Shore team manager and reserve grinder Finn Henry departs the Black Foils after more than four years, stepping back from SailGP as he and wife Amy await their first child.
The shore team manager and reserve grinder steps away from the New Zealand SailGP team after this weekend's Spain Sail Grand Prix, SailGP's first ever event in Valencia. It closes out more than four years with the squad. He and wife Amy are expecting their first child.
"It's been a hell of a ride with this team," Henry said in the Black Foils' farewell video, recalling one of his first opportunities aboard the F50, at Saint-Tropez. "How have I ended up sitting on the boat with these guys?"
From "unqualified builder" to America's Cup winner
Henry grew up in Kaikōura, studied outdoor education at Otago Polytechnic in Dunedin, and played club rugby for Alhambra-Union before a spell as a deckhand on a UK-based yacht turned him toward a career on the water.
He joined Team New Zealand's America's Cup shore crew in 2019, walking in as a self-described "unqualified builder." Eighteen months of extra gym sessions later, he'd talked his way onto the grinding unit and helped defend the Auld Mug on the Hauraki Gulf in 2021.
The form carried into SailGP. Henry joined the Black Foils' shore crew in March 2022 and was promoted to shore team manager in June 2023, staying sharp enough as a reserve grinder to fill in for Spain at Taranto in 2023 and for New Zealand at the Season 4 Grand Final in San Francisco in 2024.
Building it back after Auckland
This year tested him hardest. When the Black Foils' F50 Amokura was destroyed in February's high-speed collision with France at the Auckland regatta, it fell to Henry's shore team to get a new boat race ready. He helped lead that rebuild through to the launch of replacement F50 Manawatītī in Southampton, and the team's return to the water in Halifax four events later.
What's next for Henry
Fatherhood is the next project now. Henry has acknowledged what four years of SailGP travel has meant for Amy, with the cycle of leaving, coming home and heading away again. With their first child on the way, he says it's time to shift his priorities.
His teammates were quick to sum up what's being lost. Co-CEO Blair Tuke said: "He's been right at the centre of the Black Foils over the last four years, from his role in the shore team through to shore manager and reserve grinder. He's right in the engine room of the Black Foils. We're definitely going to miss him, but we wish him very well and I'm very grateful for his contribution to the team."
Henry isn't treating Valencia as a full stop. "You'll never be in a team just like that again," he said, reflecting on what he'll miss most. "It's a unique thing and it's special and it can't be repeated. You can't just press print on that." Asked whether a return might be on the cards, he offered: "Maybe there'll be a return one day. Never say never."
