Sail-World Mailbag- The Week that Was - More on the Olympic Decision

by Sail-World Readers on 21 Nov 2010
Sail-World readers comment on the Olympic decisions for November.

We have produced their comments below:

(NB We will only publish letters where the writer is identified, unless there is a a very good reason to maintain confidentiality. )

You can have your say on the Olympic Events by http://www.sail-world.com/NZ/Gladwells-Line:-Olympic-Decision---will-ISAF-get-caught-by-a-Yorker/75967!clicking_here

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Sender: Bruce Spedding

Message: These comments are my own personal views and do not represent the views of Windsurfing NZ.

If the criteria for inclusion in Olympic sailing is being new and extreme then kiteboarding and windsurfing are the only disciplines that should still be there, so clearly a double standard is being applied. In fact if both sports were allowed to appear in their true and popular forms then Paul Henderson would see what new and extreme really mean. He would also (perhaps) understand why the version of windsurfing contrived to not offend the sensibilities of the traditionalists is not universally followed by the windsurfing community, and if he's looking for a car on the motorway with an RS:X board on the roof he's probably going to have a long wait, because these days most windsurfing equipment fits inside the car, including the board. Here in New Zealand we are seeing a significant resurgence in windsurfing, just not in the RS:X class - no surprises there.

Windsurfing has a longer learning curve than most sports, and in fact the learning curve never flattens out as the new challenges and possibilities seem to appear faster than even the most talented sailors can master them.

The forms of racing available to windsurfers include the obvious ones, course racing, slalom, long distance and match racing. In addition, boarder cross is a dynamic race format which requires sailors to race a downwind slalom course in a heat format while also having to perform mandatory manoeuvres including loops and jumping over barriers.

Freestyle windsurfing is essentially gymnastics on the water, done on small boards at planing speed with an amazing range of spins and loops which seem to defy physics. In situations where events have been organised and there has been no wind competitors have even used towing to get them up to planing speeds!

Wave sailing is equally fantastic, combining aerial manoeuvres with radical wave riding to provide a continuous out-and-back display. While Mr Henderson's RS:X boards would have trouble getting off the water in most cases, the new wave sailors are now attempting forward and backward triple loops and reaching heights of 20m (60').

Speed sailing is also a developing sport, especially with the general availability of GPS, and until recently windsurfers were the undisputed speed kings of sailing.

Windsurfing is even done in indoor venues to very enthusiastic crowds.

So lets review windsurfing as an Olympic sport if it was allowed to exercise its full potential and not squeezed into the sit-down-sailing mutation.

Windsurfing offers an incredibly broad range of disciplines which means that some sort of competitive event can staged under any conditions. It offers speed, acrobatics, endurance, colour and excitement. Every four years the event would be a show case for the latest tricks and styles as competitors continue to push the limits. The possibility of operating a multi-discipline format with individual as well as overall medals. The ability to adapt the sport format to the venue available, including indoor or artificial if necessary. The low cost of entry into the sport, and the fact that generally it does not require any significant local or national infrastructure to allow an individual to become internationally competitive opens it up to a much broader group than conventional sailing. Young people the world over can watch all the latest action on the internet and then go out and try it for themselves (try that in a yacht).

Kiteboarding of course offers a similarly rich vein of actual and possible disciplines.

So the sailing community sees windsurfing as an unwanted 'bastard child', and with another orphan knocking on the door and nobody wanting to make room, guess who is getting the heave ho!

Its gratifying (but not surprising) that one of the strongest advocates for windsurfing seems to be the kiteboarding community, and they will be very conscious of some of the commentary that has been appearing. I also want to acknowledge the support from some (less staid) parts of the sailing community.

Having followed this debate so far, and the outcome of the latest ISAF meetings I have decided that it is probably time that windsurfing acknowledged its true nature. It may be time for the board sports to step up and demonstrate that they are not some sort of hybrid form of sailing but are a complete package in their own right, with scope and potential that leaves sailing in a dark corner.

I think (as has been suggested by others) that its time for a board sports to have their own category at the Olympics - including windsurfing, kiteboarding and the various forms of surfing. Free of the traditional sailing attitudes these three disciplines would have the potential to become a real centrepiece to the summer Olympics.

Imagine the possibilities!

Regards
Bruce Spedding.

Related News Item: The Pope speaks on the 2016 Olympic Events

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=77079

Message sent from : New Zealand Racing

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Sender: Morten Jakobsen

Message: Great suggestions from Paul Henderson on Olympic classes; good to get rid of some of the boring classes like 470.

His suggestions were (summarized):

1) Men?s Singlehanded: Laser Standard
2) Women?s Singlehanded: Laser Radial
3) Men?s Keelboat:
4) Women?s Keelboat:
5) Open Doublehander: Skiff: 49er (no reason to change)
6) Men?s Heavyweight Singlehander: ...Finn....
7) Men?s Cat: (modern Hobie 16 type/mentality)
8) Women?s Cat:
9) Men?s KiteBoarding
10) Women?s KiteBoarding

My comments to each class are:
1) Laser mens: self-evident.
2) Laser Radial Womens: OK - but the class need to do something to get the ideal weight of the sailors down. I believe about 73 kg is ideal now for a radial rig, which is WAY above the average weight of females world-wide; the class has talked about carbon top mast sections to achieve this, but they are not yet class approved.
3&4) M+F keelboat: YES - but the event should also be picked as the spectator friendly Match Race, where courses can often be set 20-30 m from spectator seatings. If the crew is restricted in nos (3/4) and weight, there is NO reason to pick equipment until just before the games, and many reasons to keep is secret. Without knowing the exact equipment to be used, teams can go everywhere in the world and practice in existing matchrace events which is sailed in a wide variety of equipment. With early pick of equipment, interested nations would have to invest in this type of boats (which add a lot of cost), and teams would will likely spend most of the time getting perfect trimming and handling that specific type of boat, which benefits nobody as perfect boat handling is BORING; occasional screw-ups are much more interesting from a spectator/TV viewers point of view.
5) Open 49'er; let's not kid ourselves. It is a spectacular boat which belongs in the games, but if we wants any females at all to participate this physically demanding class, it has to be a mixed, not open class.
5B) Replace with Mixed 49'er.
6) Heavy weight singlehander - this is not really required because it skews the gender balance, so there are more men's than female events, also the ideal weight for a laser is already significantly above the average height/weight for the whole worlds male population. Finally the Finns are also....antiquated and BORING to watch on TV.
6B) Replace with 'open foiling singlehander' (like a Moth, perhaps with added spinnaker, possibly wing rig). This class can be weight & hiking rack adjusted until top 10-20 sailors at the previous worlds are equal % male and female. It can also potentially really draw television spectators.
7) + 8) M+F Cats - Great.
9)+10) M+F kite boarding: Great - progressive thinking.

Related News Item: The Pope speaks on the 2016 Olympic Events

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=77079

Message sent from : Asia Racing

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Sender: Alistair Skinner

Message: Let's face it, ISAF needs the Olympics more than the Olympics need sailing for as far as I understand a significant element of ISAF's funding comes from the Olympics.

Sponsors and TV companies fund the Olympics and they want brand coverage and/or action that is the business they are in.

In 2008 the cost per competitor in the sailing events was in excess of USD1m per competitor - the venue was estimated at over USD400m alone and the venue did the appearance of the sport no favours at all. Sure the first 3 medal races were sailed in 'dogs off chains' weather including the 49er medal race which helped sailing get the best coverage award but lets not forget that was the second scheduled medal day. I spent the whole of the day before sitting on the Qingdao breakwater watching the PRO trying to get the Finns off the line in impossibly light conditions. What television producer can afford to slot sailing into their schedule and give the non-sailing public 30 minutes of bobbing about? Let's not forget that unlike most other sports, although it brings national pride, especially for we Brits, the Olympics are not the pinnacle of our sport, but just one of many and I would cite the VOR, the AC etc.

It is however the best possible showcase sailing has FOR NON-SAILORS. If classes are not exciting to watch the Olympics will be of no use to sailing in attracting potential new participants to our sport and frankly, powered up multis and twin wire skiff type dinghies are so much better in that respect and as far as match racing concerned - forget it - many sailors don't understand match racing rules so how can the public be expected to.

Please ISAF get you head out of the stand and maybe employ someone who understands marketing to 'sex up' what our sport shows to the world once every 4 years and help grow our sport, isn't that what you are there for?

For the record, I am not a cat sailor, i own a lead mine myself I also have umpired a significant number of match races and love it but definitely sailors who don't match race regularly often really don't 'get' match racing.

Please, Please let's stop arguing about 'our class being best' and focus on making the world see that 'our sport is best'

Alistair Skinner, China


Related News Item: Sail-World Mailbag: The Week that Was - More on the Olympic Decision

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=75366

Message sent from : UK Racing

Sail-World Well said!
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Sender: Paul Freeman

Message: The suggestion that the mixed double hander should be dropped to address a gender imbalance is strange. The imbalance only exists because a second men's single hander has been selected instead of a men's three person keelboat. The logical way to address the imbalance is to select a men's keelboat instead of a second mens single hander. There would then be gender equality and gender symetery in the choice of classes.

Such a move would also recognise that the Finn suits the North American / European physique but does not suit an Asian physique. The Finn has only been chosen because of historical baggage and the fact that relevent officials still have a North Atlantic bias. It would not be chosen if we were starting out today with true world representation on the relevent committees.

I also disagree that the mixed double hander will have only women helms. A small man is stronger than a women of the same weight and this will be relevent in a class like the 470 with a big mainsail and rule 42 switched off. I would also cite the fact that a hugh amount of club dinghy sailing is undertaken with mixed crews and in most cases it is the man at the helm.

Related News Item: ISAF Conference: Gender balance skewed with 2016 Event selection

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=76800

Message sent from : US Racing
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Sender: Paul Pascoe

Message: Hi Richard,

Just a comment on the article about gender balance.

In the multihull, the issue of who would be driving is not so much about weight distribution, but strength requirements and the sheet loads which will then vary depending on the type of boat selected.

In a single trapeze doublehander, you obviously want the lighter person steering and the taller, heavier person out on the wire to gain the maximum righting moment. But with a twin trapeze multihull it doesn't really matter all that much who is heavier or lighter, although slightly preferable to have a taller/heavier person on the wire for the downwind where typically there is only one person on trapeze. On Tornados the selection of skipper/crew combination was invariably about total weight and not about finding a small skipper and larger crew.

However, the general consensus amongst multihull sailors is that it is the upper body strength requirements to handle the mainsheet and spinnaker sheets that would tip it in favour of a male crew. However the loads are then determined by what sized boat is selected. The smaller the boat, the more likely that the boat could be crewed by a male or female, while a larger boat would more likely result in what you have described with the crew more likely to be male.

Hope this is useful in any future articles.


Regards,

Paul Pascoe

Related News Item: ISAF Conference: Gender balance skewed with 2016 Event selection

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=76800

Message sent from : Australia Racing

Sail-World Yes we were aware of this issue, but left the story the way it was as the net effect was the same. Of course, with a Mixed Crew in the Multihull, and with that class subject to Evaluation Trials selection, it could be that a less 'strenuous' boat would be selected - which in some ways defeats the purpose of the multihull in the Olympics. In our view the Sailing Olympics desperately needs a 'Blue Riband' event - which will attract the general TV audience, and will have flow-on coverage for other classes, if the sport is to improve from being bottom of the ratings list.
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Sender: Andrew Macpherson

The real challenge for Olympic sailing... Content
Rob Size makes a strong argument for improving the way sailing is presented as the key to securing sailing as an Olympic sport.

He neglects to mention that sailing actually won the IOC golden rings award for the best TV production in Beijing. The footage used in the selection was the 49er medal race and the Tornado medal race.

The 470 didnt get a mention... And why would it? The boats are dated and quite honestly, boring to watch.

Symmetric kites on dinghies belong in the dark ages, arguing that it's a unique skill is like arguing that a hopping race should be in athletics because it's unique... It's just not relevant to today's sailing. When was the last time a class was introduced that had a symmetric kite? Everything I can think of in the last decade has been asymmetric and for good reason: it's more fun, faster, more exciting and better to watch.


from Andrew Macpherson (AUS)

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Sender: Alan Goodheart

Message: It is a good suggestion.
In my opinion for sure the Council MUST go for it.

Alan, just a sailor

Related News Item: ISAF Events Committee vote Star Out and Multihull in

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=76749

Message sent from : Europe Racing

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Sender: Andrew Macpherson

Nacra F20 video Content Hey guys,

Whilst the politics and deal making continue at the conference here in Athens, I thought I'd send you the link for a video we made for the boat that would bring Olympic sailing up to date...

Chances of it actually happening are not so high but one can only hope.

http://vimeo.com/16554220

Cheers,

Macca
from Andrew Macpherson (AUS)

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Sender: Edward Stauber

Message: CUT THE CAT!!!
no multihulls at the Olympics, please.

Related News Item: Olympic Sailing: New multihull analysis asks hard questions of ISAF

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=76555

Message sent from : Europe Racing

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Sender: Morten Jakobsen

Message: One comment on the graph showing weight vs boat classes - why show a graph for US males only. For selection of Olympic classes, It would be much more relevant to show graph for the worlds entire population of men and women.

I trust that you will see that the Laser full rig and Radial rigs are both heavy weight classes seen from this perspective. I can assure that there are extremely few asian sailors who fulfill the weight/height requriements to perform well in these classes.

There is absolutely no reason to have boring, super-heavy weight classes like Finn and star boats in the Olympics.

Lets get exciting classes like fleet racing in cats, foiling moths and kite-boards instead.

We also desperately need to maintain or expand the spectator friendly Match race in the olympics. This can be male + female or mixed sex. It would be great to see olympic racing 20 meters from a key-side with spectator seating. The boats used should also be kept secret until just before the event - the match-racers are good enough to adabt to anything between a gunter rigged Bombay seabird and a wing rigged F40 catamaran with 2 hours practice. This adds spectator interest, and removes a lot of training equipment cost for nations wanting to participate.

For increased spectator interest, lets also get more open classes where the two sexes can compete on truly equal terms - fx by weight & hiking rack-equalization. It should be possible to adjust any equalization system until top 10-20 in the worlds are equal % of each sex.

Morten Jakobsen, Thailand

Related News Item: Olympic Sailing: New multihull analysis asks hard questions of ISAF

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=76555

Message sent from : Asia Racing

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Sender: Gianluca Pignolo

Message: the Star is just an old slow dog, but it provides the best boat for the best sailors.
The Laser is the same old looking and slow, the rig looks so bad with this old dacron sails, Laser days are over, as the class could never update its outlook.

No point to have 470 in when 49er is targeting the same people.

49er and 29er are great modern boats.

Two singlehanders should be there for both man and woman, so to give the possibility to anyone of competing in singlehander (doublehander gives larger opportunity to play with weight among two people).
The Finn looks cool and modern with wingmasts, let's bring the Europe back in with kevlar sails and modern look too for big girls and smaller boys, with the Byte for the lighter ladies.

then mixed catamaran, but not the Tornado as it is HUGELY expensive.

I say:

Lightweight Singlehander Man: EUROPE

Heavyweight Singlehander Man: FINN

Lightweight Singlehander Woman: BYTE

Heavyweight Singlehander Woman: EUROPE

Double Handed Man:49er XX

Double Handed Woman: 29er XX

Windsurf Man: ANY BOARD

Windsurf Woman: ANY BOARD

Catamaran Mixed: HOBIE 18

Keelboat open: STAR


pls note this is final and we should now close the discussion and stick to what above ;-)


Related News Item: Sail-World Mailbag: The Week that Was - More on the Olympic Decision

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=75366

Message sent from : Europe Racing

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Sender: Clio Sapphire

Message: What do have these boards to do with sailing?

It sounds like a joke to me, since the board appeared, then every four years a real sailing class is shocked out from the Olympics, just to save the surf we can say.

Is it good for sailing to drop the 470 off and save the surf?, or the Star? or the Finn, or the Laser? Was it good to kick the Tornado out and save the surf?

Come on!

RS:X and the Olympic windsurf sport is simply something which does not exist in real practice. If you go to any windsurf spot in the world you simply see no one doing this. The reality is something different. This Olympic joke is just a stupid rowing game for no more than 70 people around the world...most of them clearly doped... sad to say but true.

All this pumping belongs to rowing, did we already forget about the Olympics in China???disgusting to see!!! just go and watch the female medal race, then just think why sailing has such a low audience.
Now let's go even further and introduce the kite, let's deepen the disaster down.

This is no sailing.

I am sorry to even see these board options taken into consideration by ISAF.

Come on guys, come on SAILORS, get rid of boards.

SAVE BOATS!


Related News Item: Sail-World Mailbag: The Week that Was - More on the Olympic Decision

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=75366

Message sent from : Europe Racing

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Sender: Karl Purdie

Message: I can't help but wonder why the laser appears to be the popular choice for the mens singlehander. The finn has arguably just as many builders worldwide, it's equipment is readily available, it is much better built, it offers technical tuning aspects the laser doesn't, it requires a higher strength level to sail well, it's more modern and men sailing it represent a much broader and realisitic weight range given today's population figures. The one thing against it that I can see is slightly increased campaign costs compared with a laser. To call it a heavy weight class is not true today. To say the laser is better because more people sail it worldwide doesn't stack up either because on that basis the optimist should be chosen instead.

The Olympic motto 'Faster, Higher, Stronger' in my opinion is much better represented by Finns than Lasers. Of course kite boards take 'faster and higher' to another level again!

The kite boarding vs windsurfing debate is also interesting and although I agree with many of Bruce Spedding's comments below I can't help but wonder just how successful kite boarding would have been at Qingdao in 0-8knts of wind. Watching sail boarders pump their way around the course certainly wasn't everyone's cup of tea. Perhaps someone (Bruce?) can explain just why kite boarding doesn't apply to the IOC for inclusion as a separate sport altogether as say BMX riding did. Surely it is worthy of it? It's got to be more interesting to watch and more 'Olympic' than golf! Lumping it in with yachting is like trying to mix oil and water ie you wouldn't want to watch BMX racing around an indoor velodrome would you? If they went their own way they would also escape from ISAF regulations and have much greater flexibility in organising their various contests outside the Olympic calendar.

Related News Item: Sail-World Mailbag: The Week that Was - More on the Olympic Decision

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=75366

Message sent from : New Zealand Racing

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Sender: Loris Complino

Message: FANTASTIC!!!!
This is actually how Olympic sailing should be and should be promoted.
Thank you for posting.



Related News Item: Finn Class - 'Sailing at its best' video

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=76448

Message sent from : New Zealand Racing

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Sender: Thomas Czajka

Message: Can the international kite boarding association ensure that in the future the Pinnacle Event for Kite boarding are the Olympic games??

I mean can the international Kite boarding association ensure that the best riders will be presented at the sailing world cup events.

Or will they continue to have their own Kite World Tour. Maybe it is even better that kite boarding is continuing with their own world tour and have no event in the sailing world cup even they are an Olympic sport.
I hope ISAF is thinking about this before the making any further steps regarding kite boarding.
I believe at the Moment the international Kite boarding association is fully supporting the PKRA. But what will happen when kite boarding is an Olympic sport and then they are under pressure of ISAF.
This can be a challenge for ISAF like it was a challenge for FIS back in 1995 when snowboarding was introduced as a new Olympic sport.

Related News Item: Kiteboarders make strong claim for 2016 Olympic inclusion

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=76470

Message sent from : Australia Racing

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Sender: Andrew MacPherson

Message: One observation from 097-10:-

'men and women multi-hull: this is not supported as the Commission believes that there is not currently sufficient Women-only multi-hull racing taking place globally to merit one of sailing?s 10 Olympic Events. It might also fail to meet the IOC requirement (practised in 35 countries on 3 continents). The Commission believes that new Olympic Events should reflect sailing that is already an established part of the sport.'

So, they state that there isn't enough Women's only multihull sailing around the world to meet the IOC criteria of 35 countries on 3 continents, Ignoring the Womens championships in the Hobie 16 class for example... which may not have 35 countries but at least they have a recognised championships for womens multihull sailing. Now, can anyone tell me if there is ONE country in the world that has a mixed multihull champs??

They even state in 097-10 that if they create mixed multihull as an event then it will become the premier category of multihull sailing, yet as per the IOC criteria its not even a valid category at the moment.

ISAF: get with the times!, 2 multihull events for 2016, and while you are sorting that one out, take the opportunity to update the rest of the dated offering to be more in line with the way sailing is going.

Can you imagine if the Cyclists were made to use bikes designed in 1911? Its just ridiculous!

Related News Item: Gladwell's Line: Olympic Decision - will ISAF get caught by a Yorker?

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=75967

Message sent from : New Zealand Racing

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Sender: Markus Schwendtner

Message: It is interesting to see that the Finn Class is delivering the reasons for their future exclusion from the Olympic Games themselves:

In their PDF file 'An outstanding display of sailing skills and athleticism' they state:

'The Finn is the PINNACLE of singlehanded dinghy sailing for men, and the Olympics is the pinnacle event for the Finn. It provides a single step pathway from Optimist to Laser to Finn as the sailor?s WEIGHT increases, but also allows the development of similar technical and physical skills in the sailor through a natural progression of SIMILAR equipment.'

Did they just state that they are only a boat for the heavy sailors (thus being a second weight option - something that is undesirable when listening to the IOC) and that they are similar equipment (something that is also undesirable according to IOC and ISAF Olympic Commission) ?

And I bet the Laser sailors are happy that they are a training boat for the Finn...

Related News Item: The Finn - an outstanding display of sailing skills and athleticism

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=76267

Message sent from : Europe Racing


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Sender: Bruce Spedding

Message: This opinion article echoes the comments I made a few days ago to this publication (I have had no acknowledgement, SW: It was published below on 20th October ) - and I couldn't agree more, by setting kiteboarding and windsurfing against each other beggars belief and shows that the ISAF is more concerned with preserving traditional and outdated sailing attitudes than responding to the challenges of the 21st century.
Bruce Spedding, President , Windsurfing NZ

Related News Item: Opinion: Will ISAF get trapped by political concessions for 2016 ?

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=76271

Message sent from : New Zealand Racing

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Sender: Bruce Spedding

Message: Dear Editor

For me there is one significant issue in all this that sticks out - the bracketing together of windsurfing and kiteboarding.

Why, out of all these disciplines should these two be put in this situation? There is no justification for this, both sports have an equal right to represented in the Olympic contest along with all the other sailing disciplines.

This attitude unfortunately smacks of protectionism, the old guard protecting their patch from the new sports, especially as both windsurfing and kiteboarding have much more potential to be media friendly than most of the others.

Speed sailing is identified as a potential add-on for kiteboarding, but windsurfing is equally able to provide this form of competition, and in similar winds and shallow water (ie close to the beach) conditions.

Similarly, the tricks and stunts of kiteboarding, and the freestyle windsurfing discipline which is now well established on the professional circuit offer even more media and spectator opportunities - compare the audiences and the excitement on the beach for these events with the typical audience for an Olympic class sailing event!

Both kiteboarding and windsurfing are readily accessible - equipment is low cost and portable. Speed and freestyle sailing do not require the structure of organised racing / clubs to be practised, making them more easily accessed and as a result more open to participation by new to sailing countries.

It's unfortunate that the self interest that contributed to the exclusion of the multihulls previously is still in existence, and likely to lead to the exclusion of at least one of the disciplines that would most likely help sailing retain sailing at the Olympics.

In recent years we have seen the introduction of whitewater kayaking, mountain biking, BMX, triathlon, snowboarding and even beach volleyball (!) to the Olympics - recognition that these high energy new sports are the future, like it or not. Windsurfing and kiteboarding fit this category, especially if they are allowed to be presented in all their options and not shoe-horned into a sailing context (like windsurfing is at present).

I hope that the desire to keep wind powered water sports at the Olympics will be more important than parochial views about traditional vs upstart water sports. Otherwise the whole sailing world will suffer the consequences.

Bruce Spedding
President, Windsurfing New Zealand


Related News Item: Gladwell's Line: Olympic Decision - will ISAF get caught by a Yorker?

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=75967

Message sent from : New Zealand Racing

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Sender: Karl Purdie

Message: 'Sail-World: Interesting comment, but if we need a Heavyweight Singlehander in the Olympics, why not a Heavyweight Two hander as well? Bring back the Flying Dutchman, all is forgiven? The reality is that there are just two Olympic Events to be allocated - is the best spend on a 60 year old singlehanded design, or a 100 year old keelboat - or is there a better boat more reflective of modern sailing?'

I would say that a person over 80kg is not considered a heavyweight today given population statistics which show each generation is getting taller and hence heavier than the preceding one. I'm not necessarily saying a finn should be chosen but would say that boat has been modernised through the advent of carbon masts and laminated sails, it also arguably provides the toughest physical test of all the current Olympic classes when taking into account both cardiovascular and strength fitness requirements. The foiling moth would cater to both lightweight men and women as they could compete on an equal basis strengthwise, as I understand it the main requirements of this class are agility and aerobic fitness.... I could be wrong there though. If we want the Olympics to reflect modern sailing then we need classes that reflect modern physiques as well.

We wouldn't need to bring back a heavy double hander as that is I sure catered for in other events ie mens keelboat/star



Related News Item: Sail-World Mailbag: The Week that Was - Olympic Decisions

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=75366

Message sent from : New Zealand Racing

Sail-World: Yes you are right, 80kg is not heavy in today's society, people are just getting bigger - not fatter, but certainly taller, and that means heavier. While we are not 100% convinced on the foiling Moth as a TV magnet, it does have the advantages of being leading edge technology; extreme sport; is sailed by male and female sailors and has a degree of weight tolerance (Finn sailors are competing in the boat). The issue is always that once a class becomes the Olympic Equipment that the refinement level narrows, and you find that there is a tight range of physical sizes that win in that particular boat.

The point we were making in the commentary is that if the two man keelboat is dropped as an event (as is likely) there is nowhere for the 80kg plus sailor. If there is to be a second mens singlehander - although why there needs to be two events of this type sailed in hiked monohulls is beyond us - then there should be Evaluation Trials held.

________________________________________________________________________________________________Subject: Comments On : Gladwell's Line: Olympic Decision - will ISAF get caught by a Yorker?
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2010 20:14:03 +1100 (EST)
From: info@internationalkiteboarding.org

Sender: Markus Schwendtner

Message: Great article so far, just a few comments from the kiteboarding community.

We see windsurfing and kiteboarding not as an 'or', as they are as different as dinghys to multihulls or keelboats.

Multihulls, keelboats and dinghys have fixed masts, windsurfers have swivel mounted masts, kiteboards do not have a mast at all - could the difference be greater ?

Apart from that, windsurfing and kiteboarder have by far the biggest media and youth appeal, they are the cheapest classes and especially interesting for emerging nations.

The 18 ft skiff is a great idea mediawise, however it puts pressure on the maximum number of athletes with a three person crew, we believe the way would be to add more single handed events to spread the possibility to take part in the Olympics to more athletes and nations (in that case, theoretically three times the number of nations could participate)

Keelboats represent sailing - yes - but they have their pinnacle event in the match racing world tour, and they are adding the most costs to the Olympic Sailing Regatta. You need Marinas, the boats are expensive to buy and to transport, which all conflicts with the Olympic Commission report.

Our Scenario for core events would be:

Men
Windsurfer
Kiteboard
1 hd. Dinghy
2 hd. Dinghy

Women
Windsurfer
Kiteboards
1 hd. Dinghy
2 hd. Dinghy

Mixed
Multihull

Leaves one event... for a mixed crew ?

Kind regards,
Markus Schwendtner
IKA Executive Secretary

Related News Item: Gladwell's Line: Olympic Decision - will ISAF get caught by a Yorker?

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=75967

Message sent from : Australia Racing

Sail-World: Some judicious juggling of the numbers plus a change to a regionally based qualification system (for 50% of the positions) should see the country numbers increase - bearing in mind that the IOC judges this aspect by the number of countries that participate in the Qualification Series, not the number that actually make it to the Olympics. From a media perspective the Olympics needs a 'V8' event - that is a TV magnet, and will pull the general media as it is a known event in the same way as the America's cup. Everyone has heard of the Sydney Harbour 18's - big kites, fast rides, action aplenty. While the 49ers, Windsurfers and Kiteboards are great to watch, they are supporting acts for an event like the Flying 18's. Back to the numbers game - the two Man Keelboat, as an example - had 16 boats in the 2008 Games - that's 32 sailors - or a fleet of ten Flying 18's - which is all that is required. there have also been several women skippers in the Flying 18's, by the way.

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Sender: Karl Purdie

Message: Our list of Events for the 2016 looks like this:

Core Events:
Mens and Womens Wind/Kite Surfer (to be chosen by Evaluation Trials) Mens and Womens Singlehander (Laser and Laser Radial) Mens and Womens Doublehander (49er and Womens to be chosen by Evaluation Trials)

Regular Events
Mixed Multihull (to be chosen by Evaluation) Womens Keelboat (Elliott 6m) (Fleet or Matchracing format to be determined) Three Man Dinghy (18ft skiff ? Open to both genders) Foiling Singlehander (Open to both genders)

Interesting choices, however it does preclude a person over 80kg sailing a single handed dinghy. Why not combine the mens/womens singlehander into the foiling moth - an optimum weight for this class appears to be around the 65-80kg mark. This then frees up a class for heavier singlehanded sailors like the finn or some other class to be evaluated in the future. Now that would be a bold but perhaps too logical move?

Related News Item: Gladwell's Line: Olympic Decision - will ISAF get caught by a Yorker?

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=75967

Message sent from : New Zealand Racing

Sail-World: Interesting comment, but if we need a Heavyweight Singlehander in the Olympics, why not a Heavyweight Two hander as well? Bring back the Flying Dutchman, all is forgiven? The reality is that there are just two Olympic Events to be allocated - is the best spend on a 60 year old singlehanded design, or a 100 year old keelboat - or is there a better boat more reflective of modern sailing?

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Sender: Colin Midgley

Message: I think the sport does have to move with the times a little and include some of the increasingly popular classes. I'm not convinced about a mixed class, after all we don't have a mixes 100m etc.

However the biggest obstacle to viewing figures is the actual TV coverage of the sport. If you are not a sailor then its very difficult to understand exactly whats happening unlike the 100m or the the vast majority of events, where it is easy to see who is winning etc and therefore get caught up in the excitement.

Recent coverage of the Audi med cup and Americas cup, using Virtual Eye technology, gives the viewers both sailors and non sailors an excellent idea of the positions of the various competitors. If people can understand whats happening they are much more likely to be on the edge of their seats shouting on their countrymen.

There has been too much coverage in the past of a few shots of boats under sail then simply crossing the finish line stating the relevant positions.

With virtual technology, it can easily be understood and as exciting as the rowing events, watching the position changing unfold. My girlfriend has watched me sail for five years and still only understands how we are doing as we round a mark or cross the finish line. To the non sailor watching boats zig zag around a course, especially from obscure viewing angles gives no effect of racing.

Related News Item: Gladwell's Line: Olympic Decision - will ISAF get caught by a Yorker?

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=75967

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Sender: John Clocker

Message: It is amazing to see that every four years one of the sailboat events is under huge risk of being thrown out of the Games and actually the boards are never even under discussion.
I believe that the show provided by windsurf is just poor and has actually nothing to do with sailing. Pls check the videos from China if you forgot about.
The surf events simply do blow up competitors' number for Sailing when they should be on the Rowing account or what else.
Is it fair for Sailing and does it have any link to reality to drop the 470 off and save the surf? or to drop the Star, or the Laser or the Finn or the 49er, or, as it happened, the Tornado?
Please let's start all together to push this, save sailing and move both boards surf and kite to somewhere else.

JC

Related News Item: Olympic sailing destined for another major jolt at Athens in November

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=75270

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Sender: Vince Casalaina (USA)

Olympics 2016 - What does sailing need to do Content The IOC has been on a path to limit the number of sports in the Olympics for at least the last 5 years. ISAF looked at the criteria and earlier this year produced a plan that has the chance of keeping sailing a part of the Olympics.

The biggest component of ISAF's plan is to better promote the sport in the media - not just television but all forms of media including the internet and social medai.

That plan has not yet been fully implemented by the current Olympic Classes, or by the other Classes who have the numbers to warrant increased media attention.

Before we lament the removal of any Classes from the Olympics, I'd like to see us push those Classes to do more about promoting their major regattas to the broader population. That's got to include high quality video for broadcast and the internet, full time PR people to make sure the established media know the stories about the Class that are compelling, support for still photographers to show up at the major regattas with good chase boats and helicopter time.

This is not an inexpensive proposal, but ISAF is convinced that it's the way the sport needs to grow if its to remain in the Olympics. Money is clearly a factor, as many Classes are run on miniscule budgets, but planning and outreach on the Classes part can go a long way to getting the media attention our sport can have.

Related News Item: Sail-World Mailbag: The Week that Was - Olympic Decisions

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=75366

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Sender: Dave Cooper

Message: Yachting is always going to rival watching paint dry as a spectator sport. Dumping designs from the middle ages (star, finn, laser,) in favour of slightly more recent products (foiler moth, kite board) would make it look a bit more interesting, but my personal belief is that professional sport isn't sport at all: it's just theatre for television. We'd be better off as a sport if we told the Olympics to sod off and not bother with sailing. As it is, professional dinghy racing just hoovers off our best guys and they are lost to us for ever: they never come back to the amateur arena that produced them except to harvest a few more promising youngsters. I'm certain they'd have better and more fulfilling lives if they had ordinary careers and could enjoy dinghy sailing as the life-long hobby/obsession it is for the rest of us.
Dave Cooper

Related News Item: Sail-World Mailbag: The Week that Was - Olympic Decisions

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=75366

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Sender: Hew Hamilton

Message: It is disappointing that the Olympic Committee is going to base it's decision on the 'gate' take and TV viewership. A sailing course is NOT an event that can be viewed from the shore! Likewise, the excellent video coverage of the event could only be accessed by computer savvy internet users.

Give the edited video feeds the same real TV coverage as 'Curling', and you might see and increase in viewers!

Related News Item: Olympic sailing destined for another major jolt at Athens in November

Link to News: http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=75270

Message sent from : US Racing

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Sent: Friday, October 01, 2010 7:16 AM

Finn in Olympics General Request Hello, I read the article 'Olympic sailing destined for another major jolt at Athens in November' by Richard Gladwell. It mentioned three classes to be assured of a place in Brazil. I was wandering if anyone knew the decision on the Finn for 2016?

I look forward to your reply

Tom Brien (Australia)

SW: There is no decision yet on the Finn, or indeed any other class or event. In November the ISAF will meet and decide whether to implement the Olympic Commission proposals. It seems that the Finn will not be one of the classes assigned to the Core Events, and would therefore take its chances as being selected as one of the four remaining events from the 12 options that have been identified by the Olympic Commission