Who's for the chop or ...

Originally posted by gordon Oh dear! Here we go again. My idea would be to get rid of all gender based classes and introduce a wider range of boats, being more weight specific so that some classes wouild have a majority of female sailors, others would be mixed and others mainly men. The classses could be: Lightweight Board Heavy weight Board Lightweight 1-person boat Middleweight 1 person boat Heavy weight 1 person boat Lightweight 2 person boat Middleweight 2 person boat Heavyweight 2/3 person boat Catamaran The 10th medal should be reserved for the Olympic team racing event - surely the way to go to ensure a media friendly spectacle. I have deliberately not specified the type of boat. I would suggest that the lightweight or middleweight 2 person boat could be a skiff , the heavyweight 2 person boat a keelboat. I would prefer the crewed heavyweight boat not to have a restrictive weight limit (as the Star does at the moment - which discriminates against heavy crews but not heavy helms!). At present there is such a dearth of boats for the heavyweights that they almost choose themselves: - Finn and Star (unless someone wants to revive the Tempest). As for the others...? If board sailing could be deemed a separate event then the weight categories could be increased to 4, to ensure that the spread of weights in each class is narrower. Gordon

...What he said! Apart from scrap the boards.

I challenge the Beast of Bodmin to go in to any local rugby club (and if his name is anything to go by he hails from an area with a long tradition of the gentleman's ball game) and  accuse the finely honed athletes he will meet there of being obese! The average scrum weighs in at over 800kg, that's over 100kg per player. Can't see much fat on most fit forwards.

Sailing has a problem especially as average size of sportsmen and women is on the increase. The sport has little or no place for the large athlete. The Finn, supposedly a heavyweight boat can be sailed by a typical modern three-quarter.

Worldwide there is a tendancy to envisage elite sports men as somewhat emaciated and under-sized. I blame the unhealthy obsession with association football - a lot of skinny little runts running around kicking the ball, falling over whenever an opponent winks at them and, when they score a goal, engaging in dubious quasi-sexual activicty! Bunch of onanists! They should use their hands for  playing the ball.

Gordon

PS, Of course larger/taller people will run to fat if they are effectively excluded from competitive sport.

Perhaps the niner people could come up with a boat for mixed crews? Can't think of a name for it at the moment.....

A "niner" for a mixed crew would have to be a Clementine...

Gordon

Originally posted by gordon I challenge the Beast of Bodmin to go in to any local rugby club (and if his name is anything to go by he hails from an area with a long tradition of the gentleman's ball game) and  accuse the finely honed athletes he will meet there of being obese! The average scrum weighs in at over 800kg, that's over 100kg per player. Can't see much fat on most fit forwards. Sailing has a problem especially as average size of sportsmen and women is on the increase. The sport has little or no place for the large athlete. The Finn, supposedly a heavyweight boat can be sailed by a typical modern three-quarter. Worldwide there is a tendancy to envisage elite sports men as somewhat emaciated and under-sized. I blame the unhealthy obsession with association football - a lot of skinny little runts running around kicking the ball, falling over whenever an opponent winks at them and, when they score a goal, engaging in dubious quasi-sexual activicty! Bunch of onanists! They should use their hands for  playing the ball. Gordon PS, Of course larger/taller people will run to fat if they are effectively excluded from competitive sport.

Right on Gordon!