No Cats for 2012 Olympics?!?! Further Info.

[Jimbo41]

Here's the link for more information (hope it works this time). Sorry the news is not good. Why the ISAF decided to exclude boat classes which account for between 10-30% of all competitive non-keelers is a mystery.
Cheers!
Jim.
 
http://www.asnr29.dsl.pipex.com/ISAF_Events_Report.pdf

[tedcordall]

...because ISAF committee members' primary interest is not the wellbeing of sailing as a whole but in defending their own niche. As a result they politic and trade to protect their own local interests and end up supporting the insupportable.
 
I defy you to find a club sailor anywhere in the world who thinks, "Ah the Star, that's the boat I'd choose to race"! In fact I suspect you'd be pushed to find many who have even seen one.
 
My hobby horse is de sexing the olympic sailing and having light, medium and heavy single hander, light and heavy two hander. That would leave room for cats, keelboats and the dinghy equivalent of moto GP, foiling moths!

[Jimbo41]

"Mystery" was meant to be ironic and I agree entirely with you Ted. Not that it makes me feel any better...:-/ Not only do ISAF screw up at the Olympic level, they can be a perfect pain-in-the-whatsit when it comes to trying to formulate class rules to their standards (eg. how's a measurement made etc., etc). 
On a different tack, how's about a foiling Optimist as a way into the foiling scene? Like someone putting a 40 HP outboard on a matchbox? 
Jim
 
 
 

[Lukepiewalker]

I've heard it suggested that 10-30% is nearer 5.....

[Tornado]

I've heard it suggested that 10-30% is nearer 5.....

I´ve also heard it suggested that some people rely on hearsay.....
Seriously, we´re really up in arms against this. Imagine you are not allowed to do what you have been doing for the past few years. Ok. forget the word "National". We feel like the old 505ers and FD´s. But the problem is that ALL multihulls are not going to be designated as "official equipment". Instead they´ll put in kitesurfers.... (and flying deckchairs?)
Have a heart Lukiepie - we´re all sailors and the ISAF does appear to have exceedingly large amount of spondooligs to throw about.
You know who I am.....

[tedcordall]

Sorry Jim, your irony was not lost but the whole thing makes me so cross I just felt the need for a rant. (And this is despite my only cat experience being a crew on a hurricane 5.9. It was blowing, I'd been to a stag party, the helm was teetotal, I was sick over him, I wasn't invited back!)
Even if cats did only make up 5% of the non keel fleet it makes them more worthy of olympic representation than the Star and Yngling. I couldn't type enough zeros after the decimal point to point out their relative representation of the keelboat fleet.
I've got nothing against keelboats but surely a fleet of SB3s arriving at the leeward mark is both better TV and more representative. I know the SB3 is very UK/Euro centric at the moment but that is still better than the existing models which don't even exist outside the rarified confines of olympic sport.

[Lukepiewalker]

I'm not saying they don't deserve ther place. In fact it says a lot that with a few updates the Tornado is still the daddy of the cat sailing world after all these years. But making a case based on exaggerated numbers isn't the way. Although on the other hand I may have to eat my words, because he did specify lead free at the end there, which obviously makes a bit of a difference to the percentage. Mind you 10-30% is still an awfully fuzzy sort of a range... There's no argument here that cat sailing (and, frankly, the Tornado specifically) deserves an Olympic spot. But obviously I am also biased as a Finn sailor. All the Finn and Star bashing does get a bit painful at times. It's hard not to take it personally....:-/

[Phil Brown]

. We feel like the old 505ers and FD´s.

 
Ted, couldn't agree with you more, the whole ISAF and the Olympic
classes needs a thorough shake up but it will never change itself -
because of negativity and self interest. And no, I never wanted to sail a Star either.

Good boats though they are, as an Olympic class, FD's were constrained by the perpetual arms race and 4 year cycle of "the event" and yo-yo turnouts dependent on where you were in that cycle. And if you were not campaigning, you were nowhere. Where is the class now?

By comparison, before the explosion of skiff type boats, the 505s were international, 100+ at every world championship and we resisted each and every suggestion that 505's should be an Olympic class, we knew when we were better off.

The result? The class that people aspired to, that Olympic sailors competed in in non Olympic years for fun and competition, all at a lower cost.

The measure of that? The Olympians (and "professionals" , sorry, getting a bit Corinthian there) would regularly get beaten (in fact usually - great for us!) and   a stiff level of competition from the typically 50+ champion helms and crews from various classes that would enter the big events. Better below the parapet, not above it!

But back to 12s, we seem to have a similar profile as the 505s, class champions in abundance, competition, lower cost and an interesting boat.

Long may it continue.

Phil
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