Martijn van Muyden, from The Netherlands, has won 2026 Open Finn European Championship in Gdynia, Poland after three final races were sailed on Saturday. Defending champion, Valerian Lebrun, from France, won two of the races to end up second with Peter Peet, also from The Netherlands, in third. Poland’s Michał Krasodomski placed fourth and won the U29 Finn European Championship.
After two days of no racing, most forecasts for Saturday looked terrible, however, the race officer took the brave decision to start very early in the hope that the southerly would hang around long enough for at least one race to get the series in. But it paid off with three races in 8-15 knots, albeit sailed in offshore shifty winds, though much stronger than anyone expected.
In Race 4, Lebrun led at the top after starting in 8-10 knots. Van Mudyen took the lead on the second second upwind with a big right shift from the shore. But Lebrun retook the lead on the run to win from Van Muyden andd Krasodomski who made huge gains from the first mark.
Race 5 started with Oscar and free pumping downwind. At the top it was Matous Cervenka, from Czech Republic from Lebrun and Spain’s Jordi Tur Casado. Lebrun took the lead on the downwind and just held on up the second beat with the wind getting lighter again and shifting, to win from Casado and Peter Peet. At this point Peet had taken the overall lead from Lebrun and Krasodomski, but there was one final race to come.
For race 6 the course was moved closer to shore to find the best wind, wit bigger shifts and patches across the course. For a while it looked like the wind would die away but then came back at 10 knots for the final round. Hungary’s Elemer Haidekker led round from Akos Lukats and Finland’s Mikkio Tiilikka. Haidekker led rouud the gate but Tiilikka rounded the final upwind by a boatlength and held off Lukatz to win with Haidekker third.
Michał Krasodomski was also dominant for the U29 title from Finland’s Lars Habermacher and Poiland’s Miłosz Michalak.
He said, “I'm super excited to win the European Under-29 Finn class title. I was hoping for top three overall to just get a medal, but it turned out that I could win. In overall, my first goal was to go in top 15, around, something like that. After the first day, I realized I can fight for some more.
“So, in my mind, already my goal changed to top three. I finished fourth, but I'm still super happy with the result. The guys are super experienced, so today with the shifty, tricky wind from the shore, they just sailed better than me. It's still super good.”
More Finn sailing, “I haven't planned anything yet, but maybe next year for some Worlds or Europeans. Maybe I could join.”
Martijn Van Muyden has been sailing Finns for a very long time, and came back around 10 years ago after a long break. This is his first major international title.
“Brilliant. A crazy week. Crazy, really crazy. It was definitely worth getting up at four o'clock.
“It was a really, really shifty day, difficult and I'm so happy that it turned out this way.
Only one point, that's great. So, it was really good racing with Valerion. And he missed out on the third race, so that's where I got him back.
“It was more like a lake today. It was shifty and it is more like we used to sail in the Netherlands. So, come to the Netherlands, do some racing there and you'll get up here.”
All told it was a challenging event with a few of the favourites failing to make the top 10 and some new names appearing. But makes it fun is the friendship and camaraderie in the class and that’s one reason everyone keeps coming back. Thanks to the Polish Yachting Federation and all the helpers and staff at the Gdynia sailing base.
Next up for the Finns is the European Masters on Mar Menor in October. It’s gonna be big.
Final results after six races
1 NED 60 Martijn Van Muyden 37
2 FRA 111 Valerian Lebrun 38
3 NED 148 Peter Peet 42
4 POL 77 Michał Krasodomski 44
5 NED 29 Bas De Waal 56
6 CZE 54 Matouš Červenka 56
7 HUN 50 Akos Lukats 58
8 HUN 911 Elemer Haidekker 62
9 POL 13 Tadeusz Bartlewski 63
10 FRA 75 Laurent Hay 64
U29
1 (4) POL 77 Michał Krasodomski 44
2 (17) FIN 235 Lars Habermacher 99
3 (20) POL 33 Miłosz Michalak 106
4 (27) GER 181 Niclas Perband 130
5 (33) GBR 64 Cameron Tweedle 161
Results here: https://events.pya.org.pl/open-finn-european-championship-2026,e152
Gallery here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/finnclassphotos/55360099519/in/album-72177720334412571
