Citroën Windsurf World Cup Sylt
Day 4 of the 2025 Citroën Windsurf World Cup Sylt started with light winds and beautiful sunny skies, but as the morning progressed the wind slowly increased, which allowed Elimination 3 to get underway in the early afternoon in 6-14 knots. With the breeze on the marginal side the sailors were left reaching for their biggest equipment, but even in the light winds the top sailors were still able to crack the 30 knots barrier to once again highlight the efficiency of the foil. Unfortunately, the wind shut down just before we were able to complete Elimination 3, so results are as they were at the start of the day.
Men’s
Foil Slalom
Current event leader Johan Søe (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils) made no mistake in the opening semifinal of Elimination 3 as the Dane won Heat 5 ahead of Pierre Mortefon (FMX Racing / NeilPryde), William Huppert (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils) and John Soukos (WeOne / Challenger Sails), who booked his place in his first Winners’ Final of the season.
Meanwhile, the second semifinal needed to be rerun after the wind dropped after the third gybe on the first attempt. In the end, Jordy Vonk (Duotone Windsurfing) managed to claim the victory, while Maciek Rutkowski (JP / NeilPryde) and Matteo Iachino (Starboard / Severne Sails), who were both in the qualifying positions when the original heat was cancelled, also qualified. However, the same can’t be said for Fabien Wolf (Starboard / Severne Sails) or Amado Vrieswijk (Future Fly / Point-7) as both men failed to qualify for the top eight for the first time this week. Current world No.3 - Alexandre Cousin (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils) - was the other man to benefit from the rerun with the Frenchman securing the last qualifying spot into the Winners’ Final, which is his first top eight result of the event.
Waterspeed Challenge
Søe and Mortefon in Numbers
Distance
Just as on the first day of racing, Johan Søe was once again the first sailor on the water today and the 22-year-old ended up covering over 50% more distance than Pierre Mortefon with the Søe covering 61.77km today compared to Pierre Mortefon’s 40.17km.
Top Speed
In terms of top speed there’s very little to split the two sailors. Mortefon narrowly edged the max top speed stats today, hitting 30.6 knots compared to Søe’s 30.2 knots, while over a 10 second average there is even less separating them with Søe recording a 10 second split of 30 knots, while Mortefon averaged 30.2 knots. So while Søe may not have a clear top speed advantage he’s clearly making up a lot of ground through the turns as he originally trailed Mortefon in Heat 5.
If you’d like to know the stats behind your session, as well as compete against the fastest sailors in the world, you can do so simply by downloading the Waterspeed App, which is available on both iOS and Android:
- Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/waterspeed-track-watersports/id1234093389
- Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.waterspeed.waterspeedapp&hl=en
The good news is that the forecast for Tuesday has improved slightly, so there’s definitely a decent chance of more racing tomorrow with 10-16 knot east-southeasterly winds predicted for most of the day. First up on the agenda will be completing the finals from Elimination 3 before hopefully progressing into Elimination 4 - when the discard comes into play. The Foil Slalom skippers’ meeting has been called for 10am (GMT+2) tomorrow morning with a first possible start at 11am again.
The Wave fleet will once again have a Lay Day, while the Freestyle fleet will be given another announcement at 12pm.
Looking Ahead
Slightly further down the line, Friday is currently looking like it has the potential to be a Freestyle day with 20-27 knot south-southeast winds, while Saturday could then conjure up some wind and waves with the current forecast calling for 2.5-3 metre waves and winds up to 30 knots.
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Current Ranking 2025 Citroën Windsurf World Cup Sylt - Men’s Foil Slalom
*After 2 Eliminations
1st Johan Søe (DEN | PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils)
2nd Matteo Iachino (ITA | Starboard / Severne Sails)
3rd Pierre Mortefon (FRA | FMX Racing / NeilPryde)
4th Fabian Wolf (GER | Starboard / Severne Sails)
5th Maciek Rutkowski (POL | JP / NeilPryde)
6th Amado Vrieswijk (NB | Future Fly / Point-7 / Z Foils)
7th William Huppert (FRA | PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils)
8th Daniele Benedetti (ITA | Duotone Windsurfing)
9th Bruno Martini (ITA | I-99 / S2Maui)
10th Alexis Mathis (FRA | Tabou / GA Sails)