Ovington thingy.....

I am very aware of your success in Byte Jon with one first and one second in consecutive Worlds. You have (in Canada) experience of bucket loads of kids racing them. That is what I would like to see here. I am aware that once the Radial was adopted over the Byte C2 as the ladies boat there was no hope of change for a long time. What I would like is for the RYA to support the Youth Olympics (in C2's). Few of those Topper/Laser youth sailors will make it to the top of the pile so why not give them an alternative ambition. Darren Choy who won the worlds at 16 and 17 was presumably a light weight youth (from Singapore). I googled him, perhaps he may pop up in the Singapore Olympic Team......he was nowhere to be seen. I presume that his slight build precluded him but at least his CV contains some success.

I have been contacted by Singapore to run some Byte training clinics, they told me they have around 150 full time Byte sailors (aged 12 - 16).

They want me to run training camps in the USA in preparation for the 2013 Worlds, with the key regatta being the Youth Olympics in 2014...

There was no mention of their Laser/Radial programme.

 

If the popularity of one class is said to be artificially inflated by being used for major events then the same must be said of the other that is used for major events, when they are compared to other classes that are not used for such events.

 

And if the rig is so vastly superior then why is the Byte significantly slower? Yes its shorter length is a major reason, but if one is going to relentlessly snipe at other classes then one must surely expect others to point out that the Byte is generally a small class of slow boats.

 

For what it's worth, down here the Radial has always been up against "cool" doublehanders aimed at a similar age bracket, in the form of the Cherub and its little sister the Flying Ant and similar boats. The Radial has grown much faster than they have, and faster than the 29er has, which appears to indicate that there's not exactly a massive need to replace the Radial with a "skiff-style" singlehander.

 

In fact where the Laser is suffering down here it's from the Sabre, which is pretty much in the Solo style and is very well suited to the open waters and big winds of the southern states. Like the Solo, its success says a lot about how a class can succeed without big dollar backing or being part of the squad scene, as long as it appeals to the market.