History of the Finn
The Finn was born from the hand of Swedish canoe designer Rickard Sarby in 1949 as his entry in a design competition to select a new monotype dinghy for the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland.
Whatever else he was thinking that day, he cannot have imagined that sailors across the whole world would still be enjoying and racing the same design decades later. The Finn is the longest serving dinghy in the Olympic Regatta.
For over six decades this thoroughbred singlehanded dinghy has had an incalculable influence on the sailing world, blending a popular club boat, Olympic legend and teacher of many top sailors. It has survived numerous re-selections of Olympic classes and years of careful technical development, from the wooden hulls, wooden masts and cotton sails of the 1950s to the GRP hulls, carbon masts and kevlar sails of the 1990s.
Beginnings
It all began in 1948 when the Finnish Yachting Association were considering which boats to use for the 1952 Olympic Games at Helsinki. With the lack of a suitable dinghy in Scandinavia, they instigated a design competition. Rickard Sarby entered a design and, although it was not initially selected, he was invited to take part in the trial races because he had already built a prototype. On May 15th 1950, the Finnish Yachting Association adopted the boat as an Olympic dinghy. This boat was the Finn.
First Olympics
In Helsinki in 1952 the Finn made its Olympic debut. Over the following years, names such as Paul Elvstrøm, Willy Kuhweide, John Bertrand and Jochen Schümann sailed themselves into the record books. Elvstrøm won three of his four Olympic Gold medals in the Finn, dominating the class in 1952, 1956 and 1960. The first Finn silver medal went to Charles Currey of Great Britain and the first bronze to her designer, Rickard Sarby.
Birth of the IFA
After the 1952 Olympics interest in the Finn waned, but the class was kept alive because in 1953 it was reselected for the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. In 1956, the first Finn Gold Cup was held at Burnham-on-Crouch, and Henri Leten organised the first AGM of the class — the International Finn Association (IFA) was born. In 1961, the first issue of the Finn international newsletter FINNFARE was published.
Defining the Rules
The early wooden Finns gradually gave way to experiments in GRP after the IFA freed up the construction material in 1961. Perhaps the biggest problem to overcome was controlling the weight distribution within the hull. A Frenchman named Gilbert Lamboley devised a pendulum test — the boat was suspended and timed over a series of oscillations — providing an accurate method of controlling weight distribution. This "swing test" was introduced in 1972 and has since become the standard for many other classes.
Rig Development
Early rigs were of the "telegraph pole" variety — very stiff and uncontrollable. Elvstrøm gradually developed a bendy rig with a full sail flattened in strong breezes. In 1969 Jack Knights turned up at the Gold Cup with a metal mast, and over the next few years wooden masts declined. Aluminium Needlespar masts dominated until 1993, when carbon resurfaced all the old arguments. Today carbon masts have penetrated virtually all levels of Finn sailing.
A boat for life
If the Finn has proved one thing, it is that change for the sake of change is rarely a good idea. The Finn is still providing the yachting world with top-calibre sailors who move from the class onto greater things. It is perhaps no coincidence that two of its most famous helmsmen — John Bertrand and Russell Coutts, both Finn Olympic medal winners — have both helmed to America's Cup glory.