Our local Finn fleet continues to grow - this weekend a couple of owners offered their boats to some young ILCA sailors to give them a feel of Finn. In breezes under 5-8kts and with fantastic boat handling skills, the 17 yo cleaned up with a 1,1,2 scorecard...while the 19yo in his very first Finn outing managed a creditable 4,4,3.... Keen to see the class grow, the Aussie Finns have raised money to send a fully funded U23 sailor to Europe for the Silver Cup this year, selected from the Nationals...competition is the U23 is heating up! To have a secure future for the class, we've gotta keep an eye on the Youth opportunities and build the participation here...these guys are so eager to have a go at the Legendary Class it's great to see...
Finn sailing
- Thread starter PinkSpinnaker
- Start date
OK...so entries are still coming in for our upcoming state champs and it's looking like 20+ Finns on the register. This is up from just 5 .....only 2 years ago! What's driving this growth? The answer is simple...connection & camaraderie! Sailing and socialising with like minded people builds friendships ...and does wonders for Men's mental health...and it's fun! The good natured banter in the rigging yard, the bullshit on the balcony with a beer after the race...and of course the close quarters combat style of racing, all make a potent offering for men looking to connect again. The power of social media also plays a role as we create our chat groups and share our experiences...Sailing can deliver a lifetime of friendship and connection...it just takes a few committed individuals to show the rest of us what's on offer...and what we're missing out on!
GER308
Member
103 registered for our nationals so far. Lake Constance in May, bit of a change from the last couple of years in the north.
Hosted the Victorian state Titles this weekend - 26 entries, 4 U23 (actually aged 16, 17, 18, 19) and 2 Father / Son combinations....great fun on the beach and on the sun deck....super hot "on-water" competition with the regatta going to 3X Olympian Anthony (Nocca) Nossiter...I was happy with a 5th. This class continues to build from strength to strength. The formula is 70% social, 30% racing...and the formula works!!
There were ZERO Finns at this club 2 years ago...now they have 12 and growing....our previous state champs had maybe a dozen competitors...now more than double....there are no boats available to buy or charter in the state and we have a real commitment from sailors to travel and support interstate regattas...not bad when you consider that'll be a minimum 1500km return trip or a 4200km trip for our last nationals (Vic/SA to QLD)...and fuel at over $2/lt..for people to do that, there must be something special going on!
surf nazi
Super Anarchist
Great job Couta !! Our small club is up to 13 boats actively sailing. We are hosting the north american finn masters this week. Looks like we will have around 25 boats , including ( allegedly ) the debut of the new US built finn. Can't wait to see it. Check out scores and info on regatta network. Wish me luck...I'll need it !!
onepointfivethumbs
Anarchist
My scuttlebutt is that Darrell is taking out the R1 this weekend, project has really been Peter's baby, lots of design input from D, Larry Lemieux, Tim Tavinor, Gus Miller, and the Naval Architecture school at UofM, hope it flies.
pqbon
Anarchist
I love me some Finn porn...
WCB
Super Anarchist
More than Scuttlebutt, he's listed the boat with him in his registration.
Alan Crawford
Super Anarchist
The builder, Beacon Composites, is doing a very good job with building Thistles (the long-time Thistle builder, Doug Labor of Great Midwest, decided a few years ago to retire so the Thistle class started a big project to find a good builder). I would like to think a USA built Finn is in good hands with Beacon. Now for a USA mast builder...
onepointfivethumbs
Anarchist
It was a discussion at one point, Hall going kaput and Offshore getting a lot of production/one design contracts definitely punted that, Pata is usually pretty good about group buys and you can get 25-30% off sticker price if it all comes in one container; hasn't happened in a good while but could be a consideration for moving complete boats.
WCB
Super Anarchist
I don't think a US mast builder is worth it. They seem too finicky and you need to build a bunch of different flexes. What the class should do is invest in a stock of masts, ten or so, that sit stateside and as a few sell, re-fill the inventory. Some yacht clubs do this in a small way, stock a mast or two for their local fleet. It would be easy enough to get those masts stocked by most popular sizes based upon what a manufacturer sells the most of.
View from the back
Member
And who’s paying for that?
WCB
Super Anarchist
I don't think a US mast builder is worth it. They seem too finicky and you need to build a bunch of different flexes. What the class should do is invest in a stock of masts, ten or so, that sit stateside and as a few sell, re-fill the inventory. Some yacht clubs do this in a small way, stock a mast or two for their local fleet. It would be easy enough to get those masts stocked by most popular sizes based upon what a manufacturer sells the most of.
View from the back
Member
Trust me, the class doesn’t have that kind of money lying around to inventory mast! Hell, for a while, even the measuring templates were lost, and you think the class should keep masts in stock?!?
onepointfivethumbs
Anarchist
There were planning stages for making low-cost conical "starter" masts that would be mandrel-wound and have the track and gooseneck glued to them; less control over bend characteristics but would be able to make them cheaply to supply newbies and replace old stock/aluminum sticks, while the tooling for the wingmasts would be made and the laminate schedule refined.
Given that masts are so critical to really enjoying sailing a Finn - It might be worth chatting with manufacturers like Wilke etc about running a global "trade in" scheme for a period....creating a second hand market of refurbed masts...that way new masts are discounted with a trade in... and refurbed cheaper competitive masts are made available...and Wilke avoids a competitor and stimulates new mast builds.....Wilke would "manage the stock" and have a register of bends to select from....Just a thought!
The north american finn masters are 6 races into their 8 race program...and it's close! Looking at the scoreboard there must've been some breeze about to account for the DNF, DNS, DNC lines...looking fwd to hearing the stories from Surf Nazi...
WCB
Super Anarchist
I don't know the class' finances but since they just spear headed the building of new tooling to allow for boats to be built in the US, I don't think it's out of the question to put a class wide effort to stock masts to support the sales of those hulls. With enough turnover, the class might make a tidy little profit on this system.
