2025 Finn Gold Cup at Clube Naval de Cascais - Day 1
by Robert Deaves 3 Sep 02:39 UTC
30 August - 6 September 2025
Two-time Finn class Olympian Deniss Karpak from Estonia is leading the 2025 Finn Gold Cup, after winning the only race on the opening day in Cascais, Portugal. Portugal's Frederico Melo was second with Jesse Kylänpää from Finland in third.
All the forecasts indicated it would be a quiet start to the event, but no one really expected it to be as quiet as it was. With big swells, big shifts and light winds, it was a challenging day for everyone. The first race was already postponed until 14.00 due to the slowly developing wind.
Laurent Chapuis, from Switzerland, benefitted from a large shift on the first upwind to lead round the top mark, but Karpak was leading at the gate and maintained his lead to the end, with much place changing going on behind him.
A further race was attempted, but the increasing current, and decreasing wind made a start impossible.
Karpak said, "The first day was a bit of a mess, with too big swell, light winds, strong current, and we had only one race which I managed to win. I am quite happy with that as I am quite good in light winds despite being one of the heaviest guys in the fleet, so I still manage to feel the boat and gain some speed.
"It was unexpected because the forecast was showing us more wind, with some hiking and maybe free pumping, but it wasn't, and the second race was postponed after many attempts to start.
"I expect some more wind for tomorrow, for sure it will be because it's Cascais and its legendary place for strong wind, and maybe three races tomorrow."
To add a further complication sea fog is expected to roll in off the ocean in the morning, so the start time has already been delayed until 14.00. Three races are planned.
Racing continues until Saturday.
Results after Day 1: (one race)
1 EST 2 Deniss KARPAK 1pt
2 POR 5 Frederico MELO 2pts
3 FIN 99 Jesse KYLÄNPÄÄ 3pts
4 FRA 111 Valerian LEBRUN 4pts
5 FRA 66 Philippe LOBERT 5pts
6 FRA 75 Laurent HAY 6pts
7 BRA 114 Antonio CARVALHO MOREIRA 7pts
8 SUI SUI99 Laurent CHAPUIS 8pts
9 ITA 1103 Alessandro MAREGA 9pts
10 NED 703 Eric BAKKER 10pts