49er medal race

I've just been watching the 49er medal race videos on Youtube and the conditions look dreadful and the sailing a nightmare. But the video of the Tornado medal race is good and gives an excellent impression of sailing as a sport, especially as catamaran sailing may be rather more accessible to the general public (through sailing hols at beach resorts in the Med etc.) than out-and-out hi-performance skiff sailing. Personally I think the range of boats sailed in this year's Olympics gives a pretty good advertisement for sailing - there's the really difficult 49er class at one extreme and then the easier to handle classes at the other - the public can probably see lasers and boats at least similar to the 470 (e.g. Fireballs) when they pass sailing clubs at reservoirs and beaches, and they could think they could have a go in such classes. The only thing that has spoilt the Olympic sailing was the really light wind especially on the early days - but all in all I think it has been great to show the viewing public at least a glimpse of sailing. What we need now is for the BBC to continue their interest in sailing in the run up to 2012.

TAS CAS
Tribunal Arbitral du Sport Court of Arbitration for Sport
PRESS RELEASE (12)
For further information related to the CAS activity and procedures in general, please contact Mr Matthieu
Reeb, CAS Secretary General. Park Plaza Wangfujing Hotel, 97 Jinbao Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing,
China. Tel: (86 10) 8522 1598; fax: (86 10) 8522 1910, or consult the CAS website: www.tas-cas.org
SAILING - SKIFF DINGHY 49ER
THE APPLICATIONS FILED BY THE NOCS OF ITALY AND SPAIN
DISMISSED BY THE COURT OF ARBITRATION FOR SPORT (CAS)
Beijing, 23 August 2008 – The ad hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has
today dismissed the applications filed by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) and the Spanish
Olympic Committee (COE) against two decisions of the International Jury of the International
Sailing Federation (ISAF) related to the gold medal race of the 49er event which took place on
17 August 2008.
A panel of CAS arbitrators composed of Dr Stephan Netzle, (Switzerland), President, Prof. Richard
McLaren (Canada) and Ms Margarita Echeverria (Costa Rica) heard the parties today between
9.00am and 2.00pm as well as the representatives of the Danish NOC, as interested party. After
having deliberated, the CAS arbitrators announced that both applications were dismissed and that
the decisions rendered by the ISAF International Jury concerning that event and dated 18 and 19
August 2008 were confirmed. The CAS decision with the grounds will be published on the CAS
website before the closing of the Olympic Games.
This procedure followed an incident which occurred before the gold medal race in the 49er class
event on 17 August 2008. Shortly before the start of the race, the Danish team (Warrer/Ibsen) was
sailing towards the start line when the mast of their boat broke. As a consequence, the Danish team
decided to use the boat of another team (Croatia) which had not qualified for the gold medal race.
The Danish team finished 7th in the gold medal race and was ranked first in the overall ranking of
this event. The Spanish team, which obtained the silver medal and the Italian team, which was
ranked fourth, as well as the Race Committee, filed various protests which were all rejected by the
ISAF International Jury. The two NOCs then requested the CAS to annul the ISAF International
Jury decisions, to declare that the Danish team was not entitled to take part in the gold medal race,
to disqualify the Danish team and to re-allocate the Olympic medals to the Spanish team (gold
medal), to the German team (silver medal) and to the Italian team (bronze medal).

Originally posted by golfdane From the race report: Date: Sun 17 Aug 08 Start time: 16:35 Race status: Result Conditions: Rain Temperature: 27 C Humidity: 100 I think the warning signal is 4 minutes prior to the start.... :)

I'm sure I read something that stated that the race sequence was started before 16:30 (but only just) and this made it a valid start as the prep signal must be by 16:30.  (I said warning above, it should have been prep.)

The Countries Olympic Committees (not the sailors) are taking the protest committee to the court of Arbitration for Sport.  The ESP and ITA Olympic committees will use lawyers, so basically, it's NOTHING like blaming a ref for getting involved. 

Edited by RyanV49er

Upper limit is 25 knots constant or 30 knots in one gust.  Not sure if this has changed but it was this last time I checked.  Definately not 15 knots :)