The venue provided ideal sailing conditions, and after nine days of training, the event opened with a festive parade of sailors from 43 countries.

Over five days and 10 races, Flora competed against 115 of the world’s top under-16 female sailors. She started strong, finishing 4th in Race 1, and maintained consistent top-20 results through the qualifiers.

The highlight came in the Gold Fleet finals when she won Race 8 — reportedly the first time a Kiwi has won a Gold Fleet race at the Europeans.

Despite a tough final day that kept her just outside the top 10, Flora finished 13th overall — the second-best result ever by a New Zealand girl at this event in the past decade.