The Finn Dinghy has been at the fore front of development and new technology from its earliest days and always kept pace with new yachting technology. The sails are an example of how a class 50 years old can be stringed in one- design rules although be avante-garde in development. The rule for specific sailcloth has been relaxed since 1981 in the hay days of 3.8 oz soft Dacron Finn specs. The early '80s showed some new fabrics appearing and the class didn't see a threat in allowing any fabric into the rule as the specific needs for the Finn did not see any of those fabrics making a big change in performance. At the time I myself worked at North Sails in Germany and we built a Finn sail out of the early kevlar scrims. The sail was dismissed very early on and it seemed to prove the point that you have to use a soft sleazy fabric to build Finn sails. I remember using the discarded sail on a training ran and it was so bad the Finn didn't sail up wind at all and I had to reach back and forwards to get home like a wind surfer ... the new type fabrics were dead for the next 14 years or so.

During the 1994-95 America's Cup, Craig Monk approached me and asked us if we would be interested in building him a Finn sail. As the 1992 Olympic Bronze Medalist he was interested in working with a team of people which proved to be able to design the fastest America's Cup sails. The initial reaction from our side was pretty subdued. We believed there was not much point in building a Dacron sail as there were plenty of sailmakers which did a good job at the time, all using sails which had somehow been derived from the early '70s John Bertrand (the Australian) design.

Those sails and the design concept were very refined and had been developed over the last 20 years or more. However, we looked at the Finn dinghy rale regarding sails again to see how much scope there was to do something different. And to my surprise 15 years later the fabric for the sails was still open and unused.

What Cloth to Use ?
We decided to build a sail for Craig using a Mylar scrim of some sort, but what is the right fabric? Over the years through our involvement in various America's Cups, Whitbread campaigns and other level rated events we had come across all sorts of fabrics which have been used for reaching gennakers in particular. Looking through the files and the cloth stock we came across a very promising fabric we with a bit of history...

During the 1993-94 Whitbread the US entry Winston used a gennaker fabric based on .75 mil Mylar with a Vectran wrap and fill yarn. The fabric first appeared on the 1992 Stars and Stripes AC yacht. The Whitbread 60 rale at the time was not accommodating any aramid fibres for the gennaker and the sailmaker and the yacht argued that Vectran is a form of Polyester. The ruling from the Whitbread measurers allowed the fabric in and then banned it unexpected for the second leg. As the first leg was being sailed we ordered plenty of the fabric to use throughout the race. Bang, we owned a lot of a very specified fabric, very light compared to 3.8 oz soft Dacron and up to 5 times stronger with the same bias to warp ratio as a 3.8 oz soft Dacron. In 1995 the fabric seemed perfect and was used for Craig Monk's first Mylar Finn sail. The same sail was used by one of the competitors in the 1999 sail Auckland regatta.

The Race Began
The early results with two boat testing between Craig Monk and Joe Spooner showed surprisingly early that the sail was right on the pace in some conditions. Extensive testing showed a huge potential and Craig won the New Zealand nationals the same year. At the same time more and more Finn sailors used Carbon wing masts which certainly moved the development even further. The finished sail weight was half of that of a Dacron sail.

Rubber Boats and very close N.Z Trials
Leading up to the New Zealand trials things got a bit heated as Craig's very different sail was very obvious. But due to the fact that we had an exclusive contract with Craig Monk we were unable to pass any of the information or fabric on to others. However, the first run of sails trying to look similar to the first Mylar appeared and the radial Mylar sails became more and more a figure here in N.Z. Craig was trying to guard it as best as he could. However the pressure increased and more and more and rubber boats started following him around taking photographs. The whole sailing situation and rumours sounded more like an America's Cup campaign than a Finn sailor preparing for the N.Z trials. The tension and expectations led to an absolute thriller in which Craig Monk won the trials in N.Z using a Vectran sail beating Dean Barker in the last race to qualify for the Olympics in 1996. During all this time one of our biggest concerns was that Craig had to race against a fleet of soft Dacron sails which sit very nicely in the lighter breeze without too much adjustment and obviously were being used with the knowledge of the previous 20 plus years.

Masts are Still Important
Leading up to the Atlanta Olympics Craig had a very good result at the Hilton Head regatta. At times he sailed through the fleet with good speed and he was looking forward to the Games. With one week to go his wing masts started breaking and in the period of two or 3 days he was down to his last mast. Craig than decided to use a round mast and a Dacron sail for the Games using what every other competitor would use. The frustration with the mast program made it a very difficult regatta for him. The Finn fleet must have thought this was the end of the Mylar sails and the point seemed to be proven once more that you need to build soft sails to win regattas.

The design and fabric got put away for the next 18 months with only a few people using the sails overseas and a very skeptical Finn fraternity. However, some of the younger Kiwi sailors used some of Craig's old sails with some success and later in 1997 the bubble was finally about to burst.

Both Sebastien Godefroid and Mateusz Kusznierewicz ordered a sail in December '97 and combined, won all the events leading up to the middle of 1998. Sebastien won the European Championships with a Vectran sail very similar to Craig Monk's last sail and most Finn sailors took notice from then on. The ball got rolling and the worlds in Athens saw mainly Mylar sails. The class completely changed from the 1997 Gold Cup to the 1998 Gold Cup.

Today there are more and more sail makers picking up the radial Mylar sail in different versions and trying new fabric and panel layouts based on the original 1995 sail. Looking through a fleet of Finn Dinghies today, the boats look a lot more modern and most people enjoy the new sails.

Micket Ickert works as a Sail Designer for North Sails New Zealand and Team New Zealand.


50 Years of Finn Sail Development

Top: Cotton sails at the 1952 Olympics

Middle: A typical Dacron sail

Lower: An early plastic sail in 1997