Having previously won in 2006, Wright entered the medal race in second behind Nicholas Heiner (NED), but the extreme conditions got the best of Heiner who suffered several capsizes and a last place finish which dropped him to silver.

“It was a crazy race,” remarked Wright. “I saw Heiner capsize at the five-minute so then I realised everyone was having a hard time with the conditions and not just me.

“I knew I needed to nail the start which I did and immediately rolled Heiner, which was great and had good speed to extend. I tried to sail him back and still stay in contention, as I needed boats between us. I got an early gybe in on the first run and sailed the boat hard downwind and extended. By then it was a matter of keeping it upright.

“The seas were massive and very difficult, but it was awesome sailing and awesome racing. I enjoyed every second. What a race. I am so happy to win the title again.”

In the video below, ride the rollercoaster downwind in the medal race with Caleb Paine (USA) in 24-30 knots. Hang on…it’s going to get rough.

Final Results (Top 10 of 91; 9 races, 1 discard)
1 GBR 11 Edward Wright 57 (5)
2 NED 89 Nicholas Heiner 60 (9)
3 SWE 33 Max Salminen 71 (2)
4 NZL 24 Josh Junior 73 (1)
5 USA 6 Caleb Paine 73 (3)
6 GBR 91 Ben Cornish 92 (6)
7 BRA 109 Jorge Zarif 97 (DSQ)
8 CRO 1 Josip Olujic 99 (4)
9 FRA 112 Jonathan Lobert 101 (7)
10 GRE 77 Ioannis Mitakis 110 (8)

Event details – Results – Facebook