2016 events?

Originally posted by Peaky None of which takes away from the fact that women have not universally shown much desire to race skiffs, and if you can win a medal just by being the best out of 20 or so teams worldwide, that devalues the Olympics somewhat IMO.

In the first cycle perhaps there would be a limited number of teams competing in this event, however by the second cycle I'm sure it will go up, don't think it's fair to value the medal in the terms you have either, IMO

Really, it is a fact is it?

Fact remains that the 29erXX is hardly selling boats (not full price retail anyway). The contrast between that and the 49er and 29er, which were selling buckets loads before they were selected anything is rather striking. I have abserved that many more people want to talk about owning skiff style boats than will actually put their hands in their pockets.

60 rigs worldwide- in how many years? How many of those are privately owned versus being avilable for charter?

Originally posted by Chris Turner Really, it is a fact is it? With all the GBR girls being funded to sail either 470's or Match race kind of gives you a one sided view. The fact of the matter is that Sarah Ayton has been sailing the Rebel and is being used in their promotion. Pippa Wilson went to Athens last week supproting the 29er XX as did Elise Rechichi, both Gold medalists at the last games. If there is indeed no desire to do it then why do you think the girls have been lobying so hard to make it happen?

On the other hand, in other areas skiffs get vast amounts of funding.  If we're going to be consistent, we have to consider that the only place where Skiffs are really popular is a place where a good sailor can actually have all their sailing paid for and even end up with a small amount of cash in the pocket.  That's not exactly a level playing field. 

There's an undercurrent of claims that slow boats only sell because of promotion and vested interests, but in Australia there is probably more promotion and financial support for Skiffs than slow boats (apparently something in the region of well over $5000+ per year per boat at some clubs, more at others), yet the vast majority of people still prefer to buy slow boats.

And is there any proof that the fact that a small number of elite sailors want a class, actually means that lots of other sailors want it? There's a huge number of high-performance classes that have been the darlings of pros and the press, but died or were still-born.

No one's saying that fast boats aren't fantastic, but the assumption that a high proportion of people want to sail them just isn't borne out in the numbers and any decisions that assume faster=better could really harm our sport.


Edited by Chris 249 - 16 Nov 10 at 11:24am