New women's Olympic boat

Originally posted by redback The Tornado may be the fastest cat but I'm sure a new design could be faster and cheaper.

 

Cheaper, maybe.  Faster, not yet.

 

As for a ladies boat.  It reeally should be another Cat.  How about the F16 or Spitfire ?

Like the idea of changing the Tornado to  an open  (2  person) cat which could also be sailed singlehanded  by men and women using the same platform - ie. hulls & tramp - similar to Spitfire/Shadow concept.  You could also drop the Yngling in favour of the 29erXX and the Star and Finn in favour of a more modern keelboat for either fleet racing or match racing... so a line up like:

Laser - mens
Laser Radial - womens
49er - dble mens
29erXX - dble womens
Double handed cat - open
Single handed cat - mens & womens
Keelboat - fleet open
Keelboat - match racing, open

Keep the 470? I know it's popular but it's another boat which has probably suffered more than prospered because of Olypmic status, why not have an extra keelboat element (so Match Racing and fleet racing) - both with conventional kites as a good test of boat handling skills and to off-set all that A-sail stuff!

I don't like the idea of continuing with the Tornado - it's hardly fair to call it a 'production' boat, it's fantastically expensive and can't be trailed (legally) very easily - it is incredibly fast though...

Originally posted by tickel The trouble is that conventional kite boats probably have a limited life. Like it or not eventualy they will probably decline over the comming years unless ,of course, someone designs a new one. So, how about  a 59er or a B14 with a propper spinaker or a totaly new skiff, catch that downhill!!!

I think this has been covered before - on nationals turnouts, the symmetrical spinnakered boats are more popular than they have been in many years, and abroard they are streets ahead of the skiff like boats in terms of numbers sailed.

Well Rupert, that may be true for now but in time everything develops. It's not the type of kite but what it's attached to that counts. Modern boats are image and image is popularity in the modern world. The Olympics are the premier advertising spot for our sport. My own children, both successful sailors, and one a girl, always had trouble making their friends understand that they didn't just float around on old wooden things looking at the view

Originally posted by carshalton fc ...tv coverage!

Hmm, not much difference between
"who wants to watch a pole kite boat - no-one"
and
"who wants to watch a asymettric boat - almost no-one"