From Totti Pekonen, FIN F18 Chair
This years Finnish Championships were held in challenging weather. Both days saw winds on either side of the 13m/s upper limit, which caused many teams to drop out of the competition either due to mechanical failures or lack of training in the conditions. Out of the original 13 boats signed up, six participated in the seven races of the championships.
The name of the game was experience, and the masters of the conditions proved to be FIN-14 (Otto Reittilä & Anssi Muikku) with an impressive card of 1,1,1,(4),1,2,2. Silver was awarded to FIN-390 (Karri Heliö & Sakari Kalpio) and Bronze to FIN-11 (Ilkka Saura & Mark Lassfolk).
The Estonian team EST-049 (Siim Maivel & Kristjan Kookmaa) gave FIN-14 a run for their money on day two, but unfortunately their bad luck in the races of day one saw them finnish outside of the podium this time. Their speed upwind was impressive and the first place finishes in race four, six and seven are a testament to that, despite racing on a loan sail due to a rather large, crew sized, hole in their original one.
Congratulations to all the winners!