New women's Olympic boat

Originally posted by Dave Chiz Mission accomplished - We're all a step closer to seeing the classes of the Olympic Games representing the sort of boats that we actually sail and the style of sailing that has developed, you could say, since the (bold?) step of including the 49er in Sydney.

And how many all girl twin-string skiff crews do you know?

Jim - WADR, Firstly I wonder if you are confusing popular in the UK with popular worldwide.  We have 100odd classes here, and a high proportion of them are 2 handed hikers.  There are only 5 or 6 of these sort of boats that have made it to world status and there has of course never been a dinghy of this type in the Olympic Games. I stand by my statement (although rephrase it); Skiff sailing has seen massive growth WORLDWIDE since the introduction of the 49er and although this may be a coincidence, it is without doubt similar in time span. Skiffs have become more accessible (more types of them, more people own them and easier to get a ride on), cheaper (more 2nd hand boats) and more people now sail them (regularly) than ever before (look at the number of 29er sailors in your region, then Nationally, then Worldwide) compared to the increase or otherwise of other types of dinghy sailing WORLDWIDE... Sailing at the Olympic Games is competition at the elite level of our sport, and it therefore needs to reflect the direction that our sport is heading in - and the sort of sailing that WORLWIDE is becoming prevalent.

Chris, Sorry, but I miss your point I think. I am saying that small boat sailing at the Olympics should reflect the sports direction worldwide. Are you saying it should reflect the most populous classes of boat that you sail at your own club? Not the same thing -  After all, what about my club? Or my mates club?  If this were the case I would suggest the Lark, Wayfarer and the Squib are the most common - we don't have any cruiser racing!!! As for the type of boats ADULTS sail - perhaps you assume that Olympic sailing is for those under 20 and not for us grown ups. The average age of the GBR team at Athens was over 30 - and the Americans that won Mens 470 gold were both in their 40s. 

Chewer... I do know a few yes, but ask me again after the Beijing Games, there'll be loads of 'em. In the mean time, how many female 29er sailors are there in your regional development squad and feeder clubs compared to 5 years ago? Ask them what they want to sail in 2012.  RS200 or RS800? Enterprise or GT60 (had to get it in somewhere!)

OK - What I should have said was; IMHO; Worldwide, skiff sailing has seen a massive increase in the last 7 years or so compared to 'traditional' dinghy sailing.  Furthermore, IMHO, the introduction of a skiff for female athletes would further increase the take up of this type pf sailing nd make it more accessible still.  The understanding and development of the techniques of sailing these sort of boats would also accelerate.  Sailing as a whole would benefit from this as many developments percolate down to every level, and of course there would be a potential increase in interest and understanding from those outside of our sport.  I think these are good things.

 

David, about;

"Chris, Sorry, but I miss your point I think. I am saying that small boat
sailing at the Olympics should reflect the sports direction worldwide. Are
you saying it should reflect the most populous classes of boat that you
sail at your own club? Not the same thing"

Nope, I wasn't saying that the Olympic classes should reflect my own
clubs (which are unusual in that they actually sail 5 of the classes that
were at Athens, and had a member at the last 2 Games).

That estimate of the classes that would be in the Games reflects the
classes sailed where I live - in Sydney. What I was pointing out is that
even here in the home state of the Skiffs, where Skiff clubs are among the
oldest and richest clubs, where you can get a free skiff, free
storage, subsidised travel to titles and even get PAID a bit just to start a
race, only a tiny minority sail Skiffs.

Even in a city like Newcastle, where the Skiff club is by far the biggest
sailing club (in terms of the facilities and budget, thanks to social
members who feed the pokies that keeps the whole thing thriving), there
are only about 25 Skiffs - the same number or less than there have been
for years. There are more of those two-person no-kite hiking dinghies in
town than Skiffs, despite the fact that the dinghy sailors have to spend all
their own cash to sail. The biggest and fastest-growing class is probably
the Laser (which has recently recorded its two biggest-ever nationals).

Go outside NSW and Qld and you'll find about 40 14s, a few 49ers, and
that's about it for Skiffs for some 15 million people (unless you count the
Tassy B 14 fleet). So even here,
with a loads of cash and promotion of skiffs and a Skiff heritage dating
back well over 100 years, they remain a minority interest and there seems
to be little or no sign of growth. Much of whatever growth there is in
"skiffs" is in new classes that are basically assy dinghies, replacing older
development assy dinghies (ie 29ers muscling in on Cherubs, Formula
15s replacing NZ Javelins). As Jim's figures show, the growth in skiff types
is actually small; Stars outsell 49ers.

It's a great, vital and wonderful part of sailing, but it's hard to see that
high performance sailng will ever become all that popular.

By the way, there WAS a two-person hiking dinghy int he Games once -
the gaff rigged 12 sq m Sharpie. The reason I mention it is that the
updated modern version, which is about as far from a skiff as you can get
in general design terms, got a fleet of about 60 to the last nationals -
about twice as many as the 12s, 14s and 18s got. Again, even among
high-performance boats here, a non-Skiff is the most popular class at the
nationals.

PS I looked at the type of boats "adults" sail, because if the classes in the
games represented the type of boats "we" (ie sailors in general) sail there
would be Optis and 420s!!


Edited by Chris 249

"Do you have numbers of boats built for these classes per year since say
2003 - so we can see the numbers built over the last 4 years."

ISAF reports for boats built last 5 years (these seem reliable when I've
checked)

29er - 515
14 - "Approx 200"
49er - 345
Moth - 70

420 - 2364 (and add something like 400 US "Club 420s", as well).
470- "roughly 850"
505 - 128

Mirror - 435
Snipe - 469

Finn - 760
Laser - 15, 048

Over a few years...

----------- 2006 -- 2004 -- 2002
Int Moth ---- 30 ---- 12 ---- 15
49er -------- 70 ---- 60 ---- 75
29er ------- 136 ---- 72 --- 251

Snipe ------ 117 --- 123 --- 125
470 -------- 187 --- 152 --- 152
420 -------- 435 --- 400 --- 425

Lasers --- 3,151 - 2,690 - 2,695
(inc Radial, 4.7)
Sunfish -- 1,000 - 1,000 - 1,100


Edited by JimC