Devoti notes that back in 1993 the first Finns to his design came off the production line and were instantly successful. But much has changed since then. Carbon-fibre masts were introduced, hull weights were reduced, weight jackets were banned, pumping restric- tions were lifted above a certain wind speed. ‘The overall weight had decreased by about 25kg in 22 years.’
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It was time to refresh the design and Devoti, with his partner Roman Teply and designer Juan Kouyoumdjian, put their heads together. ‘The history of Finn builders was that they generally last about 15 to 17 years and then somebody new comes along and takes their place. Roman and I both have young kids, so we have to survive another 15 years,’ he laughs.
‘Basically, our Finn went from a piece of handicraft to a boat produced with modern technology. We took a bit of volume out of the middle, because the displacement is lighter and we generally tried to update the boat. We submitted the design to the class tech- nical committee. They didn’t like one thing Juan had done – he had been a bit too clever for their liking. We had to detune it a bit. ‘It is a very difficult challenge to make a good Finn because it is an old design. You wouldn’t design a boat like that today if you were starting from scratch. The shape is defined by the stations and now it is all digitised. The weight distribution is defined by the relationship between the height of the centre of gravity and the radius of gyration, so it is actually a very small playing field. ‘When we first launched the new boat we felt it was a little bit better. I did wonder, though, if we had really given something to the class. I got my answer a couple of months ago at our academy in Valencia. All the guys wanted to sail the new boat, not necessarily because it was faster, but it was more fun.’
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Devoti says the class has definitely speeded up. ‘When I started sailing Finns a Laser would beat it in strong winds. Now in 25kt we can even beat a 470 downwind. That really says something about the class, the athletes, the techniques that have been devel- oped including free-pumping, pushing the boat, dancing with the waves, and how the boat itself has progressed.’ But the essential character of the boat is and must remain unchanged, he insists. ‘If you were to make it any lighter you would start to get lighter sailors. If it went faster you wouldn’t have so much pressure in the sail. It would be much less physical.’ Despite its age he believes the Finn’s place in the Olympics is secure because of its sheer physicality and the fact that it caters for big, powerful athletes. ‘All the Olympic classes, with the exception of the Finn, are for people with an average weight of less than 80kg. The strong, athletic youth of today is much more than 80kg. ‘You can have classes for smaller guys, but to have all the classes for smaller guys would be nonsense. The windsurfer is for small guys and kiteboards will be the same. The 470 is for anorexics – they just can’t eat at all. The Nacra is for tiny guys. The 49er and the Laser are for small to medium guys. The Finn is the only one for people in the 96-104kg range.’
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Given the physicality of the boat, what role, if any, might doping play? Devoti is not naive and doesn’t rule it out, but he says nothing about the top competitors and their physiques makes him suspect they are taking short cuts. Finn sailing, he asserts, is not just about physicality. ‘It is a decision-making sport, which selects an intel- lectual elite. These guys are extraordinary. Most of them speak several languages. They are fit, determined and great athletes who will have great careers in business or in sport. ‘This is a sport that rewards the mind as much as anything. In the old days, for example, the East Germans decided the only sport they would not chemically boost was sailing, because they would lose the feel for the boat and the wind. Jochen Schümann and those guys were clean, despite the environment they came from, because it was faster to be like that. I am quite hopeful and confident that we are not affected to any great extent by this disaster.’ Given the prominence Finn sailors have enjoyed in the higher echelons of sport – think Russell Coutts and the America’s Cup, Jacques Rogge and the International Olympic Committee – there is surely a rising generation of 49er and Moth sailors to threaten that stranglehold. Devoti is not so sure.
For the America’s Cup (which he thinks is entirely on the wrong track, despite his admiration for Coutts’s Finn record) he rates the
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