British Finn sensations

Andy Nicholson meets the sailors who hold all the Finn class world titles

Above: (left to right), John Greenwood, Chris Brittle, Ben Ainslie

The British Finn Association (BFA) are a very happy bunch of sailors. On 16 November The Daily Sail met up with them at Warsash Sailing Club, where they were taking part in the Holt RYA ranking series for Olympic Classes.

So why all the smiles? The BFA’s Phil Laycock explains: “It’s the first time in the Finn class' history that all the major titles have been held by one country and it’s Great Britain that has done it.” It’s a very impressive looking trophy cabinet, with the Olympic Gold Medal from Sydney, the Finn Gold Cup, The European Cup, The Junior European and World titles and the Finn World Masters Trophy.

Since 1950, when the class was born, no single country has held the Masters, Junior and Standard at world level in the same year.

Ben Ainslie is the obvious hero of the hour in the class and having only started sailing Finns at the beginning of the year, his results could not have been more impressive. Recently being named as the ISAF Rolex Yachtsman of the Year, Ben has taken his challenge in the Finn class by the scruff of the neck and taken over the mantle left by Sydney gold medallist, Iain Percy. Ben is one of six funded sailors in the class, his closest rival at the top of the GBR fleet is Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson. When asked about Ben’s move into the class, and the swift displacement of Bart into the runner up spot, Phil states that Bart is quietly chipping away at his task in hand and has beaten Ainslie recently at Rutland. None of the sailors in the BFA are intending to make is easy for Ainslie.

Phil goes on to explain that in addition to the six funded sailors there are, what he calls, another six ‘proper job’ sailors, which make up the top group. These include Simon Stonehouse, Tim Carver, Matt Howard, Sander Koijj and himself. The team dynamic is really quite impressive with all sailors working together, with no ego, to help all the others. “Ben even helped me set up my rig this morning,” says Phil.

Under 21s sail as Juniors and Chris Brittle is the current European and World Champion. As with all nippers, he didn’t follow his instructions and forgot to bring his trophies to the celebrations in Warsash, with much heckling from the older sailors. Chris’s recent birthday now moves him into the standard category, but as with all successful groups, the next pretenders are already being groomed with university students Ed Greig and Luke Chapman coming into form.

John Greenwood completes the trio of titles, having won the World Masters in Split, Croatia earlier this year. This is the second time Greenwood has won the trophy, having taken it in 2000 at Weymouth also.

Continued on page 2...