Olympic 'finals' proposal

Cheeky...

The Firefly still is a single-hander - there is an annual single-handed event and I believe that you can compete in all events as a nautical onanist - as long as you sail alone in all races

Dragon - those who can afford it are  sailing the ex-Olympic boat rather than other classes

Sharpie - at least they have international events

THe 470 was INTENDED as a popular boat - but then poor class management did little to protect the grass-root saolors

Aluminium is re-cyclable - Stars can continue sailing using recycled metal from broken masts topped up with re-cycled beer cans (or vote for a carbon mast.

FDs and Tempest - never popular in GB where sailing is increasingly seen as a sport for small competitors

The crew may think a lot is happening on a 49er (I am sure cricketers think they are very busy) but for the spectator there is not a lot going on

Gordon

Elmo's concern's about the influence of rule breaking and umpiring are justified. The rules give no redress for the victims of an infringment if there is no damage, or action is taken under rule 2 or 69.1(b).

There will still be requests for redress if a boat is holed (suffers damage). The fair sailing rule will be tested to the limit. My feeling is that the sport does not need an event which seems sure to produce a crop of Rule 69 disqualifications. Do we really want the majority of cases of gross misconduct to take place in the Olympic final in full view of the world TV audience.

We will probably need an umpire boat per competitor - with 2 umpires and a supervisor per boat! We won't see the racing merely a melee of RIBS.

A further point - the number of qualified umpires for fleet racing is exactly zero...as this function does not yet exist. The number of international judges in whom competitors have confidence to judge Rule 42 correctly is already limited. There will be some interesting moments in forthcoming events.

Gordon

Bumble may lack some historical perspective - the Firefly was an Olympic boat in 1948 and is still going strong. The Dragon of course is now more popular than when it was an Olympic boat - as is the Int 5.5m. The 12 sq m Sharpie still has active fleets in Norfolk and Holland

The FD worlds still get a fair few boats, as does the Tempest (the ultimate heavyweight trapeze class) and even the Soling. And I am convinced that the Star would continue if  they ever find an acceptable substitute.

Apart from the Laser and the 470, none of the present boats were ever intended to be popular mass appeal boats.

It was Bob Fisher who said recently that sailing should not be shown live. Edited highlights are a much better way of presenting the sport.

There are other sports in which nothing much happens for long periods... cycle road racing, cricket for instance. They only become interesting because there is so much to commentate on outside the central event, and because the production team make much use of analysis, infill material (history of the event, the fruit cake they had for tea..), action replay etc. Doesn't seem to work for sailing.

Gordon

Lasers seem pretty unaffected as grassroots class - possibly a special case. Europes initially had an strong upsurge in interest, then fell away, at least in part for the reasons you suggest. Finns and Tornados survive as a grassroots classes here and there. In general though, I agree it's not obvious why a class would want Olympic selection. Selection followed by deselection is the nightmare scenario for a class. Without the Olympics, the Europe would probably still be going nicely as a niche lightweight/youth/women's class, as it was before selection. Having been selected then dropped, the outlook is bleak, since all the grassroots sailors have long gone.