YouthSailing, the RYA and Catamarans

Originally posted by Doug.H "The current Olympic Development Squad has 4 boats (8 sailors) with only one coming from an RYA youth catamaran background, one from the wider Cat classes and the other 5 coming through the RYA’s Youth and Olympic monohull classes. " The tornado being in the olympics I dont have much of an opinion on, im neither against it or for it.  However, whilst I agree that the success had at the isaf youth worlds by our young GBR sailors has been exceptional, I don't agree that the Hobie 16 should be there in the first place.  It does not feed naturally into the tornado and is by standards is a completely different boat and so I dont see how having it helps us get medals on the olympic platform.  With the exception of leighs crew, the last two teams sent to the olympics in the tornado have been mono sailors, and the tune up boat which if im right was rob wilson?  Also came from mono's.  So.........why do we need the hobie 16?  If there was a cat that sailed like a tornado and created a natural progression then yeah sure, but I cant help thinking the 16 should be dropped like a sack of bricks!

One thing I do not understand, why has the RYA amended it’s submission to ISAF to include a Multihull but is not prepared recommend a multi-hull class for the 2012 Olympics. What does the RYA expect to happen to the multi-hull crews who win the ISAF world youth championships if there is nothing to progress onto. I cannot see the RYA’s logic. Surely they must realise that even by recommending the multi-hill class for the youth events it will still be the death nail for catamaran classes as there will be no natural progression should they wish to compete at the Olympics. It is also the case that any potential youth sailors will not select a catamaran class again because there is not natural progression should they be good enough for Olympic level sailing. We have already seen a small amount of youth teams who are prepared to stick with catamaran sailing but as a result of this recommendation there are going to be even fewer youth teams available especially after the 2008 games.

 

On this basis catamaran sailing will be supported by the same faces that have been sailing catamarans for years.

 

Very bleak prospect indeed.

Originally posted by Chris 249 "One key thing to make clear, is that all the mono hull sailors who have come over to cats to sail Olympic tornado to achieve a GBR medal have to date not made it and there are some famous names, NONE have done it, despite huge amounts of money being spent on getting these teams up to speed. Take any good sailor, spend time and money on them and they will be good in almost any other class, but to medal needs that something else! The last GBR medal was won by a  GBR cat sailor." Silver '96 crew was a dinghy/windsurfer sailor. Bronze '96 skipper was a Snipe world champ. Bronze '00 skipper was a World Youth champ in Lasers. Silver '04 crew is a yacht/dinghy sailor. Bronze '04 skipper was a Laser Olympian '96 Bronze '04 crew was a windsurfer medallist '00. Of the 10 Tornado medallists I can find or know biographical info, 6 were dinghy or board champs and 4 are cat specialists. If you couldn't move from dinghies or boards into cats, these guys wouldn't have won 6 medals in the last three Games. Therefore it is obvious that you don't have to be a crew of long term cat sailors to win Tornado medals. Of course, there are many brilliant mono or board sailors who have tried and failed in cats, too!

And how many were from team GBR? I think 2000 was the closest recently Team GBR have come to medalling with Hugh Styles and Adam May... so why haven't team GBR medalled in the multihull discipline with all these fantastic monohull sailors that have moved across? Could the fault lie in the system?

Also Chris notice no Gold medal backgrounds given, beleive that they have gone to Cat sailors

Not arguing that there haven't been Team GBR medals. The point is it has been some time since Team GBR have. That to me indicates that something isn't right....now that leaves three choices as I see it

1) The equipment isn't good enough

2) The standard of the sailors are not good enough

3) The system to get the sailors to the level required isn't good enough

Well the team goes out with, arguably, the same equipment, or the equivalent, as other countries.

We are arguing here that the sailors are good enough, whether they are from a mono or multihull background.

So that must mean the system isn't working and whos fault is that?

Originally posted by Stuart O Originally posted by Chris 249 "One key thing to make clear, is that all the mono hull sailors who have come over to cats to sail Olympic tornado to achieve a GBR medal have to date not made it and there are some famous names, NONE have done it, despite huge amounts of money being spent on getting these teams up to speed. Take any good sailor, spend time and money on them and they will be good in almost any other class, but to medal needs that something else! The last GBR medal was won by a  GBR cat sailor." Silver '96 crew was a dinghy/windsurfer sailor. Bronze '96 skipper was a Snipe world champ. Bronze '00 skipper was a World Youth champ in Lasers. Silver '04 crew is a yacht/dinghy sailor. Bronze '04 skipper was a Laser Olympian '96 Bronze '04 crew was a windsurfer medallist '00. Of the 10 Tornado medallists I can find or know biographical info, 6 were dinghy or board champs and 4 are cat specialists. If you couldn't move from dinghies or boards into cats, these guys wouldn't have won 6 medals in the last three Games. Therefore it is obvious that you don't have to be a crew of long term cat sailors to win Tornado medals. Of course, there are many brilliant mono or board sailors who have tried and failed in cats, too! And how many were from team GBR? I think 2000 was the closest recently Team GBR have come to medalling with Hugh Styles and Adam May... so why haven't team GBR medalled in the multihull discipline with all these fantastic monohull sailors that have moved across? Could the fault lie in the system? Also Chris notice no Gold medal backgrounds given, beleive that they have gone to Cat sailors

1) I should blinking well hope cat golds went to cat sailors!

2) However, that may not always be true - I can't find much background on recent Tornado gold medallists. Hagara has been sailing cats (Hobies, Darts) since he was about 18 so sure, you'd call him a thoroughbred cat sailor. The rest I don't know about (although one was an Opti sailor but that's a long way back to go!).

If the RYA's system is so bad, why is the UK the top sailing nation? If it's only the cats where the UK is not medalling, maybe the cat sailors are not providing the system with enough of something? I have no idea what it could be, but maybe some soul searching is due? I'm NOT saying the "problem" is down to UK cat sailors (I have no idea) but maybe the question is worth asking, even if it may be harder than blaming the RYA?

Our cat sailors consistently medal (although never gold  :-(   ) and the team sailors came from outside of any system AFAIK.

I sail just about everything. One thing I notice is that whatever sort of craft I'm sailing, everyone is always convinced that their area of sailing gets the raw deal and that other areas get showered with gold and assistance. It's certainly seemed that here, it's much harder to get assistance in the mainstream areas, where you have to claw your way up through many more sailors to get noticed by those who choose who to coach.




Edited by Chris 249