Viaporin Tuoppi 2024 - or how we won the LYS1 class

The Viaporin Tuoppi ("The pint of Viapori" where Viapori is a Finnish name for the Suomenlinna fortress island) is the biggest wooden boat yacht race in northern Europe and one of the highlights of the racing season in Helsinki. 130+ entrants this year if I calculated correctly.

This year I joined on-board s/y Mathilda, a one-off design by Eivind Still and built by Pekka Koskenkylä (of later Nautor fame). Koskenkylä built two identical yachts, one supposedly for himself and one for a customer. However he ended up selling both and the money from these boats financed the birth of Nautor!

Matilda ended up winning her class (LYS1 handicap) and thus renewing her win from last year.