This November, the International Finn Association (IFA) is celebrating two years of its international development programme. The Finn International Development Support (FIDeS) programme was established in 2005 in response to a need from sailors from nations across the world where Finn sailing was beginning to emerge onto the international stage.

In fact, the stated objective of FIDeS is to “promote and facilitate Finn sailing throughout the world, by helping sailors and national Finn authorities in those countries where the Finn dinghy and the sport of sailing are not well established.”

Working with its FIDeS partners across the world – including the boat builders Devoti Sailing and Pata Marine - the IFA has provided support to a large number of sailors in the past two years.

Since 2005, numerous sailors have been helped through reduced price equipment, coaching, logistics assistance, championship charters and the distribution of second user equipment. Here are a few of their stories.

India

In early 2007, IFA welcomed two new sailors and a new nation to the class. The first of two sailors from India came to the IFA with ideas of running a Finn campaign for Qingdao. Nachhatar Johal (IND), a 28 year old ex-Laser sailor from Punjab turned up in the US in the beginning of the year. After chartering an older boat for the Rolex Miami OCR he was hooked and purchased a new boat with significant help from the FIDeS programme. He said, “I was planning to buy an old boat but due to help from FIDeS was able to buy a brand new boat from Devoti. The IFA was a great help in this.”

Nachhatar was very enthusiastic about the welcome he received from the sailors. “With all the top Finn sailors taking part in the event, I was a little apprehensive on the first day for the first race. Geoff Ewenson helped me in setting up the boat and explained the controls. Apart from Geoff, Peter, Darrell, Phil, Bryan, Andy, Brenden and almost everyone in the Finn fleet helped me with their input. The last day of the regatta was great. I was leading the 11th race at the windward mark but then kept losing positions downwind and finally finished 8th. That was great.”

Then towards the middle of 2007, former OK Dinghy World Champion and Star sailor Nitin Mongia (IND) from, Mumbai announced his intention to attempt qualify for China. Again with help from the FIDeS programme he sourced a competitive boat and started to train hard.

Both sailors are expected to be competing in the 2008 Finn Gold Cup in Melbourne in January to try and qualify for one of the remaining six places available for China next year

In June at the European Championships on Lake Balaton at Balatonfoldvar, a free charter boat from Devoti Sailing was provided to Serbian junior Milos Balunivic. At just 16 years old he was engagingly enthusiastic about his chances at the event after having previously mainly sailed Optimists. Having already sailed the Finn on and off for three years he had already won the Bronze Junior medal in the 2006 Balkan Championship. He said, “I'd really like to thank the IFA for giving me the opportunity to sail a new boat at this level. The Finn class has been really helpful in sorting this out for me.” Milas' story epitomises what the programme is all about and the class hopes to see more of him in the future.

What has probably become the largest FIDeS project in terms of logistics started in 2005 when Brazilian sailor Jorge Rodrigues started making enquiries to the IFA about the possibility of building Finns in Brazil. Nine months later he took possession of a set of unused boat and mast moulds and lay-up plans generously donated free of charge by Pata Marine and transported across the Atlantic by an IFA FIDeS grant.

Jorge said, “The huge difference in the currency and the value of the import taxes, were the factor that prevented many people from buying a new boat. The final cost of a new one, with the all the taxes and transportation costs, more than double the FOB price of the boat to us. That's why I decided to try to build the boats here. We have been without a national Finn builder for decades, after Joerg Bruder died in 1973. Now we are starting it all over again.”

The Cyprus Sailing Federation has purchased a boat from Devoti Sailing at a special price for new countries. The boat was then used by Haris Papadopoulos (CYP) in China for the test event. Haris’ participation at the event means also that Cyprus joined the Olympic Finn Class as a new country. The Cyprus Sailing Federation is currently working on purchasing a second boat and to start a Finn project involving successful young local Laser sailors getting physically to big for the Laser.

Free clinics have been organised on Lake Balaton before the Europeans, in Cascais before the ISAF World Sailing Championships and in Moscow before the highly successful Finn Silver Cup, the Junior Finn World Championship. In Moscow Gus Miller (USA) took along two sets of stern deck camera equipment and filmed juniors during the practice race and the first three days to provide feedback on techniques. A junior clinic was also organised before the 2006 European Championships in Palamos.

Another new country in the Finn fleet is Venezuela. IFA is helping Johnny Bilbao (VEN) who has started racing the Finn at international level this year. With help from Schenker his boat will be transported from Venezuela to Melbourne in the case that it is not possible to find him a suitable boat in Australia. IFA has also offered to find free accommodation from him. Bilbao said, “I'm really enjoying sailing the Finn. It is different to the Laser, a much bigger boat, so for me it's better as I am 100kg. I was struggling to keep my weight down enough for the Laser.”

Finn Gold Cup 2008

The IFA has subsidized containers from Italy, Germany and the USA going to the 2008 Finn Gold Cup in Melbourne, Australia. As the final qualifier for places in the 2008 Olympic Regatta, it was felt important to encourage the maximum entries, so sailors using these containers to ship their boats can do so for a substantial discount. A clinic will also be organised for new sailors and sailors from nations not yet qualified for the Olympics.

The bank of equipment and resources available to FIDeS is growing all the time. In 2007 The IFA produced a stunning calendar to add funds to the programme and other projects will be realised in the near future. In addition, work in sourcing and allocated FIDeS equipment is also still ongoing in various other nations.

The original purpose of FIDeS to help sailors develop in the Finn and move onto the international stage has been a great success so far and IFA hopes to report more such successes in the years to come.

© Robert Deaves, International Finn Association, 2007