The men’s heavyweight singlehanded Finn has been an Olympic dinghy longer than any of the current slate and was designed in Sweden by Rickard Sarby in 1949 for a design competition for a new boat for the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. The Finn has an unstayed mast that allows the helm to tailor the very powerful rig to his body size and sailing style.

It is widely regarded as one of the toughest physical challenges in sailing, requiring an extremely fit and strong sailor to drive the 116 kg hull upwind and then, when the wind is over 10 knots, to use free kinetics downwind continually to fan the 10 square metre sail that produces heart rates similar to sprinters. However the Finn is also very tactical, producing very close competition and intense battles on the racecourse.

The Finn is active in 50 countries worldwide has an especially vibrant and widespread Masters fleet which attracts huge fleets to its Finn World Masters.