Portugal wins 2023 Finn World Masters

Filipe Silva from Portugal won the 2023 Finn World Masters Championship held May 29-June 2 at Nea Itaklitsa, near Kavala, in Greece. Laurent Hay from France was second with Peter Mosny from Slovakia in third.

It has been a very difficult week for wind, with various weather systems across Europe in the past weeks, and only one day of the weather that was expected this week. With hot and humid temperatures on the final day, there were no races as low cloud prevented the sea breeze becoming established.

Just four races were completed, and Silva sailed very well to finish with just over one third the points of second placed Hay, never placing worse than fifth in the 145 boat fleet. However, there was no discard and that may have changed everything.

There were two Super Legends competing with Howard Sellars from Britain placing 102nd overall to take the title from Jan-Eric Floren from Sweden in 144th overall.

There were also 18 Legends taking part and this category is getting more and more competitive with sailors remaining in the Finn for longer than ever. Jiri Outrata from Czech Republic took the title in 19th overall from Peter Vollebregt of the Netherlands and Finland’s Derek Breitenstein.

Antal Szekely took the Great Grand Masters, the largest age category group, while Laurent Hay again won the Grand Masters and Filipe Silva took the Masters category title.

In 2024 the championship will be in Italy at Punta Ala for an event that was delayed three years because of the pandemic. It is hoped the class will start to return to pre-pandemic entry levels with at least 300 boats expected.

Award Categories:
World Master (the overall winner)
Master (winner 40-49 years old)
Grand Master (winner 50-59)
Grand Grand Master (winner 60-69)
Legend (winner 70-80)
Super Legend 80+)
Ladies (40+)
Classic Boat (Built prior to 1985)

Final results
1 POR 21 SILVA 13
2 FRA 75 Laurent HAŸ 31
3 SVK 1 Peter MOSNY 49
4 HUN 7 Antalo SZÉKELY 50
5 NED 148 Peter PEET 62
6 HUN 30 Kantor ZSIGMOND 76
7 AUS 98 Lucas PRESCOTT 82
8 CZE 43 Ladislav HYRS 86
9 HUN 50 Akos LUKATS 93
10 GBR 18 Nick CRAIG 94

Super Legend
1 Howard Sellars GBR 777
2 Jan Eric Floren SWE4

Legend
1 Jiri Outrata CZE 8
2 Peter Vollebregt NED 39
3 Derek Breitenstein FIN 70

Great Grand Master
1 Antal Székely HUN 7
2.Philippe Lobert, FRA 66
3 Valentyn Klymentyev UKR 10

Grand Master
1 Laurent Hay FRA 75
2 Peter Mosny SVK 1
3 Peter Peet NED 148

Master
1 Filipe Silva POR 21
2 Kantor Zsigmund HUN 30
3 Lucas Prescott AUS 98

Lady
1 Tina Weinreich AUR 330

Classic Boat
1 Giancarlo Pelosi ITA 1101

Golden Crutch (11th)
Simon Percival GBR 635

Sailing Club Trophy
Thunsersee YC (Christoph Burger, Philippe Raemy, Till Klammer)

Nations Trophy
Hungary (Antal Székely, Kantor Zsigmund, Akos Lukats)

Event information – Race details – Photos