If you build it, will they buy it?

The USA Finn Association is betting they will, and to hedge its current bet, they’ve raised more than $20,000 toward the goal of producing reasonably priced, readily available Finn dinghies in the United States, something that hasn’t happened on a significant scale since the last Vanguard Finn rolled out of the Pewaukee, Wisconsin, factory in 1984. Since then, European builders, particularly the Italian company Devoti, have dominated the market.

The hope is that a U.S.-built Finn will make a small but very active class even stronger. There are currently fleets in San Diego, Alabama and Detroit, and the class’s major events, such as the 2019 Midwinters with 33 boats, often attract a significant percentage of the class’s 100-plus membership—a very healthy sign.

Like any boat, the Finn is not for everyone, but the Finn Foundation, organizers of the new build plus other class initiatives, has concluded there is a significant market for the boat. Apart from the attraction for those looking for the physical challenges a Finn offers, they point to the growing number of big-boat sailors who want to move on to a simpler racing program, as well. Other indicators, such as statistics provided by healthline.com, show that more than half the male population in the States weigh more than 200 pounds—perfect for the Finn. Plus, flexibility in mast choice (more flexible for lighter sailors, stiffer for the heavyweights) and sail design allows a relatively large range of body types to be competitive in the boat.

There’s also a healthy secondhand Finn market in the States. But it comes with a hitch. What’s available, says Rodion Mazin, the Class secretary, are boats from 1960 to 1970 or boats from 2000 on. “Everything is either too old or too expensive,” he says. “And the high price of new boats from Europe drives the secondary market prices up, so it’s expensive no matter where you look. The plan is to offer a boat in the $12,000 to $14,000 range, which will create a snowball effect, driving the price of the secondary market down and making boats more affordable.”

Part of the problem is that a North American sailor who wants a new Finn is hit hard with tariffs, shipping and other non-boat-specific costs. According to US Finn Association President Peter Frissell, those can add 35 to 40 percent to the price of a boat, bumping it up to a staggering $30,000. Multiple boats can be shipped in an 8- to 10-boat container and save some of the shipping costs, but according to Frissell, few people want to front that kind of money.

Enter the Finn Foundation, a nonprofit branch of the USA Finn Association. “Our goal is to keep the total cost—hull, mast, sail, covers, dolly—under $20,000,” says Frissell. And, of course, to make new boats readily available.

They’ve teamed up with Beacon Composites, a North Carolina company that is also a new builder for the Thistle class. “We were looking around for someone who is not too big because of all the associated overhead,” says Mazin. Beacon Composites fits the bill.

Half the battle is already won, as the Finn Foundation owns the molds for a Lemieux-designed hull, which has been around since the 1990s, but is still held in high regard. “We’ve done a lot to improve the molds. We had them laser-scanned, not so much to change the shape, but so we could look at the symmetry, the fairness, make sure there’s no twist,” says Frissell. “With this technology, which was not around when these molds were made, we’ll be able to clean things up a bit.”

The next step was bringing it into the 21st Century. “I gave the University of Michigan School of Naval Architecture a call, and they said they’d love to have their students work on this project,” Frissell says. “They now have one team that’s doing CFD (computational fluid dynamics) analysis on centerboards and another focusing on construction aspects of the hull, including modernizing the deck.”

The molds are now at Beacon Composites, and final prep on them will begin this spring. They will also be building the rudders.

Masts, no small cost in a Finn, will still have to come from overseas. “We’re doing this as a two-step process,” Frissell says. “Getting the boats built is enough of a challenge. And there’s a huge amount of technology in masts. So it’s a bit much to chew on all at once. We hope to get resources together to import about 10 masts at a time; it will be more efficient.”

The ultimate goal is to source a domestic mast builder, and according to Mazin, initial talks are underway with several possible suppliers.

Getting a builder online for any new boat involves substantial start-up costs, and apart from providing the hull molds, the Foundation eliminated the front-end investment by documenting all Finn-specific parts and providing that information at no cost to Beacon, which will be able to produce a lot of those on their CNC machine. Additional start-up costs are being covered through the Foundation’s crowd-funding efforts.

It’s all part of the USA Finn Association’s larger strategy. “We want to make the boat available to a wider range of sailors and get more people sailing,” Frissell says. “At one end of the scale, we find older boats—if we can get donations, we take those—fix them up and get them in the hands of young sailors. At the other end, we want to have a builder here to keep new boat costs down.”

“We’re not looking to build a Worlds-winning boat, but we want something competitive on the national level, at a minimum,” says Mazin. “Or, something people can charter if they come here for an event, like the Gold Cup [the class’s world championship] or the Worlds Masters.”

And that takes us to the Olympics—or lack thereof for the Finn, once the 2021 Games are in the books. For Frissell there is a silver lining. “It will probably reduce the impression that the Finn class is an arms race, which is consistent with what we’re trying to do.”

Frissell also hopes that the first U.S.-built boats will become available by the end of 2021: “We’re thinking that with increased availability and lower costs, we’ll see the growth we’re looking for.” A Florida yacht club has also put a bid in for the 2023 Gold Cup, which could also spur interest in the boat.

“The attitude that Peter and I and the Finn Foundation have is that if you’re not going to do anything, nothing’s going to happen,” says Mazin. “You have to be proactive, and that’s what we’re doing.”

In the 1960s through the early 1980s, the class drew between 40 and 60 boats to major events, such as the North American Championship. That was also a period when there was at least one U.S. Finn builder. Here’s hoping history repeats itself.

The post Feeding the Finn Family appeared first on Sailing World.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article reported that USA’s Caleb Paine was DSQ in the race discussed below as the result of a protest. On Saturday, Day 6, the jury decision was overturned and Paine’s second place finish was reinstated.

Annie Haeger and Briana Provancha certainly like keeping their fans on the edge of their seats. Off the starting line in tenth, they slowly made their way up the fleet, making an incredible climb on the final downwind leg from ninth to second place.

“We didn’t take a lot of risk, and we focused on one boat at a time,” says Provancha on the team’s tactics for finding passing opportunities. “Every little thing you do right helps you make up lots of ground.” In the last race of the day the wind kicked up and a number of boats capsized, but Haeger and Provancha’s conservative and steady progression in the fleet paid off, earning then a second place finish.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

“There was a lot of chicken-jibing happening that last downwind leg,” says Provancha. “We did not do that, I’m proud to say. We were just working our hardest to stay upright and get to the finish line.”

Though their high-fleet finish is certainly a highlight on their scorecard, it’s the first race of the day where their true perseverance showed. In the pre-start, their halyard slipped out of the halyard lock. “We heard the pop about ten seconds before the start, and it wouldn’t click back in,” says Provancha. “It was so windy and we had to put so much Cunningham on that it kept slipping though the race.” Without two feet of their halyard, they still managed to round out the top ten and sail into 6th overall.

New Zealand’s Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie, who currently lead the class, said the day was all about survival sailing. “It was about as much as we could handle in the 470,” says Aleh. “We were getting totally airborne at points. The goal was to keep Polly on the wire and keep the mast in the air.”

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

Further outside on the ocean course, it became more evident that USA’s Caleb Paine should consider adopting the nickname “comeback kid.” In both his final race yesterday and today, Paine staged impressive recoveries in the Finn. Today he posted his best result so far, climbing from ninth to second in the final leg. “I kept looking for a good lane and something to tack into,” says Paine. “The goal is to get the boat to foot and really let it loose.” Like his teammates in the 470, the final leg was the most chaotic in the building breeze and swell, but Paine held on and crossed just behind Great Britain’s Giles Scott. “I need to get my starts a little better from time to time,” says Paine of his habit of starting behind and finishing ahead. “I definitely like making it hard on myself there’s no doubt about that.”

Paine’s second place finish in the race is pending a protest against him, from Croatia’s Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic.

Six of the ten classes competed today, and results are available at sailing.org.

The post Olympics Daily Debrief, Day 4 — Chutes and Ladders, but Mostly Ladders appeared first on Sailing World.

2016 Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro

The Nacra 17 class made their Olympic debut on Guanabara Bay today, and though the breeze was a little squirrely, the starts were exciting, the mark roundings were intensely crowded and the competition was equal parts mental and physically challenging. Those who did best were the boats who saw the shifts first and stayed out of the holes created by Sugarloaf Mountain to the south of the course.

In the first race, it paid to go right and to stay right at the top gate, as the Swiss team, Matias Buhler and Nathalie Brugger and the Singaporean team, Justin Liu and Denise Lim did. The two teams ended the race in a photo finish for first and second —Liu didn’t even know the results until coming off the water at the end of racing. The Swiss went on to win the day, adding a seventh to their scorecard to climb to the top of the fleet. “We had to improvise and keep our eyes open to read the puffs and shifts,” says Brugger. “Everyone in the fleet had to fight for every leg.”

In the first start, USA’s Bora Gulari Louisa Chafee made a gutsy first impression in the class at the first start by port tacking the fleet, shadowed by the Canadian team. “Cutting rudders and coming in on port is a real weapon for us,” he says. “I sniffed a left shift when there was about a minute left. It’s one of my favorite starts.” The start paid off with clear air and while the pair lost boats on the beats, their downwind legs were strong and they ended that race in 13th overall, following it up with a 10th to round out the day.

“The first day of racing was just awesome,” says Gulari. “There aren’t many things I haven’t done in sailing yet, but [an Olympic race] was one of them.”

Gulari described the day as “zero to hero and back to zero.” Though they missed some shifts upwind, he says their runs were strong and overall the American Nacra team did well with their results, which he says are keepers in his mind in this tough fleet.

Fleet favorites Billy Besson and Marie Riou had a tough day, but Besson is nursing a serious back injury and after racing was having a hard time walking through the boat park. With the breeze on for tomorrow and the Nacras heading out to the Copacabana course with a big forecast, the French will be struggling to resurrect their previous dominance.

For Great Britain’s Nick Thompson and Giles Scott, in the Laser and Finn respectively, the big breeze gave them a chance to show their strength and take control of the fleet.

“It was so much more enjoyable out there today,” says Thompson. “Conditions like that are tough physically and we’re in the best shape we could be. Equally, we just enjoy sailing in those conditions. As a nation, Brits love the breeze.”

They both scored 2-1 today, putting Thompson into second and Scott into first in their respective fleets. (Results preliminary, dependent on unfinished protests)

In the Finn fleet, equipment failures plagued two medal contenders. USA’s Caleb Paine lost a mast chock and fell to 21st in the race, by far his worst finish so far. He replaced the chock and recovered spectacularly with a 3rd place in the second race. Denmark’s Jonas Hoghs Christensen‘s run of bad luck continued, and after his frustrations with the race organizers yesterday, today he pulled the clew ring from his sail, forcing him to retire in the final race.

The Laser Radials had a much more physically demanding day today, as they sailed on the Copacabana course in much friskier conditions than they have in the past two days inside. “I hit the button. It was time to really turn it on,” says USA’s Paige Railey, who tied her second place finish from the first day with another second in the first race today, bringing her to seventh in the fleet. “I got myself amped to hike really hard, I knew it’d be a speed race.” Railey nailed her downwind legs, which, in the past, have been a challenge for her.

For Belgium’s Evi Van Acker, a class medal favorite, the intensity proved to be too challenging. Van Acker says she’s physically sick, but at press time, her team had not responded to requests about the nature of her illness. China’s Lily Xu also had a tough day, dropping her from first to fourth place. She’s recovering from a shoulder injury earlier this year. “It really limited my ability to trim the sheet, so my upwind legs weren’t very good,” she says.

With a rest day on the schedule for the Radials and Lasers tomorrow, Xu and van Acker could have an opportunity to get back in the game. But with leaders Netherland’s Marit Bouwmeester and Denmark’s Anne-Marie Rindom posting high-fleet finishes consistently across both light and big days, there won’t be room for additional errors with only four races remaining before the medal race.

In the 470 Men, the Croatia’s Sime Fantela and Igor Marinec had two solid starts and took a commanding lead in the class with a bullet and a 2nd. In a speed race on the final leg of race two, the Croatians were overtaken by Australia’s Mat Belcher and Will Ryan.

On the women’s side, Japan’s Ai Kondo Yoshida and Miho Yoshioka took first blood and with their additional fourth they bested London gold medalists Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie. Still in the Game, USA’s Annie Haeger and Briana Provancha focused on sticking to the sides and finding the dark water. They kept outside their main competition, and in the second race held their own to finish in third. “The goal of day one is to be consistent and come out not having lost the regatta,” says Provancha. “The second race we had a much better idea of what was going on, but it’s a long regatta and we’ll keep reminding ourselves that this is just the start of a marathon.” Interestingly, like their teammates in the Nacra, the USA 470 women also started their second race of the regatta by charging the start line and port tacking the fleet, putting them into clear air and well ahead of their competition. They finished the race in third and sit third overall after the first day.

The World Sailing website is still having some technical issues, so full results are best found at: https://www.rio2016.com/en/sailing

USA’s Haeger and Gulari talk about their aggressive start tactics in US Sailing Team’s Rio Report from the day:

The post Olympics Daily Debrief, Day 3 — Heads in the Game and Out of the Boat appeared first on Sailing World.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The Finn class certainly knows how to start with a bang. Just two races into the regatta and the level of intensity is already sky-high.

The first race was shifty, frustrating a number of class favorites including Denmarks’ Jonas Hogh-Christensen. “I felt that letting us continue to sail that race made a mockery of the sport,” says Hoghs-Christensen. The Dane failed in reading the shifts and after the first leg, where he went left with the majority of the fleet, he continued to fall back, finishing 13th. His redemption did come in the second race where, after the first four boats were scored UFD, he finished second.

USA’s Caleb Paine and Argentina’s Facundo Bazan read the shifts well in the first race. Bazan held the lead from the start and didn’t let up. Starting furthest right, he saw and got the lift first and took it all the way to the top. “From then, all the race was about was sailing in the pressure and not losing any boats,” he says.

Paine had an incredible comeback in the first race of the day; over the course of two legs he vaulted himself from 22nd to 7th and held that place through the finish. Paine started the race in a decent position, but at the first weather mark he chose the wrong side. “A huge righty came in and basically the whole fleet passed me,” says Paine. “But, I knew it was one of those times where the race wasn’t over and there were two laps to go.”

For Paine, his opportunity came when he spotted a left-hand shift that Brazilian sailor Jorge Zarif grabbed as well. “I took a major risk and I was able to carry that shift all the way up to the top mark,” he says. Following Zarif, who knows the course best according to Paine, was his opportunity to make his gains, passing 15 boats. Paine’s strategy going into today was to keep his “head out of the boat,” and with the whacky wind on the Pao course, his sharp eye brought him a solid starting performance.

The second Finn start was absolute chaos. Four sailors were called UFD, pushing them down to the bottom of the fleet. This opened up the opportunity for the oldest sailor in the class, Slovenia’s Vasilij Zbogar to get a bullet. “My goal for today was to have clean starts,” he says. “I have good boat speed in light conditions and I don’t have to push the starting line.”

Unfortunately for the Slovenian, he’s one of the lightest sailors in the fleet and the forecast for the next few days is for bigger breeze.

In the RS:X, Britain’s Nick Dempsey held his reign in the fleet, though Netherland’s Dorian van Rijsselberghe isn’t far behind. In the last race of the day, dying breeze put Dempsey in a pileup at the windward mark, while van Rijsselberghe was able to walk away with it. Dempsey finished 14th, his worst result so far, but his speed us only matched by van Rijsselberghe. When the fleet returns to the water on Thursday, the breeze is forecasted to be stronger which is Dempsey’s strength. He’s in good position to take his lead all the way through the regatta.

Mirroring the men, Italy’s Flavia Tartaglini and France’s Charline Picon are both sturdily at the top of the fleet with the rest needing to play catch-up. Tartaglini started the first race of the da near the back of the pack but as the breeze filled in she took off, eventually putting an impressive margin between her and second place race finisher, Russia’s Stefaniya Elfutina. She continued to have top of the fleet results to solidify her lead.

The Laser fleet is starting to shake out, with Argentina’s Julio Alsogaray in the lead, followed by Croatia’s Tonci Stipanovic and New Zealand’s Sam Meech. Meech redeemed himself after a less-than-stellar performance in the first day of racing, posting a 5 and 6 today.

In the Laser Radial, China’s Lily Xu took back her lead after dropping to 23rd from a DSQ yesterday. She petitioned to reopen the case on Tuesday and was denied by the jury.

For results, visit: https://www.rio2016.com/en/sailing-schedule-and-results/day-9

Flash Quotes of the Day

“It’s about when you are in the water, there’s the instinct you follow. Sometimes you see something that somebody else doesn’t see and today was a good day for me, I saw good things in the water.” — Flavia Tartaglini, RS:X W, Italy, on her two bullets in day 2.

“I’m just used to these conditions. I like these conditions and when you like some conditions everything is much easier. At home in Slovenia we have these kinds of conditions, with small waves.” — Vasilij Zbogar, Finn, Slovenia, on the first day of conditions for Finn racing. Zbogar holds the lead in the class after two races.

“I have a different approach from the last two Games; I’m much more relaxed and can handle the pressure much better. I’m no longer that focused on the results, instead I want to widen my sailing career and Olympics is just part of it.” — Lily Xu, Laser Radial, China, on coming out of retirement for her third Olympics.

“It would be good to get some more breeze. Is it hard in the light (winds), not physically hard work but its mentally draining. I think the vast majority of people out today had a good and a bad race.” — Giles Scott, Finn, Great Britain, on the increased forecast for Wednesday and Thursday.

The post Olympics Daily Debrief, Day 2 — The Finns Get Shifty appeared first on Sailing World.

In the sixth race of the 2016 Finn European Championship, Caleb Paine rounded the weather mark close astern of Zach Railey, the last remaining obstacle on Paine’s six-year march to Rio. All he had to do was stay close on the last two legs to take a 10-point lead into the final races. On the line was the sole American Finn berth, and in the escalating pressure of the moment, doubt crept into Paine’s psyche: Was he good enough? The race result itself didn’t matter because neither of them was doing particularly well in the regatta. Where they stood relative to each other in the final ­results was what counted. Paine was sailing for his first Olympic appearance, and Railey, the 2008 Finn silver medalist, was back in the men’s singlehanded dinghy following a three-year hiatus. His campaign was less than a year old, but he’d beat Paine in the first event of the US Sailing Team’s two-regatta selection process. Only one point separated the two on the selection tally sheet. The stage had been set for an absorbing battle of skill, wit and nerves.

Railey had executed a perfect start at the pin end of the line and led Paine by more than 20 places at the weather mark. He was ­firmly in charge of the race, but Paine chipped away at the deficit on the second upwind leg, cutting Railey’s lead in half. Umpires then flagged Railey for a kinetics violation after the weather mark, and by the time he’d completed the required penalty turns, he was squarely in Paine’s crosshairs. What remained of the veteran Olympian’s lead then vanished on the run, and the two drew even as they approached the leeward mark. When it appeared time for Paine to strike, he was instead complacent, and Railey seized the opportunity and struck at him like a snake, jibing across the course and setting a mark trap, preventing him from passing.

Railey knew that if he could drag Paine deep into the fleet, he could end the day ahead on points, so he expertly blocked Paine from rounding the mark, long enough to allow 50 competitors to sail past. Paine tried several times to escape, and even fouled Railey a few times in the process. After completing penalty turns, he eventually found a way through, finishing 64th with Railey in 65th. Railey’s ploy had worked. Paine desperately hoped for another race to avenge himself, but the fleet was sent ashore for the day. The wind forecast for the following day wasn’t encouraging. With no races, the results would stand in Railey’s favor.

Ashore, Paine was surprisingly calm, which surprised him, and he kept his composure while filing a number of protests against Railey. Spending time in the protest room is the last thing a sailor wants after a race, least of all when your Olympic future depends on the outcome, but that is where the two sailors sat. ­After lengthy deliberations, the jury ruled against Railey for infringing Rule 18.4, commenting that neither sailor had a complete grasp of the rule. The net ­result was that the relative standings of both sailors remained, with Railey entering the final day with a 10-point lead.

Armchair pundits vilified Railey for his ruthless actions, but Paine would later say there were no hard feelings. Had the situation been reversed, he would have done the same: “I would absolutely try and do everything that’s within the rules. The fundamentals of what Zach did are fine.”

Paine dwelled upon it that evening, however, knowing he was one race away from either going home empty-handed or pulling his ticket to Rio. It was a late night because of the protest. “I was thinking about everything that had happened,” he says. “I can’t view this sport as a career. It’s a passion; it’s something I love to do. So I was OK with all the experiences I’ve had, all the hard work, and the lessons I’ve learned and the places I’ve traveled and the people I’ve met. It was all worth it regardless of whether I was going to the Olympics.”

He says he came to terms with it, but he wasn’t about to relent when they ­returned to the racecourse. “The sport of sailing is what it is,” he says. “There are so many variables out there, and it’s so unpredictable. It could have easily not swung my way, and that would have been tough. I don’t know how I would have dealt with that, but luckily I don’t have to.”

Fortune shined on Paine in the crucial final race of the series. After close-quarters prestart maneuvering, the two American contenders sailed away in opposite directions. Railey got stuck on the left side of the racecourse as the wind lessened, finishing midfleet. Paine sailed well to finish seventh and secured the U.S. selection.

He was nervous before they went sailing, he later admitted, but once on the water, he remained focused. “It’s not emotional,” he says. “You just make decisions based on what’s in front of you.” Once ashore, Railey approached Paine straightaway, shook his hand firmly, and said, “Good work, buddy.” He then hoisted his sailing boots to the top of his mast, signaling that, for him at least, the game was over and his Olympic career concluded.

P aine, a native San Diegan, ­started sailing at a young age and fell in love with the sport. Supported by his parents, he traveled extensively to youth regattas and had moderate success in the Laser class. At age 19, he came across the Finn. He credits American ­sailor Scott Mason with introducing him to the boat as part of a Finn-class initiative to charter boats to promising young sailors. A single sailing session set the hook, and Paine soon set his campaign in ­motion. After high school graduation, he bought a boat and set out to train in the talent-rich

European Finn fleets. His first-ever trip was Kiel Week, in Germany, followed by the 2009 Finn Gold Cup in Denmark, at which he finished 56th.

At the time, Railey already had a silver medal from the 2008 Games, and Mason paired him and Paine, with Railey serving as mentor. They worked as training partners right up to the 2012 Olympic regatta in Weymouth, England, where Railey finished 12th of 24 competitors.

With Railey on leave from Olympic Finn sailing, Paine qualified the United States for a spot in Rio at the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships in Santander, Spain, finishing an impressive seventh overall.

Paine and Railey arrived on the international Finn stage from two geographically diverse starting points — Railey from the East Coast and Paine from the West — and their respective demeanors are equally polar: Paine is somewhat silent and complex, and Railey confident and sometimes brash. The two worked well together up until 2012, when Paine became a regular at the top of international fleets. He won Sailing World Cup regattas in Holland and Miami and briefly ascended to rank No. 1.

All who know him say he’s hard­ working, putting in extra training sessions and ­obsessing over his campaign. He does so, he says, because he doesn’t feel he’s a naturally talented sailor. It takes longer for him to get the right technique. “Over time I learn lessons and work with the coach, and we seem to get the job done,” he says. “And what it does as well is [it] really make[s] the lessons that I learn concrete, and it makes a big difference in the endgame.”

The threat of Railey’s last-minute ­return to Olympic competition urged Paine to work harder. “I told myself that he was going to come back to sail,” says Paine. “Once he did, it sparked a fire in me.”

He admits areas of his game still need improvement, but he says he also has “some serious strengths,” referring to the European Championship spar with Railey. There’s little doubt that his performance in Rio this August will be his best work. He has a goal, and it’s gold, but realistically he’d be satisfied with finishing the ­regatta anywhere in the top five.

Railey considers Paine to be top-10 ­potential with a realistic chance to medal.

“He is sailing very well. [I don’t think] a lot of people … gave Caleb his due respect as an athlete and as a sailor,” says Railey. “It was incredibly hard to catch back up to where he is. I think people are under­estimating the work that he has put in and how good he has got.”

That certainly applies to Paine’s ­survival of the European Championship’s final race, and saving the regatta, after all the stress and pressure of the sixth race, will inevitably make him fitter for the long run of the Olympic regatta. Six years of training, traveling and testing funneled into that one 70-minute race. He no longer had to concern himself with doubts about his Olympic potential. He was, ­indeed, good enough after all.

The post Caleb Paine: Clutch Guy appeared first on Sailing World.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The Finn class starts racing today on the Pao de Acucar course. Perhaps the trickiest of the courses, US sailor Caleb Paine says the gold medal in this class will come down to the best overall sailor across all conditions. The Pao course is shifty and the current whips around in a semi-circle. “The inside courses are really challenging and you have to make sure your head is outside of the boat,” says Paine.

The forecast is for 8-10 knots from the SSE, and on the Pao course this can spell major shifts. The Finns will really need to keep their heads out of the boat, not only for the current and wind but also debris. The RS:X sailors were on this course yesterday, and a small number had issues: France’s Pierre Le Coq caught a plastic bag on his fin and had to jump his board out of the water to clear it, and Italy’s Flavia Tartaglini hit a log that required her to get in the water to clear.

The RS:X fleets will be on their second day, so Nick Dempsey will look to extend his commanding lead. Yesterday was a stellar day for Great Britain’s board sailer, with two bullets and one second place finish behind London 2012 gold medalist Dorian van Rijsselberghe.

France’s Charline Picon had the same scorecard as Dempsey and similarly will be looking to extend. On her heels is Russia’s Stefaniya Elfutina and Italy’s Flavia Tartaglini. Great Britain’s Bryony Shaw had a disappointing first day, but her past Olympic experience could help her focus and bounce back from a slow start. She currently sits in 10th in the women’s fleet.

In the Radials, today and the third day will be indicative if the Netherland’s Marit Bouwmeester can hold onto her lead through the rest of the week. If anyone can jump ahead, it could be Denmark’s young Anne-Marie Rindom or USA’s Paige Railey who are known for their endurance. China’s Lily Xu fell deep into the fleet as the result of an infringement protest yesterday, so she’ll have her work cut out for her if she wants to climb back to the top. Without the protest she was in the lead, so if she can keep up her strong performance and stay ahead of the fleet’s strongest, she could bounce back. There’s no room for error with that 38 on her scorecard.

The men’s Laser class is such a mix of results that the second set of races will be vital in sussing out who the leaders will be over the coming days of the regatta. Croatia’s Tonci Sipanovic and Argentina’s Julio Alsogaray both net six points and hold the lead, but the rest of the fleet isn’t far behind.

The Lasers and Radials will be sailing on the Ponte course, which has the most consistent breeze of the inside tracks. Day 2 will be an opportunity for the more physical athletes to showcase their endurance. Tactics will still play a major factor, but at Ponte the current and wind are even across the course.

Who To Watch

Great Britain’s Giles Scott has won the last three Finn world championships. On the heels of his countryman, Ben Ainsle’s, dominance, this will be Scott’s first Olympics, but he’s notoriously calm under pressure and with so much past success the novelty shouldn’t be a factor. The British have won the Finn class since Atlanta in 1996, so the real surprise here will be if Scott doesn’t take a lead and medal.

France’s Jonathan Lobert tends to perform better in breeze, so the inside courses could be a challenge for him. If he’s able to pull off some good results inside, when the Finns head to the outside course on Wednesday he could pull well ahead in the fleet. In reality, there are contenders deep into the Finn fleet, including USA’s Caleb Paine, New Zealand’s Josh Junior, Australia’s Jake Lilley, Denmark’s Jonas Hogh-Christensen and Croatia’s Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic.

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The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

Laser

The Prediction:
Tom Burton, of Australia, has been ranked first in the world since I finished [in the Laser]. He’s strong in all conditions. His coach, Michael Blackburn, is ­excellent, and coached me to my gold medal in 2012. Together, Burton and Blackburn know how to win. Don’t count out ­Robert Scheidt, of Brazil. He’s a nine-time world champion in the Laser and has five Olympic medals. Not the favorite, in my opinion, but if he’s near the top coming into medal day, his experience will be hard to beat.

The Expert: Tom Slingsby
Slingsby is the reigning Laser gold medalist who won four of 10 races at the 2012 Games. He is also a four-time Laser world champion.

Laser Radial

The Prediction: Marit Bouwmeester, of the Netherlands, and Evi Van Acker, of Belgium, each has a shot at gold. Bouwmeester always manages to stay at the top and has the ability to make smart, conservative ­decisions, and knows when to take risks. Van Acker, when she is on fire, is hard to beat. She has an ability to come back from mistakes and salvage great results. Experience counts. Paige Railey has the experience of two Olympics, while Lijia Xu already has a gold and bronze medal, which could help them into contention.

The Expert: Anna Tunnicliffe
Tunnicliffe won gold in ­Beijing in the Radial in 2008. She also won two world championships and was named Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year for four consecutive years, from 2008 to 2011.

Finn

The Prediction:
Giles Scott, of Great Britain, will be the favorite going into the Games. He’s a four-time world champion and won the Olympic test event. He’s not one to take too much risk and uses his speed to his ­advantage. He is also a very level­headed sailor with a great deal of ­experience outside Olympic sailing. There are a number of other main contenders, including America’s Caleb Paine, who could also surprise the fleet with a bronze.

The Expert: Zach Railey
Silver medalist in the Finn in 2008, Railey ­competed in the US Sailing Team Sperry Olympic trials for Rio 2016. He is a three-time U.S. Finn national champion and placed 12th in the 2012 Olympics.

49er

The Prediction:
The overwhelming favorites are New Zealand’s Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, of Australia, will give them one heck of a battle. Outteridge’s results are reflective of the fact that he hasn’t been able to focus as completely on the 49er as Burling has. Burling is one of those rare people where nothing fazes him. He’s so relaxed in bad situations that it’s one of his massive strengths. Adversity doesn’t bother him. The real battle in this class will be for bronze.

The Expert: Marcus Spillane
A self-described weekend warrior, Spillane is the 49er class president and former 49er class CEO. Spillane is passionate about sailing and making the sport more appealing to spectators and fans, and follows the class closely.

49er FX

The Prediction:
There is no doubt that the FX class is incredibly close, with seven different teams winning championships this quad. Jena Hansen and Katja Iversen, of Denmark, are going into the Games as the favorites. Denmark had a tough selection process, and they’ll perform better because they’ve been pushed by their teammates. They’ve faced more adversity and have always been at the top. Their selection finished earlier than some of their competition, which gave them time to focus on Rio.

The Expert: Ben Remocker
As manager for the 49er and 49erFX classes, ­Remocker has followed the lead-up to the first FX Olympic competition ­closely. He sailed for Canada at the Beijing Games in 2008 with Gordon Cook, finishing 14th in the 49er.

Men’s 470

The Prediction:
Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan, of Australia, will be the hot favorites in Rio, and I say that not because of my background. Their boatspeed downwind, and in certain conditions ­upwind, is excellent. They’re the most psychologically confident in the class, which comes from experience at the Games. Australia has been so dominant in the 470, and that’s due to coach Victor Kovalenko. His middle name should be Medal Maker. He has an aura of confidence that he passes on to the team.

The Expert: Malcolm Page
As a six-time 470 world champion and two-time men’s 470-class Olympic gold medalist — 2008 with Nathan Wilmot and 2012 with current Australian 470 representative Mathew Belcher — Page is now the chief marketing officer for World Sailing.

Women’s 470

The Prediction:
Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar, of Austria, will win gold in Rio. They showed perfect form in the past at peak moments like worlds and Europeans. The tricky conditions in Rio will be ideal for this team. During stressful moments, Ogar and Vadlau are cool and calm if they need to be.

The Expert: Lobke Berkhout
Dutch 470 crew Berkhout won a silver medal at the Beijing Games with skipper Marceline de Koning, and returned to win bronze in London with Lisa Westerhof at the helm. She won three world championship titles in a row with de Koning, from 2005 to 2007.

Nacra 17

The Prediction:
The favorites are ­Billy Besson and Marie Riou, of France. They are four-time world champions and won the Trofeo Sofia Regatta this year. Their boat was damaged and they replaced the daggerboards, moving them outside of the class-­specified location. The class has rules on variance, but not the exact location of the daggerboard cases, but the boat was ruled sailable by a jury. They’re the top sailors and would still perform well in a standardized boat, but I don’t think they’d be such clear ­favorites.

The Expert: Katie Pettibone
Though Pettibone and Michael Easton didn’t win American Nacra selection, she has the inside scoop on the class. She has done three America’s Cup campaigns, a Whitbread and a Volvo Ocean Race, and is the 2013 women’s match-racing champion.

Women’s RS:X

The Prediction:
The strongest medal candidate is Great Britain’s Bryony Shaw. She has been the most consistent, winning ­medals at three out of four world champion­ships since 2012. She’s strong in all conditions, and she never gives up. When I sailed against Shaw in ­China, she ­impressed me. She has the mental strength­ ­required to make it through the Olympics. Flavia ­Tartaglini, of Italy, is very strong and ­completely ­dedicated.

The Expert: Alessandra Sensini
Italy’s Sensini won bronze in Atlanta (1996) and in Athens (2004) in the Mistral, gold in Sydney (2000) in the Mistral, and silver in Beijing (2008) in the RS:X. She also medaled in eight world championships, winning four gold, three silver and one bronze.

Men’s RS:X

The Prediction:
Dorian Van Rijsselberghe, of the Netherlands, is the favorite. He is the current Olympic champion and has been sparring with country­man Kiran Badloe. They finished second and third at the last worlds, so ­together they make a solid team. Behind Rijsselberghe, depending on the wind forecast, Great Britain’s Nick Dempsey, Poland’s Piotr Myszka or France’s Pierre le Coq will also be in contention.

The Expert: Julien Bontemps
Bontemps won a silver medal in the 2008 Olympics. He also competed in the 2004 and 2012 Olympics, finishing ninth and fifth overall, ­respectively. He is a two-time RS:X world champion (2012 and 2014), and the 2004 world champion in the Mistral.

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In the cockpit of the Finn belonging to Caleb Paine (USA) there is a decal that reads “No Paine, no gain”. This very much sums up his attitude towards making sure he is the absolutely best prepared he can possibly be come the start of the Olympic Games in August.

“I think that no matter what, in the toughest times when you are out there training, it is being able to keep pushing no matter what. You are not always going to win every drill, or be the fastest downwind, but you keep working. I think I’ve always been hard working but you are going to do everything you can to win that one spot and be the better sailor or athlete in the end.”

Caleb Paine started off sailing the Finn when he was 19. “I was introduced to it by a guy named Scott Mason from Long Beach, California. I sailed the boat once, totally loved it and realised it would give me the ability to go to the Olympics and possibly win a medal. As soon as I graduated high school I had the opportunity to sail with Zach Railey (USA) and train with him and I was his training partner leading up to the 2012 Games.”

After Railey stopped sailing following the London 2012 Games, Paine assumed his place as the top Finn sailor in the US. He won World Cup regattas in Miami and Medemblik and briefly rose to World No. 1. Since then he has been a regular at the front end of the fleet, including seventh place at the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championship where he qualified the USA for its Finn place in Rio.

To win his place on the US Sailing Team he first had to defeat his former training partner, who had made a very late comeback to try for this third Olympics. He says Railey returning to the campaign trail, “helped me drive and work harder. I actually 100 per cent believed every day, even if he was or wasn’t, I just told myself that he was going to come back to sail.”

Paine had not even started Finn sailing when Railey had won his medal, however he eventually overcame Railey in the final and decisive trials regatta at the Finn European Championship in Barcelona in March. Railey’s tactics made headlines on sailing columns worldwide, but Paine, stayed calm, won the trials and his ticket to Rio.

From the start Paine has committed himself fully to training in Rio and learning its tricks. Over the past three years he estimates he has spent more than three months training there. It’s a big commitment. “Yes, but at the same time I get to see Brazil and sail in Brazil even if I hadn’t have qualified it still would have been have been something worthwhile.”

“US Sailing did a great job in going down in the year after the London Games and scoped the whole area out and went to Rio and saw some of the difficulties in living on the Rio side, but went over to Niteroi and realised it’s the same distance to all the sailing venues and closer to some of the outside ones and it was just a great place to sail. It’s safe, family orientated, you walk around at night no problems, pretty low key and you don’t have a lot of the distractions that you have over on the Rio side. It’s been a great facility and it’s worked very well.”

“I think a lot of people have been training in Rio for a long time, and it’s been great sailing and I look forward to sailing in the harbour. It’s quite challenging. And from that aspect, it’s one of the hardest and most difficult places to sail but that also makes it fun.”

Since making the US Sailing Team he says he has been focusing on improving his starting technique, downwind technique and getting used to some of the equipment that he will be using. “Just spending lots of time in the boat and getting as comfortable with the equipment as possible. Just so there are no surprises or question marks, so I can go in to the Olympics totally confident and sure of everything that I have.”

“I would say I am fairly positive, but a realist at the same time. I can fully understand where I stand but that also gives me the ability to see the path I need to take to do the best I can or succeed.”

Like most sailors he is sidelining all the other issues that have surrounded preparations for the Games. “If you look all over the world there are pollution problems and I’ve been there a long time and been OK, never been sick and had zero problems whatsoever. But just like when you travel anywhere abroad you are going to take measures to make sure you are safe. I have done everything I need to do to make sure I am safe in Brazil.”

“We all have to deal with it, all the sailors have to sail in the same circumstances, and some people will let it take advantage of them and it may affect the way they perform but it’s the same for everyone so you might as well perform the best you can in the circumstances you are presented with.”

“I think it’s going to be very, very tough. I think it’s going to be close racing, due to the racecourses and the challenging aspects of those courses. I think it’s going to be very exciting and I think there is going to be some very close points by the end of the regatta and I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out.”

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For most of the fleet it has been a long and winding road, with many pitfalls, dead ends and road works. The 23 sailors are now making final preparations for the pinnacle event in Rio. The intensity of the qualification and physical training periods is now evolving into fine tuning the details and making sure everything is ready for when the starting gun goes on August 9th.

There is not much doubt that Rio’s waters will provide perhaps the biggest challenge of the sailor’s careers. The unseen currents, the changeable winds, and the hidden dangers beneath the surface will all conspire to create a fascinating Games that even the favorite, four times World Champion Giles Scott (GBR), and favorite for the gold, is not taking for granted.

Sailors have spent longer training at the venue than at any previous Olympics, many starting three years ago to familiarize themselves with the conditions. Many have based themselves there for protracted periods to get to grips with Rio’s idiosyncrasies. Most are fully aware it won’t take much for everything to go wrong for them.

Scott has won almost everything in sight since the UK trials in 2011, when he lost to Ben Ainslie (GBR), effectively ending his chances to qualify for London 2012. Since then he has won 19 out of the 21 regattas sailed. He was clearly a cut above the rest and his smooth, almost casual style spoke volumes of an innate skill in the boat that transcended his previous training partner and mentor, Ainslie. He was bigger, stronger and fitter. He was making it look too easy.

That success was also a wake up call to the rest of the fleet. They realized that unless they started to catch up, and quickly, the gold medal in Rio was as good as gone.

But the unexpected can happen, as it did in Palma in April of this year, when an unforeseen rudder pintle breakage probably cost Scott another regatta win. The man to take advantage of that was Josh Junior (NZL), who goes into the Games as the only man in Rio with bragging rights over Scott in more than five years. It may not be much, but it is something to hold on to.

Qualification

Qualification for Rio started at the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships in Santander. Apart from Brazil as host nation, 12 nations qualified there: Great Britain, Croatia, France, New Zealand, USA, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Slovenia, Australia, Hungary, and Finland. Next, China won the Asian place at the Sailing World Cup Qingdao, Netherlands, Greece, Estonia, Uruguay and Italy qualified from the 2015 Finn Gold Cup in Takapuna, Canada and Argentina won the North and South American places at the 2016 Sailing World Cup Miami, and finally at the 2016 Princess Sofia Regatta, Turkey won the final European place, with the Seychelles winning the African place. It was the most complicated and long drawn out qualification system ever used for sailing.

For a change, all those who qualified met their National criteria and were given their tickets to Rio. Of the 23, just seven are sailing their first Olympics, seven are sailing their second, five are sailing their third, two are sailing their fourth and two are sailing their fifth: Slovenia’s Vasilij Zbogar and Seychelles’ Allan Julie. Zbogar is the oldest sailor this year at 40, while the average age has dropped from 30 in 2012 to 29 in 2016.

Looking at it quantitatively, based on recent performance, about 10-12 sailors have the capacity to medal, and around 18-20 have performed well enough to make the medal race on August 16.

New Zealand’s Josh Junior is uppermost in most people’s mind as a possible foil of the great Giles Scott. He only moved into the Finn in 2013 after a failed attempt to win the NZL 2012 Laser campaign from Andrew Murdoch, who also moved into the Finn after the 2012 Games. Junior’s biggest problem used to be consistency, but having won the NZL trials against Murdoch, one of the most conservative sailors in the game, he now seems to have got that under control.

Junior has spent much of the past year training with Pieter-Jan Postma (NED), perhaps the most flamboyant, risk taking sailor in the fleet. The partnership has clearly clicked though as both sailors have benefitted from working together. Postma, who finished fourth in London 2012, has lurked near the top for years, but always failed to convert potential to gold. That changed in 2014 with his first major victory at the Hyeres World Cup, but it took another two years before he would win his first title, the 2016 European Championship.

Of the 23 sailors in Rio, only 11 sailed the Finn at London 2012, including two of the medallists, Jonas Høgh-Christensen (DEN) and Jonathan Lobert (FRA).

After winning silver in London, and narrowly missing the gold, Høgh-Christensen stepped away from Finn sailing for two years. He returned in the summer of 2014 to qualify Denmark in Santander, though was still unsure whether he wanted to do another Olympic campaign. However, he didn’t take much persuading and by Palma in 2015 he had a full programme running, culminating in a second place at this year’s Finn Gold Cup.

In contrast, Lobert never stopped. However it took him another three years to win his first major championship medal, silver at the Finn Gold Cup in Takapuna in 2015. Lobert is part of the group that has probably spent more time in Rio than any other. Together with Max Salminen (SWE) and Tapio Nirkko (FIN) the group should know Rio’s conditions well enough, but have sacrificed that knowledge against regatta experience.

Other experienced sailors taking part include three-time European champion Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO), third time Olympian, Deniss Karpak (EST), and for the second time Giorgio Poggi (ITA).

Of the new young group sailing their first Olympics, Jake Lilley (AUS) is perhaps one of the brightest stars. He towers over most of the fleet and has been steadily rising through the ranks over the past three years and could pose a threat at the front. Caleb Paine (USA) and Anders Pedersen (NOR) are equally promising and are both capable of a result. In contrast, Tom Ramshaw (CAN) has spent less than a year in the boat, but has achieved some phenomenal results in that short time. If these sailors continue progressing at the same rate, they are going to be the front-runners in Tokyo, but could also surprise in Rio.

One of the success stories of the last cycle has been the establishment of the Dinghy Academy in Valencia. That success is reflected in the number of sailors based there that qualified for Rio, or have used it as a training venue on their road to Rio. Nine of the 23 sailors have benefitted from Luca Devoti’s experience and training methods including Zsombor Berecz (HUN), who won silver at this year’s Europeans and double Olympic Laser medallist Vasilij Zbogar (SLO), back for his second Olympics in the Finn. In addition, two of those sailors – Facundo Olezza (ARG) and Alejandro Foglia (URU) – have also been directly funded through the Finn class development programme to train in Valencia. Together with 2012 World Champion, Jorge Zarif (BRA), the Finn class has three sailors from South America for the first time since 1968.

The fleet is rounded out with the 2012 European Champion, Ioannis MItakis (GRE), Alican Kaynar (TUR) and Lei Gong (CHN), all back for the second time,

However, what all the sailors are saying, whatever their past results would otherwise indicate, is that this will be an Olympics where past form means very little. They all agree that these Games will be very tough to manage, and very difficult to predict, and to win you have to be the best all round sailor – and perhaps a little lucky.

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Finn sailors are as powerful as the boats they sail. The athletes are tall, big and strong, and as fast and agile as the Finn itself. Sailing the Finn becomes a true athletic challenge when the breeze kicks up above ten knots. At this threshold, Finn sailors are allowed to pump the mainsail down wind. “It’s like dancing in the boat,” says Jonathan Lobert, the French-flagged Olympic-bound Finn sailor. “Pumping is a lot of hard work, and makes sailing look like a true sport to outsiders.”

Lobert won a bronze medal in the London Olympics in 2012, and when he returned to land following an intense medal race, the French media were infatuated with his performance. “I always am asked why you need to be so strong to be a sailor,” says Lobert. “When they watched the videos from London, they were impressed that we could race in those physical conditions for an hour long race, twice a day for six days, plus the medal race.”

For Lobert, sailing the Finn is the truest athletic form of sailing. “In particular, it’s truly a sport because you have to be both smart and strong,” he says. “You always have someone who can take the lead away from you, who can read the wind or current better than you. To win, you have to mix many skills together.”

In order to pump the Finn efficiently, Lobert breaks it down step by step. “First, you pull the mainsheet in and luff the sail slightly, shifting your weight to windward to give the boat some heel,” he says. “As soon as you’re heeling, trim the mainsheet and shift your weight to the other side of the boat to make it flat. This moment is crucial and you have to make the boat flat as fast as possible. The motion of the sail and the shifting of the weight in the boat accelerates you downwind.”

The key, as Lobert says, is speed and balance. “You have to do many things at once,” he says. “It’s like surfing on a surfboard, you have to keep the correct pressure on your feet to balance the weight. At the same time, you have to keep the correct amount of pressure on the mainsheet with your hands to keep the sail activated.”

Lobert and his training partners put in long hours in the gym to increase both strength and endurance. They use rowing machines and cycling for cardio to be able to handle the length of the races, and weight training for the strength portion. “When you’re pumping, you’re moving over 200 kilos so you’re pulling pretty hard,” he says. “The key is to be efficient. If you pull and push like a maniac, you’re exhausting yourself and in the end you’ll be slow. It’s a balance.”

Lobert maintains that pumping, though it’s often questioned by non-Finn sailors and the old guard as a Rule 42 violation, was a great change for the class and makes sailing look like a true sport to spectators. “Now, when we sail for the medal race, it’s the most impressive looking and most challenging racing you’ll see in the event,” he says.

Ben Ainslie, the 2012 gold medalist in the Finn Class, reviews pumping in a video from Volvo Sailing.

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