IFA Finn Clinic at the Finn Silver Cup in Moscow

By August Miller

The International Finn Association delivered an entirely new kind of training technique to a clinic for Junior Finn sailors this past August. The occasion was the Jorg Bruder Silver Cup Junior World Championship at the fabulous Moscow Sailing School (MSS) on Lake Klyazminskoe.

In addition to the normal talks, drills, exercises and short races, two innovative on-board cameras were employed each day to record and explain some of the finer points of Finn sailing to the assembled juniors. The cameras were previously used in the medal race of the Finn Gold Cup in Cascais and the Finn Europeans on Lake Balaton. Each day's stern camera video were compared to clips from four previous training and championship regattas. This gave the young Finn sailors a most intimate view of what makes the top Finn sailors so good in athleticism, concentration, boat handling and tactics.

These seven days of developing young Finn sailors using a stern mounted video camera derived from an IFA project adopted at the 2007 Finn Gold Cup in Split, Croatia. The task set was to develop web based materials that any sailor in the world interested in the Finn could access for their individual improvement. Besides annotated still photos and video taken from off the boat, the project envisioned close in video of all phases of Finn sailing. The first such camera and mount from back in 1993 were much too heavy for use during a race. It has taken seven iterations to develop a suitable stern mount and camera that weighed half a kilo, had a suitable field of view and could survive collisions or capsize. The recorder, power supply and their waterproof box weigh 1.5 kilo at the back of the cockpit and produce TV quality resolution.

There was a core of ten sailors and three coaches attending the clinic with the group swelling to twenty at times. The fleet was filled with many talented Junior Finnsters who have outgrown the OK Dinghy and Laser. Many are at the start of great Finn careers. The MSS provided 60 Finns with masts and participants provided their own sails. In the opinion of all, the MSS did an outstanding work in hosting the 2007 Finn Silver Cup and is the best facility of its kind in the world.

The experience level of the initial clinic participants ranged from 17 hours sailing a Finn to two years - including six who had raced in the Finn Junior Europeans - so it was decided to focus on the basics of a successful race: a good start, adequate boat speed and handling, and good tactics with the wind and other boats. The schedule for all seven days started with 40 minutes of stretching followed by breakfast. An hour morning talk about the day's sailing plan was illustrated by stern camera video showing perfection and common mistakes to be aware of. The MSS provided a box lunch for each to take for the water work. After supper there was an evening debrief that analysed the day's video and compared it to video previously taken of the world's best racing in major regattas. Video - day one: Kasper (3.4 Mb)

In addition to IFA coach August Miller, there was great participation by Swedish coach Tomas Allansson, Danish coach Peter Andersen, German coach Roberto Guldenpenning and the fathers of two Finn Juniors.  One fundamental premise of the clinic was that all participants would learn from each other so open discussion was encouraged and all were asked to take leadership of the group at some point.

The first day focused on boat handling during tacks, gybes and mark roundings. The group had rabbit start windward - leeward short races until everyone was present. The exercise used a two-buoy mark rounding drill, which starts with beam reach, and then one mark is progressively re-stationed until the course is windward - leeward. The participants sail continuously and get critiqued by the coaches who are only yards away.

The second day focused on starts, tactics, rules and boat handling in a crowd at marks. The exercise was a practice start followed by a fifteen-minute race out and back around an "M" shaped course called Pandora's box. At each mark the lead boat must do a 360º turn that serves to keep the group tightly packed. The course was tucked close to a windward shore so there were lots of wind shifts. Video - day two: Pandora's box (4.7 Mb)

The third day focused on tacking and gybing on a whistle as a warm-up and then starts and windshifts using a medium length windward-leeward races with an offset mark that required three gybes on the run. The course was again near a windward shore so there were lots of wind shifts.

The fourth day focused on wind shifts. The first drill was a super wind ranger where the pin end half the fleet starts on starboard and the boat end half of the fleet starts on port. At a signal around two minutes all tack. At the crossing all those ahead have to duck those behind and continue on. The purpose is to be aware of what the shifts are doing to all the boats on a line across the course. This was followed by lots of practice starts and medium length windward - leeward races.

The fifth day was the practice race and with no judges present, anything went and most of the fleet violated RR42 in every way possible. One camera was on the Finn of Jan Kurfeld (GER), the eventual Junior Champion and the other camera was on a coach boat. The two-hour evening talk focused on video clips of Jan's excellent boat sense and handling, violations and non-violations of RR42 and sheet adjustments to wind transitions. A large group also watched thirty minutes of the defending World Champion Jonas Hoegh-Christensen (DEN) in the Cascais FGC Medal Race. Video - day five: Practice race (3.8 Mb)

The sixth day was the first day of racing and again the cameras were split between the Finn of Soren Svare (DEN) and a coach boat. The two-hour evening talk focused on video clips of boat handling and tactical situations and also watched thirty minutes of Peiter Jan Postma (NED) in the Cascais FGC Medal Race. Video - day six: Soren Svare (3.2 Mb)

The seventh day was the second day of racing and again the cameras were split between the Finn of Piotr Kula (POL) who was the regatta runner-up and a coach boat. The two-hour evening talk focused on video clips of transitions, boat handling and tactics and also watched thirty minutes of Rafa Trujillio (ESP) in the Cascais FGC Medal Race. A big hit with the audience were the two back dives Piotr did off his Finn while the fleet was on postponement waiting for wind. Video - day seven: Piotr Kula's backdive (3.7 Mb)

In the first day's stretching session, Piotr Kula (POL) introduced as his contribution a five exercise series that he learned as a Tibetan Monks way of preventing back problems. The group practiced it at each following stretching session. Video - day seven: Piotr Kula (3.8 Mb)

At the end of the Championship, a 5GB DVD was compiled of stern camera video clips taken during the clinic and from previous events in Clearwater and Lauderdale, Florida, Lake Balaton Europeans and Cascais. These DVDs were duplicated and each of the 22 countries present was given one as a present by Vasiliy Kravchenko, President of the Moscow Finn Association. These clips are in the process of being made available to anyone through this website.