Future Olympic Classes?

What's the 'Open' bit about anyway? is it so either sex can sail it? Can't be with a Finn surely. I really like the idea that club sailing isn't divided up into mens and womens events/classes and I'd like to see this reflected better at the top end. You could still extract Men's and Women's results out if you wanted to dish out more silverware (and gold and bronze of course).

Also although we are fairly keen on dinghies in the UK I never understood why the Olympic was so heavily biased towards them - why not have some big boat racing as well?

Open means open - simple

As Jon says the nuber of sailors and medals is limited by the IOC and is constantly under the "squeeze".

Cost is also an issue so you can forget big boat sailing which is way to costly.

Things move real slow at ISAF so the classes don't churn much the 49er selection was a freak event (and a good one). I just wish the men (and women) in blazers were a bit more "current" in their outlook. Come on, the Star is a relic ... and an expensive one at that, I am sure it's a test of sailing so all classes are ... the Ynling(sp?) is also a dog. Why not have an open keelboat (Melges 24) with a requirement for at least 2 women crew, then we will see some mixed sailing. That would give way for a womens cat.

The Finn is a great boat but dosn't fit the bill for the Open sigle hander slot by a country mile ... perhaps if their is a better option from the ISAF classes in 4 years time we may see a change.

Rick

Sorry Rick could you be just a little more patronising please? I asked for a reason which is that I don't know what it means. Does it mean open to either sex or any builder or that the boat isn't decked or that it's a development class?