Women's High Performance Dinghy

Interesting thread. Few comments.

While the official announcement came out few days ago the trial was widely known about and discussed in the industry since Q4 2006. I don't think this week's announcement came as a suprise to any manufacturer.

LDC's posting is very nice. I like their proactive communication style. I am sure they will have a great boat going into the trials.

29er footprint is getting hold with it being the 2007 & 2008 ISAF Youth's boat. This will push the 29er into markets where they were not sailed at the national level before.

Let me give you an example. Singapore Sailing does not seem to have Olympic level ambitions for 49er. They don't have any 49ers sailing in the national squads and hence did not have any 29er training for the young sailors. I recently heard that they ordered some 29ers to start preparing their youth sailors for the 2007 & 2008 youths.

What is the relevance of the example? Well, it is true that there are not that many all female twin trap teams around these days but as high performance boats such as 29er are sailed at ISAF Youths level going forward the foundation of sailors ready to go to the next step will grow. I am confident that by 2012 we will have many all female twin trap teams around to make this new Olympic class a success.

Personally, having a 29erXX myself, I am more than a little biased in this discussion but I'd like to end up by saying, whichever boat gets selected at the end of the day, it will be a great outcome for our sport as it will certainly increase interest at the national sailing level in many countries around the world and naturally increase the number of crews sailing and competing at the international level.

More people on the water = more boats to go around & more fun. Best of luck to all participating designers / builders.

Regards, KK