Hey Folks!
Maybe someone can help me out here. The neighbor kid found himself an old Finn that he's fixing up, and we need some help to get him up to speed.
Rigging advice is needed. Whether it be photos, diagrams, or whatever. For example does this boat use downhaul? Boom Vang? etc.
Also, what's with the two nice big round holes in the stearn. Should they be there? I'm a cat sailor, and once in a while a Laser or larger monohull sailor, and I don't know I thing about the Finn class, other than that I believe it's an olympic class of boat?
Fill me in, and point me in the direction of good web sites so I can help out my neighbor friend.
Thanks!
Tim
Those two big holes you mention might be stern drains. I can't seem to recall every using them, so the rest of thisis just theory, yeah right! When I crewed on a Thistle, me captain put those in and covered them with spin repair tape. When you capsize and you get the mast point back up the boat is level with the water, and once you start getting forward motion, you punch out the tape and, they really drain the hull quickly, quicker than bailing. Without them the water becomes moving uncontollable ballast and when it decide to go forward it goes and that little bit of nose up attitude the boat had is now in dive mode. Ours were bigger in diameter than a beer, on one hand is good because the beer has a better chance of just going through than plugging up the hole. On the other hand . . .
Try Sailing Anarchy
Post your questions to the Sailing Anarchy Forum. You will get some fairly straightforward responses and some not so helpful ones.
Good Luck
Those holes in the stern are indeed for bailing. Cover them with some thin plexiglas and use shock cords to keep them in position.
Finn's are rigged as the sailor wishes, boom vang and everything, so there is no standard. If there are no Finn's close to you, you can find photos of the pro's in action on the web, and copy their setup.