The cost of sailing

no offence to people that sail symetrical boats but there less chance of things going wrong in the boat cos you go straight down wind and head for the line insted of gybeing where things go wrong more often there would be tight raceing so that would be good  do you think a new symetrical boat might be needed cos they havent come out with a new symatrical boat in long.  maybe a 520 maybe or something.

Although adding asymmetrics to team racing could make things 'interesting' and it was the I14 fleet that invented the sport.  I think that it would remove some of the fun and aggression, the dead run on a team racing course provides some of the closest racing on the course. As with only two sails gybes can be done very quickly and violent luffing is possible.  With asymetrics the fleet disperses at the top mark and there is little contact untill the bottom mark.  Depending on the size of the entry the whole competition could be done in a day or two, or it could be spread out with a few races a day so that the whole thing could be slotted into TV shedules. 

How about having team racing as an olympic sport?  Very fast races (sub 10 min), lots of action, even if the rules are complicated people will understand that one team must finish before the other, so are very TV friendly. 

I understand that this will probably not happen because it requires countries finding another 6-8 people, but it will only require a small amout of extra investment in a flight or two of 420s or fireflys which will remain the property of the organisors thus saving expence for countries to enter. 

Edited by Phil eltringham

It still remains one of the most expensive sports to
host at an Olympics, particularly in return for the
ridiculously low level of media coverage it is given

Well posted Mark. The RYA has its blind spots, but it's difficult to knock the excellent use of funding and the programs they have put together.

Do you tink that we will maintain the momentum?