1987
John Hofland (Holland) replaced Jose Luis Doreste
as Vice President (Sailing). The Gold Cup was held
at Kiel in conjunction with many others classes
to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the KYC. The
Gold Cup was dominated by Jose Luis Doreste while
Stuart Childerley won a high scoring Europeans as
well as the Pre-Olympics in Pusan, Korea.
The IFA Treasurer, Andreas Muller brought out a
single issue of FINNFARE at the Kiel Gold Cup and
in the Summer Ines Sague from Spain became the new
editor.
It was hoped that the Finns that were being built
for the 1988 Olympics in Korea, would provide the
class with a new builder in a new region of the
world. However, although these hulls turned out
to be very consistent and similar, they were not
proved to be competitive against the standard hulls
of the day.
1988
The Gold Cup was early in the year in Brazil, the
first time it had been held in South America. It
was won by Thomas Schmid (Germany) in a much reduced
fleet due to the long travelling distance. Jose
Luis Doreste won the Europeans in Medemblik, Holland
to add to his Gold Cup of the previous year.
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FINNLOG
Edited by Peter Mohilla |
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The season was dominated by the Olympics in Korea. The
1987 World Champion, Jose Luis Doreste, won a very close
series, while one of the favourites Stuart Childerley
performed worse than expected after having his best masts
broken in transit and another favourite, Lasse Hjortnas
broke his mast in the second race. Larry Lemieux was awarded
a medal for giving up a second place in race 5 to go to
the rescue of a Singapore 470 sailor who had lost contact
with his boat. The IFA received a grant from the International
Olympic Committee towards clinics throughout the year
and prior to the Olympics which were run by Gus Miller
and were very successful. The IFA was the only International
Sailing Class which received money direct from the IOC.
At the November IYRU meeting the Finn was again selected
to be used in the 1992 Olympics Games.
At the Europeans Peter Mohilla brought with him his own
personally designed and built portable station jig and
computerised Lamboley test equipment for the measurement
of the Finns present. It was generally agreed by those
measured to be an accurate indicator of legal Finns. The
IFA also published a new version of 'Major Championship
Rules' which all organisers of Major IFA Championships
have to follow.
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1989
After 6 years in the post, Robert Neilson retired
and was replaced as Vice President (Administration)
by Chris Pratt (Australia) and Andrzej Ostrowski
was replaced by Richard Hart (UK) as Chairman of
the Technical Committee. The new Rule Book was published
in 1989.
Stig Westergaard recaptured the Gold Cup whilst
Hans Spitzauer from Austria won the Europeans. The
dominant hull at this time was still the Vanguard
from the US with a Needlespar mast and a North sail.
The President, Gerardo Seeliger proposed at the
AGM to add into the Rule Book a list of Olympic
Medal Winners as well as a list of sailors who have
made a significant contribution to the class. Peter
Mohilla was named as the Chief Measurer of the Finn
class. There were discussions to change some of
the characteristics of the Finn: hull weight, length
of boom, aspect ratio of the sail, although no radical
changes were made.
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1990
At the 1990 AGM Bjorn Westergaard replaced John Hofland
as Vice President (Sailing) and Pat Healy became Vice
President (Development) when Chris Pratt who was Vice
President (Administration) retired. The Vanguard Finn
was selected as the hull to be used in the 1992 Olympic
Games in Barcelona. The Finn Veterans was renamed the
Finn Masters. Robert Laban was appointed as the Chief
Measurer of the Class. The discussions on improving the
basic concept the Finn continued: making it easier to
measure, easier to handle in strong winds, faster to sail
and more attractive to a broader range of sailors. The
class faced opposition for selection for the 1996 Olympics
from the Laser Class who were making a strong bid to be
part of the Olympic Games.
The reigning World Champion, Stig Westergaard, won the
Europeans in the UK but performed poorly at the Gold Cup
in Greece. Hank Lammens became the first Canadian to win
an major Finn Championship when he won the Gold Cup after
a close finish.
Ines Sague published her last issue of FINNFARE in the
spring and handed over the job to Josje Dominicus from
Holland, who was to go on to produce more issues of FINNFARE
than any of the previous editors (22 issues in all). At
the end of the year, the contract that had been held with
Emil Achermann, who had acted as the accountant of the
IFA for two decades, expired and was not renewed.
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supporters.
On 13th May Peter Mohilla, former IFA Chief Measurer and
former FINNFARE Editor and Austrian Finn Association secretary
died. On October 7th, the Chief Finn Measurer Robert Laban
died.
In 1981 David Howlett had suggested that the IFA hire
an Executive Director to run the business of the IFA.
It was refused then but at the AGM in Kingston, Canada,
the idea resurfaced and the current FINNFARE editor Josje
Dominicus from Holland was elected to the post. That AGM
also saw the retirement of Nikos Kouklelis who had been
the class secretary since 1975. He was made a Life Honorary
Member of the IFA. It was decided that the entry quota
for the Europeans and the Gold Cup should be the same
as from 1st Jan 1993. |
1992
After a number of failed attempts, Mexican Eric
Mergenthaler finally won the Gold Cup; a very windy
one held in Cadiz in which 57 year old IFA Development
Coach Gus Miller won the second race. About 20 sailors
attended the pre-Gold Cup clinic for which the class
received a $10,000 grant. Stuart Childerley again
won the Europeans before achieving a 4th in the
Olympics later that summer; the same result he achieved
in the Olympics 4 years before.
Andreas Muller retired as IFA Treasurer after eight
years service and was replaced by Othmar Muller
von Blumencron. Juri Saraskin from Estonia was appointed
as the new Chief Measurer. After a long absence
the South African Finns were back on the scene.
Ian Ainslie was amongst a team of five South Africans
at the Gold Cup in Cadiz.
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The Olympics in Barcelona were won by Jose Maria van der
Ploeg in one of the deepest Finn fleets ever. World Champion
Mergenthaler could only manage 19th whilst co-favourite
(and 3 times Laser World Champion) Glenn Bourke finished
20th. After the Olympics, the IFA President, Gerardo Seeliger,
bought one of the Olympic Vanguard hulls and donated it
to the class as a development boat.
Gus Miller was awarded an IYRU Silver Medal for his work
with coaching and clinics. The change over to carbon masts
was started. Kurt Andersen from Sweden started developing
and testing composite masts with a number of top Finn
sailors. The Finn was again selected as the men's singlehanded
dinghy for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
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1993
1993 was a year of much technical development in
the class. At the Gold Cup four different boat builders:
Devoti, Lemieux, Pata and of course Vanguard all
had boats in the top five. The Devoti hull had outstanding
results in its first season. It won both the Gold
Cup (with Philippe Presti helming) and the Europeans
(with Stig Westergaard helming).
Many sailors were using and experimenting with the
new carbon fibre masts which were starting to show
good results. 1993 was also the year that much experimentation
was done with courses and event formats, which did
not prove too popular with the sailors (although
the Gold Cup and Europeans were left alone).
At the IYRU conference it was again decided that
the Finn hulls would be supplied at the 1996 Olympic
Games, maintaining the tradition in the men's singlehanded
event.
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Josje
Dominicus
first IFA Executive Director 1991-1997
Editor FINNFARE 1990-1997 |
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