OCTOBER 2004 - Finn

Charles Currey and Iain Percy in conversation
British Finn Medalists 1952 and 2000
by Tim Jeffrey
Iain Percy (second right) was one of British
sailing’s ‘three tenors’ in Sydney, one of trio of
gold medalists in an outstanding Olympics that
garnered five medals in all and near misses in
two other class.
Britain has been a habitual medal winner in
sailing but think of great British Olympians
from previous times and Rodney Pattisson
and Reg White come to mind. Only one other
man has won a medal in Finn singlehander
before Percy and that was Charles Currey
(top left, next to Paul Elvström and Rickard
Sarby) in Helsinki, a full 52 years ago.
Until Ben Ainslie succeeded Percy in the Finn
and won three successive Finn Gold Cups,
the class' world championship, Britain’s long
association with the Finn had produced only
two other Gold Cup winners: Vernon Stratton
and Chris Law.
Stratton was one of those beaten by Currey
in the 1952 trials, later to become British team
manager and remains a leading light in
Bembridge sailing. Law’s great rival in the
1970s was David Howlett (top right), the man
who has been the continuous thread running
through British Finn sailing since then.
Pioneering metal masts from David Hunt’s
Needlespar Howlett was there. The move
to carbon rigs and Mylar sails 10 years ago
Howlett was there. The man behind Percy
and Ainslie Howlett.
The backroom team of British Finn sailing is
envied around the world. When Ainslie moved
across from the Laser to the bigger, heavier
singlehander, Polish 1996 gold medalist
Mateusz Kusnierewicz expected the younger
Briton to both be a threat to the dominance
of the class that he and Belgian Sebastien
Godefroid enjoyed because of his talent. And
because, the Pole, added: “He’s got Sid.”
(Howlett’s nickname).
Percy had a leading part in this, a tuning partner
to Richard Stenhouse in 1996, and bringing
along the likes of Andrew Simpson and Charlie
Cumbley as his trial jockeys for 2000, a role they
are playing for Ainslie now. Such support was
absent, anathema even, in the Currey era.
To find out just different things were, Yachting
World brought the two British Finn medalists
together.
18
Iain: People talk about eras in sailing: the
Kiwis dominated for a while, the Americans,
now perhaps the Brits, but for a long time it
was the northern Europeans, particularly the
Danes and men such as Paul Elvström.
Charles: The extraordinary skill of Elvström
was that just at the gun he had the knack of
getting way on. People would line up at the
start, and he was never early, and he'd shoot
out of the ruck.
Iain: Ben Ainslie’s a bit like that! (Laughter)
Charles: Every time... tonk! Elvström was
away. There he was. Perfect acceleration.
Iain: What about Helsinki In Sydney, we
sailed both in the ocean and close to the city
in the harbour. It was very changeable.
Charles: We were all mixed up amongst the
islands. I used to talk to Elvström a lot. The
winds and the tides were very complex. I said
‘Paul, I sit and look at the chart and imagine
the water as molten lead flowing around the
islands.’ I used to sit and look at the water
and think ‘what’s the lead going to do today’
Iain: That’s like the flow diagrams we use
now. Water’s always got to go somewhere.
There were some great Elvström stories
weren’t there What about when the tide
went out Didn’t he go ashore or something
Charles: That was a Gold Cup at Whitstable.
No one thought of the obvious solution which
was to pick up the mark and take it out to the
boats!
Iain: So your Games in 1952 was the first
the Finn was used in
Charles: It was designed by Rikard Sarby.
We were given the boats and the masts just
didn’t bend at all. There were a fir tree! They
just stood upright like a Christmas tree.
Iain: Really! So they were all completely
different.
Charles: Elvström spent a long time with a
hand draw-knife making his mast so that it
would bend. He was quite good at chippy work!
Iain: Carbon masts don’t bend much either,
but the sails are designed for it.
Charles: They bend exactly as you want
them to.
Iain: I remember we did something like that
in ‘96 when we were helping Richard
Stenhouse. The difference there was that we
had an oven and were cooking carbon on
the side. It was a little more efficient where
one strip of carbon on the side could make
a mast 10% stiffer.
Charles: That must have worked pretty well.
You could control the amount of change.
Iain: And you could sand it too, to get even
more precise a control. You could get very,
very exact, but the principal is just the same.
And you are still trying to make the mast fit
the sail.
There’s a wonderful photograph on the
podium (above), you one side of Elvström
and Sarby the other side.
Charles: I was the smart chap with his thumbs
going down the seams of his trousers. Navy
training! Rikard didn’t know how to hold the
bouquet of flowers we were presented with.
‘Hold it like a baby!’, I said. ‘But I don't have
a baby!’ he replied.
Iain: How were your trials Our system is
now very complicated though it produces a
strong squad.
Charles: We had a one week competition in
Torbay. Vernon Stratton was there, he was
very good. So was his wife, Pepe, in light
winds. A lot of evil things went on in the
selection. I knew about it. I had the most,
beautiful old fashioned Finn which was just
perfect, but I wasn’t allowed to use it. We
couldn’t sail our own boats; the boats were
supplied. I knew even before we went racing
who had the best boat and who had the worst
boat and that was me. I wasn’t worried about
it. It only took one tack after the start of the
first race for me to sail through the chap who
had the best boat. The whole thing was fixed
up, but I knew about it.
Iain: It says in this newspaper report that you
were 5th in the first race and won the second
Vernon Stratton, Stuart Jardine, Ian Butlerthey’re
all mentioned.
Charles: I didn’t want to make it too obvious!
It may have been a different then, but there
was still all the devilment that goes on today.
Iain: I see this was the first time the Germans
were at the Games since the War. Did that
cause controversy
Charles: A little. But there wasn’t much hoohah
about it.
Iain: And the USSR came for the first ime .
Did people think it was cheating combining
all those countries!
Charles: There was some politiciing of that
but I don't think anyone cares any more about
that sort of thing. It’s the sport that matters.
Iain: I heard that even during the height of
the Cold War, sailors would still chat. Russian,