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2 years ago
I like the direction this is going. 2 person womens skiff should be the 29erXX. A simplified and more one design Tornado could be really cool for the mixed multi. |
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2 years ago
Do we need to set aside a class for older athletes to be competitive in in the Games? Most other sports only give their Olympians a window of three or at the absolute max four cycles to be competitive, sometimes a lot less (i.e. gymnastics). |
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2 years ago
Quote from Head of the Tornado class, Roland Gaebler (from the Daily Sail, http://www.thedailysail.com/): |
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2 years ago
They could leave the star in as a class if they made the boat a one design class, the boat is too interchangable to make the racing competitive from top to bottom in the class. This would allow the older athletes to stay in while making the event even for all. |
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2 years ago
Glad to see that ISAF is stepping into the 21st century finally, even if it is 16 years late.. |
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2 years ago
With 6 months left to go before the actual decision, don't you think there is going to be a strong outpouring of support for the Star? I mean, I'm not saying getting rid of it's a bad thing--besides being a beautiful sailboat it doesn't have a whole lot of qualities that make it TV-worthy or attract people to the sport--I'm just saying it's been around for a long time and a lot of people stand behind it, especially older sailors who might have some clout in ISAF. |
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2 years ago
If they want to make sailing fun to watch, send Chris Love!!! But hook him up with ton's of technology and computer graphics. |
Tom Charpentier 2 years ago
Earlier today the ISAF Events Committee delivered its recommended slate for the 2016 Olympic Program. The lineup came after considerable speculation over the future of the Yachting event at the games, with pressure from the IOC to make sailing more affordable for competitors, more stable for athlete development, and more profitable to air on TV. The committee recommended ten events for 2016, covering men's women's and (compulsory) mixed events:
Board or kite-board for men and women – equipment evaluation
One person dinghy men – Laser Standard
One person dinghy women – Laser Radial
Two person dinghy (skiff) men – 49er
Two person dinghy (skiff) women – equipment evaluation
Second one person dinghy men – Finn
Two person mixed multihull – equipment evaluation
Two person mixed dinghy with spinnaker – 470
Women’s keelboat – Elliott 6m
The final lineup will be confirmed by ISAF next May
Ok, so let's analyze this. The most obvious change is the deletion of the Star and the reintrodution of the multihull as a mixed event (class unknown at this point). Additionally, a women's skiff will be added and the 470 will be condensed into a single mixed event, so the skiff seems to be turning into the focal doublehanded event.
Call me blasphemous, but I'm content to see the Star leave the program. It has had an amazing run since 1932, but back then the Olympic program was dominated by even larger keelboat classes. The 12 Meter even made a few appearances. The modern Olympics stress competition between individual athletes. That's what makes the Laser the ideal Olympic boat - tiller, mainsheet, and the three basic sail shape controls. That's all you get to work with. It's the closest that sailing comes to a pure athletic event. Dinghies allow for a more exciting regatta and they are also cheaper to campaign and require fewer shore-side facilities at the venue. Besides, don't we have enough doublehanded classes already?
Mixed events will be interesting. The nature of the equipment used in college sailing tends to favor mixed teams so the concept is nothing new to most of us, but how will it play out in Olympic-class sailing? Will we see an even mix of women and men at each position or will each position favor one gender over the other?
What changes would you make to the Event Committee's proposal? Personally, I like the proposed lineup except that I would replace the 470 class with an open (or mixed) team racing event. Team racing would be cheap to run and fun to watch. ISAF could buy 18 V15s (or similar) and ship them from venue to venue. One fleet could easily last an entire Olympic cycle. 3v3 too complicated for the non-sailing public? Fine, we'll do 2v2.
So how about you? Would kiteboarding boost viewership, possibly saving sailing's spot in the Games? Is the move towards more doublehanded skiffs the right one? Is the Finn redundant or should we keep a boat in the heavier weight class, especially now that the Star is gone? There's a lot of stuff to talk about in this story, and we'd like to hear your opinion.