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How to beat the olympic curse! |
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Topic: How to beat the olympic curse! Posted: 09 Oct 10 at 9:45am |
Just a morning thought before I go sailing. Time and time and time again I hear how brilliant the europe is to sail and I'm guessing (though I'm too young to remember) the europe probably had a good size class in britain.....now they have a 15 boat weekend nationals. The tornado, the fastest cat......so why do all the speedfreak cat sailors not all own tornados? 470....I'm not sure how big it ever was in britain but they don't even bother having a national championship because there is no national class. Hobie 16 got dropped as the RYA youth boat.....ever heard of any hobie 16 TT events going on recently? It seems a terrible terrible curse to bestow a class to include it in the olympics, although perhaps the FINN has found a way around it. They seem to have a reasonable nationals, and keep popping up in handicap events over the country, so they must be working in the right direction? I could have this all completely wrong but you can't deny the olympics does at least appear to have a pretty detrimental effect on fleet sailing at a national level. I heard (a few years ago now) the F18 fleet were quite adamant that they did NOT want their boat selected for the olympics otherwise it would ruin the class....... Doug H
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tickler
Really should get out more Joined: 03 Jun 07 Location: Tunstead Milton Online Status: Offline Posts: 895 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 09 Oct 10 at 10:07am |
Byte C2, selected for Youth Olympics 11 boats at nationals....mm...
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Merlinboy
Really should get out more Joined: 03 Jul 06 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 3169 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 09 Oct 10 at 10:47am |
They had 11 boats at the Nationals?????? Why where was it?
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winging it
Really should get out more Joined: 22 Mar 07 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3958 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 09 Oct 10 at 11:19am |
I don't remember the Europe ever being that big as a class. It had reasonable numbers as a mixed class before selection, then when it got selected the women took it up and trained hard, as they should, beat the men so the men left the class, then it got dropped and hasn't recovered. Massive in continental Europe though. It was always quite hard to get decent new boats in this country which didn't help.
The 470 ought to be more popular because it's a lovely boat - again, big numbers abroad. Unfortunately in this country the boats are denounced as being fragile and liable to collapse - absolute nonsense, but once a myth takes hold.... But more of the problem is that travelling/squad 470 sailors tend to be very, very good - look at the Endeavour, look at Southport etc. So if club sailors turn out to race against them they get hammered. In some respects that is what should happen, but it does tend to put people off coming along to events. There are no open meetings as such, only qualifiers. My guess is that it's the talent of the squad sailors that puts club sailors off joining in, then when the talent leaves the class, everyone else has moved on to something else and there are so many other boats to choose from. The reason why the Finn survives is largely that it targets a niche market of big big blokes who actually don't (or didn't until recently) have that good a choice of single handers. I am also pretty reliably informed the Finn is a nice boat to sail for such big guys. The tornado is easily explained: cost. |
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the same, but different...
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oz man
Far too distracted from work Joined: 26 Apr 06 Online Status: Offline Posts: 247 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 09 Oct 10 at 3:36pm |
I not sure about the mono hulls that you mention but cat wise other than few people here and there we are not all speed freaks. The tornado for most is too expensive and also too wide to tow so most dont bother. The hobie 16 has its nationals this weekend at poole dont know their numbers yet.
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getafix
Really should get out more Joined: 28 Mar 06 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 2143 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 09 Oct 10 at 3:54pm |
Agreed, Tornado is massively fast, massively big and, can be, massively expensive, not too many clubs or sailors in a position to cater for such beasts
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getafix
Really should get out more Joined: 28 Mar 06 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 2143 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 09 Oct 10 at 3:57pm |
470's main issue in the UK? one word: Fireball - better CA - more widespread - longer competitive life of boats and gear - cheaper in the first place |
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Vronny
Posting king Joined: 31 Mar 08 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 121 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 10 Oct 10 at 6:40pm |
As far as Europes are concerned I think the UK fleet was pretty healthy and growing at the time the the class got selected as the women's olympic boat. There were some very good male sailors, notably Steve Cockerill and Ian Walters. I don't think the men dropped out because they were being beaten by the women - it was just that the whole atmosphere in the class changed. The women were getting a lot more attention even though they weren't always winning - sometimes the men were hardly acknowledged in the results and the RYA were giving advice and coaching to the women and not the men. I had the honour of being the coach/team helper for the men's team at a Worlds or Europeans - I can't remember what it was! - in Italy; the men clubbed together and arranged a RIB for me and everything was done on a shoe-string while the women had an RYA coach with all the right gadgetry. Very devisive! And the RYA qualifier series events became more important than the ordinary class open meetings. Men were allowed to sail in them but didn't get any recognition for good results. No wonder most of the men moved on to other classes.
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gordon
Really should get out more Joined: 07 Sep 04 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1037 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 10 Oct 10 at 7:13pm |
Dragon is still doing incredibly well - and the Star will survive without the Olympics. Even the 12sq m Sharpie and the International 12 foot dinghy still live on.
Europe is still sailed - in Europe. Truth is much of sailing in UK is not really in the mainstream of European sailing. Classes offering international sailing are more relevant when the border is a few hours drive away. How many of the top non-Olympic classes sailed in UK today are sailed in big numbers in Europe? Gordon |
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Gordon
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winging it
Really should get out more Joined: 22 Mar 07 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3958 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 10 Oct 10 at 7:43pm |
Vronny's much better informed about the Europe than I am, but I do remember how gaining status split the class.
The point about the fireball is also fair - though I'm not sure the boats necessarily last any better than some 470s, with the exception perhaps of the nautivelas. The fireball doesn't really feature as a class in Europe, so the 470 has no real competition. |
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the same, but different...
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