The 2024 Finn Open European Championship opens in Cannes this week, with a record-breaking entry of around 150 boats.
World No. 1 Laurent Hay will continue his battle against fellow French, Valerian Lebrun. Hay took the World Masters title from Lebrun in June, while Lebrun turned the tables to win the French title later on.
Hosted by the Yacht Club de Cannes (YCC), it follows on the back of a hugely successful year for the class as numbers keep rising.
Following nearly 300 Finns at the World Masters in Punta Ala and more than 100 at the Finn Gold Cup in Aarhus, the class is pulling in bigger numbers than ever.
Some of this is helped by the open entry, but worldwide, class numbers are well up on pre-2020 levels. The entry in Cannes smashes the previous record entry for the Europeans, which was 103 in 2013.
There is a warmup regatta over the weekend with registration and equipment inspection running from Friday 18 to Sunday 20, followed by a 10-race series from Monday 21 to Friday 25.
