Who's for the chop or ...

Originally posted by m_liddell Originally posted by Offshoretiger Fair enough. But by going down the stirct One Design route you loose all the tweaking and optimising skills that are also a big part of sailing for a lot of people. Didn't the europe get dumped because it was too pricey to do all of this?

Yep, lots of countries put in submissions getting rid of it because of the expense ($75,000 for Shirley Robertson's mast!). Seeing that both Finn and Europe classes used to push the OD barrow, it's sometimes funny to see them becoming so passionate about development.

Bringing back three standard queries;

Why develop the Finn and Europe, where all the tweaking only gets you a tiny increase in speed?

If tweaking and optimising is so important, why not allow tweaked and optimised hulls?

If the Finn required SO much more tweaking knowledge than the Laser, why did Ainslie take 4th in his first regatta (against many of the world's best) after about four days in the class?

My own submission....

W Laser Radial (cheap, accessible to new sailing countries, strict OD, and its growth proves its appeal).

M Laser (ditto)

Mixed 470? Construction rules changed to mandate more durable cored hulls. It's never going to be quick, so why not make it tough and economical?

Men's skiff - 49er

Women's Skiff - "49er Sport" (ie 49er with smaller rig - allows interchanging of gear and expertise.)

Tornado

M & W Board - New-school SMOD longboard like Exocet Kona. Maybe open-production slalom to be used in high winds.

Teams Racing - supplied boats. All but one crew must be taken from those competing on other boats.

Star

New women's keelboat?????

Olympic Wildcard - the box singlehander. They deliver the bits (ply, carbon tape, resin, a carbon blank, fittings, finished foils) in a box, you have to put them together and then race it. You get all tools, sailcloth and a sewing machine. You can't even take a plan into the construction room with you - it has to be your own work. The general configuration of the boat (no. of sails, LOA etc) will be fairly open, but there will be restrictions that can change so you can't spend a gozillion bucks tank-testing to get the optimum design.

Totally impractical, but if tweaking is so important then why do we restrict it to the rig and why do we allow people who aren't competing to do it?
If it is so important to test the ability to chat to the sailmaker in the rib following you about a few mills of luff curve, why not test other aspects like the ability to design and build?

Originally posted by Prince Buster I think a high performance single handed boat is needed for the olympics.  Maybe a musto skiff that can be sailed by women or men.

Girl Wins Holt Tide Ride Final.

Originally posted by Offshoretiger Fair enough. But by going down the stirct One Design route you loose all the tweaking and optimising skills that are also a big part of sailing for a lot of people.

Didn't the europe get dumped because it was too pricey to do all of this?

Originally posted by Contender443 So just retrain and learn what makes Lasers, MPSs etc tick. Not a big deal if you are a good sailor or coach. As far as boatbuilder, sailmakers goes that is just business and you will need to adapt.

Fair enough. But by going down the stirct One Design route you loose all the tweaking and optimising skills that are also a big part of sailing for a lot of people. I know this is all objective and cant be measured but I think it would be a real shame if all Olympic classes went strict OD as I feel there is as much skill involved in setting your boat up to suit you (ie Finn, Europe) as there is in setting yourself up to suit the boat (ie Laser/radial). Both events are a real test of sailing skill but possibly take a slightly different mind set or approach.

So heres what I would go for if it was my call

Finn & Europe

MPS mens & womens (or equivalant)

470 mixed, no star or Yngling

Some cat stuff - dont know enough to comment on classes

Some board stuff - again, dont know enough to comment

'team medal' - 5 up match racing, at least 2m/f on each boat, to be crewed by the existing sailors. the aim of this would be to have 1 days round robin racing, then finals the next day. Short inshore courses and as spectator friendly as possible

I actually quite like the proposal for final 'medal races'. It gives sailors who have been following all the racing plenty to talk about after in a he/she was robbed/lucky kind of way and a relatively simple finals format for the punters.

So, given that most worlds are 5 days racing, your 2 week olymipc slot would kind of break down into

Week 1 - Olympic fleet regattas

Week 2 - 2or3 days of medals races followed by 2 days of match racing

and week 2 should be a blast to watch

 

(ok lunch break over, back to work)

Originally posted by CT249 Surely it's understandable why they don't want to be too radical in boat choice - would you enjoy it if you were a 470/Star etc coach, sailor, boatbuilder, sailmaker etc and were told "hey, guess what, you just lost your career".

So just retrain and learn what makes Lasers, MPSs etc tick. Not a big deal if you are a good sailor or coach. As far as boatbuilder, sailmakers goes that is just business and you will need to adapt.