Chasing the sporting dreams with Finnlines!

Aaro Rantanen and Iiris Sepponen – along with the entire junior & youth sailing squadron of Helsinki based sailing club HSK, Helsingfors Segelklubb, are chasing their dreams and pursuing their passion on the wind, water, waves and the unbeatable exhilaration of the world class competition!

Iiris and Aaro are young (17) and vibrant athletes and class mates in Mäkelänrinne Sports College. They are both sailing and competing in ILCA, a singlehanded Olympic sailing class for men and women and they are both members of the national Finnish youth sailing team. In April 2025, they participated in ILCA 6 Youth European Championship in Vilamoura, Portugal.

Helsingfors Segelklubb HSK

Founded already in 1899, HSK is one of the most active junior and youth competition sailing clubs in the Nordics. Almost 100 young sailors from 6 to 20 years of age train and compete 3–4 times a week through every sailing season.

Since they were very young, Iiris and Aaro have been learning and growing up in their sailing career within the team of HSK, following the steps of nearly all of the world´s most renowned sailors – first learning to sail and compete in Optimist and then moving to larger and more demanding boats. Sailing is a very unique sport that combines the need for utmost physical strength with techniques, strategy and tactics – not to forget understanding and coping with the varying elements of nature. These two young sailors are well on their way to reach the level of international competence – both of them already having won Finnish and Nordic championships.

Finnlines supports the young sailors of HSK by helping with the demanding logistics of transportation of boats and other equipment. To reach and maintain an internationally competitive level, the young athletes are training more than 600 hours on the water every year. As it is not possible to sail in Finland during the winter, the HSK team moves to southern Europe for the winter season. During the winter of 2025 training camps and races have been sailed Palamos, Valencia and Palma in Spain and finally the Europeans in Vilamoura, Portugal.
Iiris and Aaro, on behalf of the entire HSK team, send their wholehearted thanks to Finnlines and greetings to the global base of Finnlines News readers.