Finn sailors take on the best

madforsailing profile the 11 sailors representing Britain in the Finn Europeans starting on 29 July

Dave Mellor has for so long been the understudy to Iain Percy and trained with him at the pre-Olympics last year. The current National Inland Champion and virtually unbeatable in a good blow, Dave has had major surgery this year and Garda will only be his second regatta back in the Finn. It won't take Dave long to get up to speed, though he may be short of a bit of match practice.

Dan Dixon has for so often been on the verge of the World Class Squad and as an ex-employee of Finn Builder Devoti Boats, knows the Finn well. A top performer at this year's qualifying events when he won at Calshot, Dan performs consistently well at major events and should not disappoint this time around. He is the current champion of Essex.

Tim 'the man mountain' Carver with a new boat and rig is again challenging the top UK sailors and on his day could even win a race at the Europeans. A lack of recent match practice and a disappointing SPA suggest that Tim may struggle to be consistent this year but don't write him off.

Phil Laycock is the current Sailing secretary of the BFA and self confessed Finn Fanatic. 'Mad for sailing' probably describes Phil's attitude towards sailing more than anything else but by his own admission as an 'enthusiastic amateur' and family man the top half of the fleet is the extent of his ambitions.

John DeLeuu and Adam Cowling are Scotland's top Finn sailors and regulars on the UK circuit despite the geographical barriers for some of the events in the south. Adam, at University in Birmingham, is an ex-Youth Squad member and John is the Scottish Sailing Champion, winning the equivalent of the Endeavour trophy last year.

Sander Kooij makes up the eleven going to the Europeans although in order to secure a place, Sander is sailing under the USA's banner. As a Dutchman who normally represents the UK Sander is another enthusiastic amateur who at 6ft 6inches can hike as hard as the best of them when it blows.

The RYA may have set their own targets but I think that if we have two in the top 10 and four in the top 20 then this will have been a fabulous event for the GBR team. Never before have eleven Finns from the UK travelled abroad to a European/World Championships event and the team spirit and camaraderie is first class. Everyone is very supportive of each other in terms of mental attitude and sharing technology and tuning techniques.

madforsailing will be carrying exclusive reports from the European championships which start this weekend.