What Olympic Class has too go

Finn

I'll second Tornado_ALIVE's suggestion and add that I would like to see a mixed sex crew in the mix somewhere.

Harking back to the RYA's explanation of its decision, it says that catamaran chamions are generally thirty or older. Dead right and it has that in common with the majority of dinghy sailors (I have no idea but I can't imagine the current GP14 champ is under thirty). Youngsters are more attracted to the sex-appeal of assymetric skiff sailing (hence the popularity of 29er and Feva) as a route to the 49er. I know that if I took myself back to age ten and was given the choice between the Cadet that I then sailed and a Feva it would be a no brainer. I'm not sure why kids would sail a 420 in preference to 29er if it wasn't for the 470's Olympic status. That doesn't make the 470 or 420  bad boats but I'm asserting that their current popularity is mainly due to their "sponsorship" by the RYA. If the 470 lost its Olympic status the 420 would die overnight IMO.

TA, I'm not sure there's a bias towards dinghies. In fact, their enormous popularity is not reflected in the medals. Fairly conventional dinghies make up 75% of the most popular 20 classes and about 80% of the entire Nationals attendance in the UK. Even allowing for the fact that many of the dinghies are sailed by kids, surely in the name of fairness and democracy they deserve 58% of the medals?

The hard numbers demonstrate that there is NO bias towards dinghies - in fact they get dealt a bad hand in relation to the numbers that turn up and race.

We should represent the sport, but we all know that not all sections of the sport can be represented. Speed sailing, shorthanded ocean racing, ocean racing, offshore one designs, cruiser/racer one designs, sportsboats, freestyle windsurfing, offshore multis, development classes, wavesailing, long distance windsurfing, cat raids, team racing, match racing, sportsboat racing, and "real" Skiff sailing don't get medals.

The RYA cannot be driven by their supposed love of "old school" sailors, because they dropped the "old school" keelboats in their proposal. If the Olympic selection is run by old fuddy duddies, why have they NEVER given the offshore or racer/cruisers a go at the Games?

The dinghies are not "old school" - in the UK they are probably growing faster than any other discipline.

English Dave said "Youngsters are more attracted to the sex-appeal of assymetric skiff sailing (hence the popularity of 29er and Feva) as a route to the 49er....I'm not sure why kids would sail a 420 in preference to 29er if it wasn't for the 470's Olympic status. That doesn't make the 470 or 420  bad boats but I'm asserting that their current popularity is mainly due to their "sponsorship" by the RYA."

I'm not sure. Larks, Scorpions, Aussie 125s are old symmetrical classes that attract young crews and are as popular, or more popular, than the 29er, despite not being squad boats.

In the earlier thread, Rick asked where the big board fleets are. The current season's results for the UKWA ( http://ukwindsurfing.com/results/    ) show 114 for the Southern Cup of May 5-7; 92 for the South West Cup; 122 for Inlands 1. For some reason (the weather?) it's a dramatic drop compared to last year but it's not too bad- certainly pretty good against heavyweight singlehanders. That's the Olympic discipline that has to go IMHO.

In summary -

1- The "establishment" dinghy classes and the "establishment" yachts are NOT over-represented, compared to cats, skiffs and boards. The "establishment" classes are actually under-represented in the Medals, compared to their actual numbers.

2- Many disciplines are ignored in Olympic sailing, so simply saying "disciplines MUST be in the Games" isn't sufficient reason to let them in - especially when more popular disciplines are ignored.

3- the heavy singlehander is hard to justify on the numbers in the UK and Australian perspective. They are probably only justifiable on the Continent. Dump it.

Just my two cents' worth.







Edited by Chris 249

Short answer. The Finn.

My own suspicion is that the lobbying, done during the later stages of class selection at the ISAF, by the respective classes and manufacturer is far more likely to influence the outcome rather than numbers or even trials.

Looking at the recent womens skiff trials the 29'er xx will get the slot, even if it's not the 'best' boat as our cherub sailing friends would have us believe, and on this occasion I tend to agree with them. However despite their best efforts they won't be able to muster the neccessary influence which will surround the 29'er XX