Cats Dropped from the 2012 games

Chris

I made the point this year!!!!!!

I didn't say carbon was impractical. However, for the average sailor the sort of high-speed gear like big fast cats, skiffs, windsurfers oriented to strong winds etc are impractical - so we shouldn't try to promote the sport as being something the average sailor cannot ever aspire to.

And let's go to the source to find out what the IOC wants. They decided in 2002 to "systematically review the composition of the sports programme after each edition of the Olympic Games to ensure that its composition continues to be relevant and meet the expectations of future sporting generations. After that, the Olympic Programme Commission, in collaboration with the International Federations, defined 33 criteria to be used as the basis of the evaluation questionnaire."

The post-Athens report is at
 
http://www.olympic.org/uk/news/olympic_news/full_story_uk.as p?id=1349

It does point out that sailing got low TV and spectator rankings. However, it ALSO points out that sailing is low in participation and international spread. The spectacular boats are much lower in terms of participation and spread than the cheaper ones, even among Olympic classes.

It seems that many jumping up and down about the low TV and spectator numbers and saying this must be fixed by putting in more fast boats, even though not a single person has ever proven that fast boats do in fact get more TV and spectators as far as I can see, once other factors are allowed for ie the GP Skiffs got good ratings but that programme was paid for by the sponsors. Leadmines sometimes get good ratings and they are not quick for their size.

And many of the same people are ignoring the fact that the IOC also criticises sailing for low participation, which is best cured by cheaper slower boats - a demonstrable fact easily shown by looking at class reports which prove that simple slow boats are much more popular and sailed in many more countries.

THE IOC WANTS SAILING TO BE MORE WIDESPREAD AND POPULAR AND SLOW BOATS ARE MORE WIDESPREAD AND POPULAR - SO WHY DUMP SLOW BOATS IN THE HOPE THAT FAST BOATS GET MORE VIEWERS?

Just saying "the IOC wants more tv= more fast boats" as some people are, is ignoring the other issues that the IOC points out, and that are pushing Olympic sailing the other way. Moving the sport towards fast boats in the hope that it will get more TV will mean we lose the slow boats that are proven to be more widespread and popular, which is what the IOC wants.

Sure, every Olympic campaign starts with a dream - are you saying that slow Lasers  and 470 inspire fewer Olympic aspirants? Obviously they don't, because more people campaign in the slower boats. Did Ainslie and Shirley not inspire sailors? If medals in the fast boats are so inspirational, why isn't the world flooded with Finnish 49er sailors and Austrians on Tornadoes? We have done well in the fastest Olympic class for many years, and we have one crew campaigning in them. How is that evidence that fast boats inspire sailors?

If our V8 series is such a good marketing tool TO GET PEOPLE INTO THE SPORT AND GROW THE SPORT, then why is car racing no more popular than sailing here in terms of participants? (source; Sweeny and ABS).

Many F1 champs (Hakkinen, Schuey etc) come from carts, it's not exactly as if Lewis was the first so it's hard to see why a growth in karts is due to him.

BTW carbon was first significantly used in IOR boats, 505s and FDs which were all closely restricted classes.


Edited by Chris 249

Dreams are not actions. Surely we want sailors, not dreamers.

Car manufacture in the UK is about 400 times as big as sailboat manufacturing in turnover, and 100 times as big in employment. Car racing has an outstanding showcase because of auto industry sponsorship of racing.

And yet as many people race sailboats as race cars. So obviously people don't drool over a F1 and go out and buy a Vauxhall or Ford to race at their local racetrack- they buy cars for very different reasons like going to work and the shops in. They may watch F1, but then they decide that racing cars means being a platinum-testicled hero in a 200kmh open wheeler or rally car. They probably could afford to compete in club sport, but they don't choose to. Even most people who are interested in fast cars just stick a tea tray on the boot rather than actually go racing.

Surely we don't want sailing to go down the same path, where the image of the sport, and its concentration on fast and impractical gear, makes people feel they cannot get into it.

Many modern boats may have "F1" features like an assy - but that's just about the only big development to come from the unrestricted era in the 18s.  Most other  developments come from restricted classes or  loose ODs. Windsurfing used to use the F1 development argument and we ended up with gear that is great for F1 sailors to use in ideal conditions, but lousy for the average sailor and windsurfing has declined dramatically as a result.

Sure, having F1 type classes is great, but focussing more attention on them would be terrible for the sport.

I got to thinking that the average punter at Sailboat spends an hour at the Cherub, Moth and I14 stands, watching videos, talking about the boats, enthusing about how exciting they are, all the rest of it, and three minutes on the RS or Laser stand - filling out an order form and writing a cheque...

My point is (looking at class numbers) RS800 is the present, Boss is the past. The natural trend in most things is for performance to increase...

btw I think I could probably find more people who say they like the RS800 than like the Boss

Edited by Jon Emmett