A new Finn for Brazil

by Robert Deaves on 15 Nov 2008 A joint initiative between a Brazilian Finn sailor, Pata Boats of Hungary and the International Finn Association has resulted in competitive new Finns being built in South America for the first time in 35 years.

For the past three and a half decades, Finn sailors in Brazil have had to rely on using on using old and reconditioned hulls or importing new ones at great cost.

Jorge Rodrigues (BRA) explained the problem, 'The huge difference in the currency and the value of the import taxes prevented many people from buying a new boat. The final cost of a new one, with all the taxes and transportation costs, was more than double the FOB price of the boat to us. In this scenario, it was almost impossible for the class to grow here.'

In spite of that, the Finn continued to appeal to a wide range of sailors across the country and the fleet has remained one of the largest outside Europe and North America, even hosting the world championship in 2004.

However, a unique partnership between Jorge and the International Finn Association (IFA) FIDeS programme, has enabled new Finns to be built in Brazil using old moulds imported from Europe.

He continued, 'That's why I decided to try to build the boats here. We have been without a national Finn builder for decades, after Jorg Bruder died in 1973. Now we are starting it all over again. My original idea was in fact to build a new mould for the boat, and for this, I was looking for a precise table of offsets to build a plug for the new mould.'

Discussions followed with the IFA, Gilbert Lamboley and Richard Hart, about building a new mould. 'But I also wanted a modern boat, to allow me to have a reference in construction and quality to pursue on my future boats. I started to ask for quotations from many manufacturers, to decide the best boat to buy.'

Jorge finally bought a new Finn from the Pata boatyard in Hungary and on hearing that he was also looking to start building Finns, the company offered Jorge a set of unused Finn moulds, free of charge. The only problem was how to get them to South America from Central Europe.

This is where the International Finn Associations FIDeS programme came in. FIDeS is the IFA's development programme, providing aid, gear and funding to projects and sailors worldwide. The Brazilian project is without doubt its most adventurous and ambitious to date. FIDeS generously provided a grant to fund the logistics and transport of the moulds from the Pata yard in Hungary to Brazil. But Pata's involvement didn't end there.

Jorge said, 'The main challenge then was how to build a competitive boat, and reducing the learning curve time. To build and test many boats until we had a good product wasn't looking like a good strategy. The solution was actually to learn from experienced Finn builders, like Pata Marine.'

'We explained our need to Rodney Cobb, and he worked out with Antal Gabor to host Lorenzo Cardoso at the Pata boatyard to learn the Pata B4 production process. Lorenzo is naval engineer specialised in construction of small dinghies and carbon fibre construction. He is also the owner of the Holos company, in Rio de Janeiro, that is my associate. Antal was very helpful and friendly, opening the doors of his boatyard to us and, giving us all the information that we needed to produce a quality boat. I don't have enough words to thank both him and Rodney for the support that they gave to our
project.'

The first boat out of these moulds was presented to the Brazilian Finn sailors in early November 2008 at the South American Championship, hosted by the Rio de Janeiro Yacht Club, and the results look terrific.

'We want to offer a complete boat, but we are not producing the mast yet, although we do have the necessary moulds to produce wing masts. We are talking with Antal again, to bring him to Brazil to help us in the mast construction process. The idea is to build the first batch of masts with him, to accelerate the learning curve. This will allow us to sell a complete
boat, at a competitive price.'

'Currently, there is a lot of interest in people buying these boats, especially here in Brazil, where the class is growing. Last year we had at our Nationals a record of 22 boats. The idea is to cover mainly Brazil and South America initially. Central America can also buy boats from US based companies, but we want to have the South American market attended first,
this is our priority.'

And about the price, 'We are waiting for the global financial market to calm down, to evaluate the construction materials prices, like resin and some imported components that are used on this boat, that are heavily affected by currency fluctuations here in Brazil.

But it will be, for sure, a lot cheaper than to import a boat from Europe or US, and this always was our target.'

'There have been so many people involved that it is hard to mention everybody. At the very beginning I received a lot of info from Gilbert Lamboley about the hull lines and measurements.

The Chairman of the International Finn Technical Committee, Richard Hart also assisted us on this phase.

The Finn class, via its Executive Director Corinne Rolland McKenzie and its President Balazs Hajdu, also helped us a lot to bring the Finn moulds to Rio. We also received a lot of encouragement and support from Bruno Caruso and Fernando Madureira, the previous and current Finn class secretaries here in Brazil.'

'Prior to putting the boat on the market we be will testing it on the water, with some of our best Finn sailors like Eduardo Couto (our 2008 Olympic representative) and Henry Boenning. We also still expect to make some minor improvements to the boat to ensure that we will have be the best possible product at this time.'

'My hope is to offer a well built Finn at a fair price, to really allow the class to grow here in Brazil and South America. We are also discussing with Antal how we can extend our partnership in a near future, depending on the acceptance of our product by the market. I hope that this partnership can be beneficial for the class here and for all of us involved. Soon we will have a website, with the Holos company, which we are rebuilding right now.'

Balazs Hajdu (HUN), President of the IFA commented, 'Latin America has always played an important role in international Finn sailing by providing the class with great world and regional championship venues (such as the 2004 Finn Gold Cup in Rio) as well as extremely successful Finn sailors. Therefore it is a great pleasure for the International Finn Association to be able to assist in this ground breaking project of our Brazilian friends.'

'This project is a milestone in the International Finn Development Support (FIDeS) program helping among others developing Finn nations and young Finn sailors in joining their national as well as the international Finn scene. Although the FIDeS program was only introduced a couple of years ago, the 2008 Olympic Sailing Regatta already showed how effective such Olympic class initiatives can become. Cyprus, India and Venezuela were all new countries for the Finn in the Olympics and they were all supported by the FIDeS program.'