OLYMPIC SAILING PAGE 2

More photos of the National Championships. However, I would like to comment. This is the last year for the FINN in the Olympics. It has been around a long time, but I think that everything has a shelf with an expiration date. So it is with the FINN. The year 2021, will be the last time you will see it in the Olympic Games. However, that is not to say that the fleet is dying. Hardly. However the FINN has it's problems. First is the cost of this single man sailboat. A used (competitive version, not an antique) FINN will start at or about $15,000.00 USD. A new FINN, is probably $25,000.00 USD? USED FINN SAILBOATS

The second problem is that it is a men only event. Women are not allowed to sail the FINN, in competition. In the 1950's and 1960's that attitude was normal, but not any more. Even the Laser sailboat, which is also an Olympic single man sailor, worked to accomodate women by inviting them into the Laser fleet and also reducing the sail area requirement for the womens division in-order to make the sailboat more user friendly to women. Not so with the FINN. So, like it or not the Laser has replaced the FINN in the Olympic games and they have both men's and womens divisions in the Olympics. That being said the FINN is a beautiful boat, a muscular boat and is at times a bear to sail. I had a FINN at one time but I found that it could overpower me. I weigh 150 lbs (68 kg), and in heavy air I could not hold the boat down. It would ride up on it's gunnel rail and basically stop sailing. Why is that? The boat has a 115 square feet of sail. That is a lot of sail, especially for a 15' boat. So the average FINN sailor must be at least 180-200 lbs to be competitive in this class.

I took around 500 photographs during the 5 day event. This photograph is my favorite one. It is not spectacular, but it shows the beauty, the symmetry and the muscularity of the Finn.

This group photo was after the FINN's were sailing up wind to the weather mark. They were fighting a 20mph wind, with at times 4' seas. This is why you need to be a muscular 200 pounder to handle this boat. There is very little finess in sailing up wind in these conditions. It is all brute strength, and nothing else.