Finn

About the Finn

The Finn is currently the heavyweight single-handed dinghy for the Olympics, although this is due to end after the Tokyo Olympics.

Designed in 1949, it is now the longest standing of all the Olympic dinghies, and it continues to be a popular boat around the world. The class has produced many of the legends of Olympic (and indeed dinghy) sailing – names like Paul Elvstrom and Ben Ainslie will always be considered among the greatest dinghy sailors of all time, along with guys like Russell Coutts, John Bertrand and Iain Percy. All have proved themselves by winning medals (and in the cases of Elvstrom and Ainslie, multiple gold medals) in the Olympics.

Considered by many to be the most physical and most tactical of all single-handed dinghies, sailing the boat well is certainly a real test. The hull has changed very little since it was first designed, with most innovation coming in the form of new spars (first aluminium, now carbon fibre), and sails.

Videos for Finn Sailing

This video is superb. Some fantastic super slow-motion shots of tacking, gybing, pumping and hiking, all performed by Olympic campaigner Oli Twedell:

And if you’re a really serious sailor, there’s some tips on fitness from Olympic campaigner Andrew Mills here.

Ben Ainslie also took some time out before London 2012 to explain how downwind pumping works:

If you want to learn from the experts then this video is priceless – on board with the best in the world:

These four videos are absolutely fascinating. They are on-board videos from the same race – the Gold Cup Medal Race in 2013, and they offer the opportunity to compare the tacking, gybing, mark-rounding, and so on, of some of the best sailors in the world.

The winner of the event was Jorge Zarif, although he came ninth in the race featured.

The other three videos are linked below and feature (in finishing order for the event):

Perth 2011 Finn Medal Race from Deniss Karpak on Vimeo.

Don’t know how useful this video is for learning technique, but it is one of my favourites because these boats are great to watch in a breeze:

The same goes for this video…but this one, with Finns in 50 knots of breeze, has rather less sailing and rather more capsizing.

Books for Finn Sailing

Specific for Finns

 

FINNatics: The History and Techniques of Finn Sailing by Robert Deaves

FINNtastic Games: The Finn Class at the London 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition by Robert Deaves

Photo FINNish – 60 Years of Finn Sailing by Robert Deaves

Close to the Wind by Ben Ainslie

General Books Useful for Finn Sailors

The Bestsellers

These three books will help any sailor improve in any class of boat.

Sailing Fitness

You need to be physically fit to do well – even just a little bit of all-round fitness can improve your results a lot. These books are all helpful in designing a program that works for you. My favourite is Sailing Fitness & Training by Michael Blackburn.

Psychology

Getting your head right can be as important as getting your technique right. These books will all help with this area, and the Eric Twiname book, Sail, Race and Win is possibly my all-time favourite book on how to improve your sailing

Books for Self-Coaching by Olympic Coach Jon Emmett

Jon Emmett coached Lijia Xu to an Olympic Gold Medal, and is a multiple World Champion himself. These well written books share the secrets of how to coach yourself and improve your sailing.

Sailing Technique and Performance Books by Frank Bethwaite

Frank Bethwaite is a bit of a legend – relentless in his pursuit to understand high performance race craft. His two bigger books (High Performance Sailing and Higher Performance Sailing) can be quite dense to read while Fast Handling Techniques is lighter and easier to read. All are hugely important.

…and finally, Three Absolute Classics

These three books are nailed-on classics – books that have helped generations of sailors and are still relevant today. Start to Win is a good, relatively basic book that will help get you to the front of the fleet; Winning in One Designs is widely regarded as essential reading for one-design sailors; and Advanced Racing Tactics is more in-depth, is a tougher read, but will help with a lot of in-race strategy.

Links for Finn Sailors

Class Information

The International Finn Association

The ISAF Finn microsite

The Classic Finn website

Wikipedia page for the Finn

Boat Set-up, Boat Handling and Other Tips

The Finn Sailing Manual – some great information for all aspects of the class – just click through the ‘Finn Sailing Manual’ tab at the top of the page.

A really good piece on common injuries and fitness requirements

Blogs and Blog Posts

Earwigoagin on the Finn as a boat for big sailors

The Vital Statistics

Suggested sailor weight range: 80-110kg

  • Hull Material GRP (classic boats wood)
  • Year Designed: 1949
  • Hull Length 4.5 metres
  • Beam 1.5 metres
  • Mainsail Area 10.2 square metres
  • Hull Weight 107 kg
  • Advertising Cat C

Who’s Who in Finns

Ben Ainslie

Bjorn Allansson

Filippo Baldassari

John Bertrand

Daniel Birgmark

Brendan Casey

Christopher Cook

Jonas Høgh Christensen

Paul Elvstrom

Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic

Deniss Karpak

Thomas Le Breton

Jonathan Lobert

Andrew Mills

Ioannis Mitakis

Tapio Nirkko

Iain Percy

Pieter Jan Postma

Zach Railey

Giles Scott

Dan Slater

Rafael Trujillo

Tomas Vika

Gasper Vincec

Edward Wright

Vasilij Zbogar

Oli Twedell