Keep Cats in the Olympics

[Ed]

If you havn't allready.....and want to support the cat sailors....here is how:

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Dear sailor

I attach a copy of UKCRA's recent press release regarding ISAF's recent decision removing the multihull from the Olympics. The press release can also be found at http://www.asnr29.dsl.pipex.com/UKCRA_P ... 071110.doc

UKCRA have also set up a new petition, this one being aimed at the IOC. If you disagree with ISAF's recent decision then please sign the petition which can be found at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/mult ... index.html

Please send the press release and petition address to all sailors and any media contact you may have.

Regards

Jon Worthington

[Michael Brigg]

I read about this a month or two ago and sent this article to my club secretary to lobby members. Sadly it seems nothing was done and this seems to be the theme of this sad event. The whole thing has been done seemingly behind closed doors and it seems very likely to me that like politics and so many other things in the Olympics that money talks. My suspicions are aroused about anything involving committees and especialtt where American assotiations "make a deal" (In this case with the 470 class... Theres a class that really should be consigned to history. Unattractive, badly constucted and built in obsolescence /uncompetitive within a year from new. And to cap it all, French!)
Pardon my Franco-American xenophobia but I am still recovering from Eurodisney. Also an overpriced excercise in picking your pocket while dressed up in Plastic.
Here is the article for interest sake with my Highlights.

The UKCRA’s view on the RYA’s submission to ISAF

By Nick Dewhirst, UKCRA 20:37 27 September 2007
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The RYA (!!!!) has made two submissions against catamarans for the forthcoming ISAF meeting, which is due to take place on 1st – 11th November. There was no multihull representative on the RYA committee and UKCRA was not consulted nor even informed of these submissions, which we believe are misguided. Firstly, Submission 129-07 seeks to replace the Open Multihull Class with yet another dinghy class effective from the 2009 Event in the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships.
This undermines the position of the Olympic catamaran class by denying it a junior trainer. There is a natural progression from junior dinghy classes to Olympic dinghy classes, so how can the RYA expect the highest level of performance to be generated by Olympic competitors in cats?
Secondly, Submission 103-07 lists the events it proposes for the 2012 Olympic Regatta. These include two windsurfing classes and six dinghy classes but no keelboat or catamaran classes. They are relegated to an eviction vote, where only two of four candidates will survive.
This runs counter to the objective of the Olympics to be as inclusive as possible. The differences among dinghies are much less than between dinghies, windsurfers, keelboats and catamarans. The Open Doublehanded Multihull class is the only sailing class that is open to both sexes. There are a large number of catamarans that are actively raced by both sexes. This Open class can equally be made Mixed Sex, like tennis doubles, if that is preferred.
If the secondary Olympic objective is spectator excitement, the Tornado is unequalled. That is not just our view, but also that of the RYA’s peer, US Sailing, who say “Renowned for its strict one-design racing, superb balance and ability to be raced at great speeds in open water, the Tornado has long been acknowledged as "an almost perfect boat." There is no boat of its size that can match a Tornado going to windward in extreme wave conditions.â€

[LASERTOURIST]

The 470 isnt such a bad boat...recently in France a group of youngsters usually racing 29'ers bought two 20 years + 470's (one Morin , one Parker) and went for a successful round britanny summer dinghy cruise, sometimes in 25 Knots + with no breakdowns (they had asked me plenty of advice from an old hand like me , which i gratefully gave )....
Chiefly my help went in selecting the best looking boats on e bay and private ads , and boatyards...they did surprisingly little preparation on the boats and yet had no trouble

The problem with the 470 is that it was initially an excellent all round boat for club racing (designed for a guy and girlfrend crew) simple and cheap, but quite modern for the early sixties (specially when compared with the contemporary plywood british dinghies) only the wooden mast was an antique but they had quite a lot of fine pine wood in SW France (Homeland of Morin and Lanaverre)....but racing and olympics went in , with tremendous jib halyard tension (sophisticated boat breakers introduced) increasing fine tuning , kilometers of rope spaghettis and ball bearing blocs...and rocketing prices which made the 470 unaffordable.

Some weight was takebn off the side tanks to beef up the fore triangle making tjhe boat a racing only thing as no one could sit on the aftpart of the tanks anylonger (as beginners tend to do)

I Once sailed a very old Morin in 40 Knots + (it was during my military service on a french fleet air arm base in Corsica and i had a 85 Kgs Marine as crew) ...the mast took a sinusoidal aspect, and the hull emitted nasty bangs as we vent planing over a very rough chop (180 windshift and hard winter mistral blowing) the jib could be kept full but 2/3 of the main was flapping ...surprisingly nothing broke ...but i got quite a stern reprimand by an officer for getting out in such weather....

We were recalled by green flares (shot with a Very Pistol) that travelled horizontally and were told the wind meter had gone over 45 Kts in gusts...

The real scandal in the ISAF choice is to keep the Yngling and the incredibly exclusive and expensive Star (Disgusting Lobbying in the best/ worst anglosaxon style here , I'm afraid).

as an advocate for popular boats , I would have replaced the Tornado By the Hobie 16 with spinnaker...a fast , tricky lively thing , with real one design characteristics and perhaps the boat best known to the generalm TV Watching and Holiday Making Joe Average

[alan williams]

Disagree 470 is a boat which does not last 5 minutes in racing due to its construction. and as for the Hobie 16 the design of which is is rubbishand does not represent the cutting edge of cat sailing. If replacing the Tornado (Why) there is only one choice the Formula 18 modern, fast and well supported. I agree that the Yngling and the Star had to go also lets get rid of the air rowing class or put it in a seperate division.
Al
Long live Cats, lets dump the old farts on the ISAF, vote with your feet and leave the RYA traitors to a man.

[LASERTOURIST]

Trouble is Tornado (a competitive one) is immensely expensive specially when you think about "small" sailing nations , with competitive top sailors in Laser or 470 like , for instance croatia or slovenia (ever been to Hvar for the Laser Europa cup and confronted top croatians? ...they are quite a hanful to tackle )...

Befor the crumble of the Berlin wall , some eastern bloc top athletes, even in smallernations, benefited from state grants and governement money to race in such expensive "western"classes as Tornado , Soling , Flying Dutchman (and their travel vehicles - Zaz , Kama, Polski vans - were a striking contrast with their glossy boats ) but not any more, thus leaving the tornado for what it is : a beautiful sophisticated toy for the happy few.

Hobie 16 is quite old fashioned , true , and the " bedpost" system makes the boat to soften after one or two years , but who cares, as in the majority of big events the boats are chartered by the organisation (no doubt it would be the same with olympic games ) a scheme that ensres a profitable and useful second career to those boats in sailing schools , clubs , hotel resorts and the like.

A top sailor on a tornado must be able to win in truly a one design fleet of Hobies 16...or he isn't really a top sailor ...formula 18 is going the way
the 470 did (sophistication and price) and in France , where dinghy sailing (except possibly Laser) is on decline compared to catamaran both in the sailing school and private ownership markets (the latter one being by far the tiniest...the general public appeal is on catamaran

It is most certain that the commonest basic sailing experience of Mr Average (if youthink in worldwide terms) will most probably be a summer ride on a hobie cat ...that's why cat should be kept in the Games...but a popular yet fast (and tricky nose diving) beast like the 16 plus spinnaker should re-unite the worldwide fraternity of sailors on a much wider basis that the Tornado.

And , no , insist the 470 is quite a good boat, only top racers botched it , the class should have put some restriction on shroud tensiuon and gadgets and kept the price down by granting less building licences to more responsible boatyards thet in turn should not have tried to flirt with the limits of measurement rules to make a marginally "better " bt hugely more expensive 470, that's all

[LASERTOURIST]

As for Air Rowing ( a rather insulting term certainly born in some toffe nosed - white capped traditionalist yachtsman's den...the correct one is Windsurfing)

Well i was in division 2 sailboarding at the hey day of lechners, in parallel with laser racing ...well, in France pumping was allowed (and banned at IYRU level) , it didn't mean racing was a beastly athletical thing , tactics and equipment had their full part.

Tactics was not as sharp as in lasers (tacking cost speed contrary to a proper executed laser roll tacking) but still it was close sharp racing whith huge attendances , popular support TV ads , even sponsors and spectators.

The good side of it was that this not too expensive sailing attracted a great number of people from other sports and insufflated some fresh -and athletic- blood in our sport...it is a pity that rule changes (from Division 2 to raceboard , to Formula, One design mistral and now RSX) made these guys go towards funboard and out of competitive regatta practice...but still windsurfing is poular and with the introductions of wideline, rubberdecked , beginner friendly, boards, windsurfing has stopped its temporary decline and is on the growth again atgrassroots level....a truly popular sport.

The only trouble with allowing pumping (apart from causing the old campainers to take an early retire to some senatorial class, say , star or finn) is the threat of doping and drugs...but for the present moment as there is little money to earn in the game (money is the main doping substance , not EPO or steroids, remember ) well there is little risk...

[Ed]

Is it?

I mean is 'Windsurfing' the right term?

It always struck me that 'windsurfing' was about getting your rollocks off in as much 'wind' and as big 'surf' as you could handle.

A completely laudable pursuit I that I have always enjoyed.

But those over-sized, over-weight lumps of polypropylene that float around our lakes, with no idea of where they are going...or why, not aware of any rights-of-way....who's only purpose seems to be to try and create a floating causeway right across the launching area......

Surely that isn't windsurfing.

I have tried it and certainly found it very boring.....I always presumed that was why it was called 'Sail-boreding'.

eib

[LASERTOURIST]

Well , Not everybody is lucky enogh to live permanently in, say, Tarifa in Spain or Essaouira in Moroccco, our version of Hawaî , or even on the british or french seashore ... lake windsurfing requires different boards, and when windsurfing joined IYRU, well racing format first duplicated dinhy racing formats, with unstable canoe like, round bottomed Division 2 sailboards such as the Lechner ...not much fun, certainely, as far as just cruising (not racing) is concerned.... but standing on the beach with your 85 litres sinker board and 4,5 Sq m sail when the wind is anything under 25 Kts is no fun either

Today the huge Wideline Formula boards with 10 or 12 SQare Metres, and swordlike carbon fins plane in 8 knots wind , require no waterstart and are just as fast as a Tornado...and .though gybing those "doors" is a time consuming, wide turning circle affair, they are uindeed exciting to sail , at least on a lake.

[alan williams]

Maybe I've missed something but isn't the Olympics meant to be about Elite athletism. Using a Hobie 16 as an Olympic class is like saying that Formula one should be raced in untuned unsophistcated BMW Mini's because they are all the same and and there are lots of them yeah. The Laser is not a truely one design class even. Olympian Laser sailor 's are known to visit the factory and individually test the stiffness of foils, masts weigh hulls and are very choosy about sails, which implies that not all Lasers are the same, equally with Hobie cats European Hobies and American Hobies being built at different factories to different specifications. At least there is not pretense with The Tornado which allows several manufactures, each boat is measured to ensure that it conforms to their very tight rules.
You also say that the Tornado is an expensive boat ask any Olympian sailor and I have known a few what the most expensive thing about Olympic sailing is and they will tell you its transport and training and attending quilifieing regatta's not the equipment. The Tornado is no more expensive than a Yngling and is far cheaper than a Star. The Eastern block countries were never put off by the price of an FD or any other Olympic boat. Ok their sailors were goverment sponsored but this is still the case today there are no true amatuers left in competitive sport all are paid either directly or indirectly.
The Olympics are for the top sports people in the World not Joe Average and to lower the base level is no solution.

My rant for the Day.
Al Cat sailor Finn sailor soon to be an FD sailor.

[LASERTOURIST]

It depends wether you consider the sport as being a confrontation of just helmsmen (and then the boat is just an (almost) neutral element , just like a bal , a pair of shoes or a tennis racket) or if you consider it is sonme sort of engineers contest (like in formula one or motorcycle) with the helmsman/pilot just an important - but - not -vital piece of equipment.

The first one is the one design approach (and well , I know aspiring olympians who test weight and stiffness of laser masts and hulls..the like, but it seems it is as much an attempt to psyche themselves than a ground breaking speed difference, and Scheidt kept on racing without the XD vang long after it was imposed by the greedy boatbuilder),
The second one is the development class approach....which is quite elitist.

As for travel expenses , when chartered boats are available, the one design approach cuts down the costs, is beneficial for the boatbuilder and makes affordable boats for the second buyers.

Certainly when olympics are at stake, Laser takes extra care in making the batch of boats as equal as possible, as no doubt would Hobie in the same case

[alan williams]

As regards AIR ROWING I'm hardly and Toffee nosed Yachtsman and feel insulted to be refered as one, I'm in fact a hairy arsed EX HORNET sailor and Proud of it. I've also Sailboarded which is the correct term if we are argueing a point, Windsurfing being a brand name, and apart from having a sail it is a totally different sport which only comes into mainstream sailing events at the Olympics.
Cheers Al

[alan williams]

I for one would not like to attend an event using chartered equipment especially if it was a quilifying event and supplied by the organiser. A close friend of mines sister was the World Champion in the sailboard class used at the Olympics several years ago. She represented Britain whilst World Champion and failed to even get a bronze medal because the equipment was supplied by the host nation and strangely hers kept on breaking.
The whole concept of chartering a boat is wrong as stated before not all boats are the same and at this level you have the ability to taylor the tool for the purpose. Name me one world champion in a dinghy or small cat class that won with chartered equipment supplied by the organiser, do not include those sailors that are manufactures team sailors?

Cheers Al Elitist Finn, FD and Cat sailor

[LASERTOURIST]

Well , i attended the '95 Laser Words (Radial) in Tenerife and the boats were not only builder supplied, but shared between Radial and Standard Laser sailors, with a somewhat complicated scheme meaning that you shared "your boat" with two different standard sailors each day.

Some lasers (the spanish team had their own boats) were not chartered but roughly 90 % were....well ,it didn't seem to disturb the hierarchy (Scheidt winning the standard event, of course) ...the following weeek the boats were used by the masters world's and well everything went fine and nobody complained.

Most racers had brought their own tiller and extension , plus compass and set of lines, some their sails too , but definitely the top sailors sailed on the brand new chartered sails.

The only trouble was with the radial lower masts that took some bending (after the races every body was busy rightening them with some muscle used , in order not to looose their deposit....

Tom Garth (The SuperMario /plumber /mastertechnicia,n of PSI at the time) was heard reporting the fact to some PLS /ILCA top guys, and they decided to beef up the lower mast inner sleeve sold in europe "up to australian standards"
(apparently they thought of tenerife as a calm spot - ha ha!- .... ) and indeed , despite XD vangs the lower radial masts while they stil bend (and break) have a resonable span of life as of now...

The boats for the 95 Championsips (100+ brand new boats) had been paid partly by Cabildo de Tenerife (local government) and went to sailing centres either in canarias or mainland spain...with a satisfactori launch of laser as a class in Spain...if the thing is possible (needs a strong class , sponsors and a strong boatbuilder of semi industrial size, ) it is an intelligent way of developping sailing...sorrry for " toffee nosed"...was just trying to be funny...

[Nigel]

Toffee nosed Yachtsman and feel insulted to be refered as one, I'm in fact a hairy arsed EX HORNET sailor

Toffee nosed and hairy arsed? Probably an ok combination for a dinghy sailor but not so for a contortionist!

[Rupert]

Name me one world champion in a dinghy or small cat class that won with chartered equipment supplied by the organiser, do not include those sailors that are manufactures team sailors?

Cheers Al Elitist Finn, FD and Cat sailor

Ben Ainslie at the Finn worlds in Russia, where he beat people who had brought their own kit along, too.