Quite how the Finn has retained its Olympic status for 50 years is a story all in itself, as every four years the class has to fight off challenges from other classes and those who think that it is time for change. But 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 onto greater things. It is perhaps no coincidence that the only two helmsmen to win the America's Cup off America are both Finn Olympic medalists (John Bertrand AUS - Bronze 1976; Russell Courts NZL-Gold 1984).
But the Finn is so much more than just the Olympics - a pinnacle that many aspire to, that few reach but that all Finn sailors can identify with and learn from. Sailing the Finn goes hand-in-hand with developing strength of character, perseverance, tenacity and the challenge of doing something difficult really well. To many, the Finn is the perfect embodiment of the Olympic ideal, wherever it is sailed, and perhaps this is the ultimate attraction of a dinghy that has thrived for half a century as a leading class on the world yachting scene.
Beginnings
It all began back 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 to find a single-handed dinghy which could be used primarily for inter-Scandanavian competition, but could also be used at the Olympics.
A Swedish canoe designer, Rickard Sarby, entered a design into this competition and although it was not initially selected, he was invited to take part in the trial races because he had already built a prototype. Several trial series were held and on May 15th 1950, the Finnish Yachting Association adopted the boat as an Olympic dinghy. This boat was the Finn and an Olympic legend was born.
First Olympics
So, in Helsinki in 1952 the Finn made its Olympic debut, and over the following years, names such as Paul Elvstrom, Willy Kuhweide, John Bertrand and Jochen Schumann sailed themselves into the record books. Elvstrom won three of his four Olympic Gold medals in the Finn (the other being in the Firefly), completely dominating the class in 1952, 1956 (Melbourne) and 1960 (Naples). The first Finn silver medal went to Charles Currey of Great Britain and the first Finn bronze medal went to her designer, Rickard Sarby.
Birth of the International Finn Association
After the 1952 Olympics interest in the Finn diminished, but the class was kept alive because in 1953 it was reselected for the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. Control over the administration of the Finn was handed over to the IYRU in 1955, then in 1956, the first ever Finn Gold Cup (the Finn World Championship) was held at Burnham-on-Crouch after F.G. Mitchell of the Royal Burnham Yacht Club was persuaded by Vernon Stratton of the British Finn Association to present the class with a Gold Cup. Until this moment there was no real basis for the International Finn Class and it is believed that the firm footing of the class started here. Also in 1956 Henri Leten organised the first AGM of the class at the European Championships and the International Finn Association (IFA) was born. This gave the class a strong foundation for future growth and development.
In 1961, the first issue of the Finn international newsletter, FINNFARE, was published from the USA, bringing the separate corners of the class together. All these years later this publication is still going strong having been published from various parts of the globe at different times and in 1998 it celebrated its 100th issue.
Defining the Rules
The early wooden Finns gradually gave way to experiments in GRP after the IFA decided to free-up the construction material in 1961. At the Gold Cup that year (now an established event), the top three places were filled by GRP boats and many sailors then thought that their wooden boats were now obsolete. In fact the magically fast GRP boat that finished third in 1961 was found to have a secret distribution of lead in the hull (improving its gyration) when it was remeasured the following year! It was at this time that Richard Creagh-Osborne took over from Sarby as Chairman of the Technical Committee and he was given instructions to sort out these problems. However, wooden boats staged a comeback in 1964 when Hubert Raudaschl won the Finn Gold Cup with a home built wooden hull.
With the increasing strictness and changes in the class rules, measurement of the boats became easier to control with less manipulation of the rales taking place. Perhaps the biggest problem to overcome was controlling the weight distribution within the hull. It was soon realised that Finns with light ends were fast and, as proved by the matter of the illegal lead, the rales could be circumvented.
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