New Olympic events.

That's not the point

The point being - if you include events that people do why not make them relevant ?

If you play football - you play football - same ball, goals, rules etc. same for most sports.

If you windsurf you'd watch some slow bodged 'race' boards pumping their way around a course in the Olympics - its not relevant to most people who participate in that sport

When you work out how many (few) people actually regularly participate in windsurfing fleet racing these days its amazing that its an Olympic sport.

Similarly with kite surfing.

Most competitive windsurfing outside of the Olympics bears no relation to the RSX mob. I know that, once, windsurfer fleet racing was very popular but it just isn't now. Most windsurfers have never raced at all.

Similarly with kite surfing. I've been all over the uk, and abroad, and have NEVER seen a kite race. In fact I cant remember the last time I saw an organised windsurfer race.

If we insist on including these sports why not include them along with surfing in a 'boards' category and make the competitors replicate what most of these sailors do week in week out ?

On the other hand I've come round to the idea of a mixed offshore event. I shall buy myself a Cornish Crabber and trawl the marinas of the south coast looking for ladies who would like a long weekend of 'Olympic training'.

Yep, women can do well in Fireballs (and Whacko, thanks for the correction on the Elliss') - we've had some great racing with a female skipper who has been national champ and 4th in the worlds. But the science and results in other sports prove that women have lower muscle mass etc compared to men, all else being equal, and therefore at top level are at disadvantage.

Edited by Chris 249 - 09 Nov 18 at 1:50am

Originally posted by davidyacht Originally posted by L123456 How many women are on WS council ??? I bet it's pretty much an old boys club ... a bunch of old men getting all exited over gender equality .... 8 out of 43, 4 out of 28 representing regional groups, so not too great, but probably inline with participation levels.

Originally posted by Daniel Holman Originally posted by turnturtle I’d back that prediction too Matt... certainly from the snow sports and surfing things I’ve witnessed, early women’s only sessions seems to serve two purposes- 1) provide an environment for elite level athletes to rise to the top and 2) provide a bullsh*t free environment for young women to continue to practice the sport they love without necessarily dealing with the emotional and/or social pressures of engaging with the other sex during such a formative period of adolescence. I’d imagine the latter provides much needed headspace given the level of social media consumption in every other aspects of their lives On the flipside, if in the elite arena, one generally improves by training with superior athletes. For the reasons stated before, ie vo2 max, muscle mass / strength, and also I believe spatial / motor skills, blokes in general are naturally better endowed in this regard than women. Thus elite women atheletes benefit from male training partners. Lots of Olympic radial girls have employed male radial training partners. I’ve done half marathons where the top ladies had male “domestiques” It’s probably frowned upon to say these days, but hey ho, men and women (And boys an girls) ARE different and as such are motivated differently and respond to different (training) stimuli. This is born out by my experience as a coach, competitor, parent and friend. So whilst say girls respond best to slightly different training approaches, I think it’s healthy and reasonable that younger sailors of both sexes should enjoy participating in an activity that they love with like minded members of the opposite sex. It’s an important healthy developmental thing to enjoy in life and is an avenue through which many have met partners and later enjoy as families. Certainly was a draw for me as a nipper and I know I’m not alone in that regard both amongst contemporary lads and lasses. Many of my strongest friendships were forged in youth sailing. I would have been somewhat less interested in an imposed gender apartheid as a young competitor. Especially as a nipper enjoyment is directly correlated to performance and retention. Also, there is no hashtagging smartphone nonsense when sailing!