The Finn was designed in 1949 to be the 'monotype' dinghy at the 1952 Olympic Games. It has remained an Olympic cass ever since and is now the longest standing of any Olympic dinghy class. It currently fills the slot for the Heavyweight Dinghy. The Finn is one of the survivors of the sailing world. It has survived 13 reselections as an Olympic class and 50 years of technical development, from the wooden hulls, wooden masts and cotton sails of the 1950’s to the GRP hulls, carbon masts and Kevlar sails of the 1990’s. It has sustained criticism over the years for being hard to sail and expensive to campaign but it has always won through.