By Tim Jeffery, Telegraph (May 8, 2008)
Want an object lesson in how a governing body diminishes itself in the eyes
of those it represents? Then look no further than the twist and turns the
International Sailing Federation is making over the selection of events for
the 2012 London Games. The latest instant is whether ISAF has actually
listened to a chorus concern over the vote taken last November to cull
multihulls from the Olympics in reducing the sailing events from 11 to 10.
It’s heard it, of that there is no doubt, but hearing and listening are not
the same.

On the eve of revisiting this decision, which effectively removed the
Tornado catamaran from the Games, ISAF’s executive has issued its own urgent
submission ahead of the mid-year meetings in Qingdao saying that if the
Council reaffirms its vote from six months ago, the matter is done and
dusted. Just like a government, a governing body will always be the object
of dissatisfaction if it makes unpopular choices. But just as there has been
paucity of what would have been a better slate of 10 events for 2012 from
those objecting to the multihull’s demise, so too has there been absence of
any sign ISAF is encouraging further discussion let alone leading it.

That November vote was contentious on several counts. The two key ones were
that the council voted against the recommendation of its own Events
Committee. And that the way in which it was taken was changed overnight
before the vote. Both now make ISAF an easy target for legitimate criticism.

Some 15 national authorities such as the RYA have subsequently made
submissions to ISAF, as have two class associations, to say ‘hang-on, you’ve
just voted out a distinct branch of the sport by getting rid of multihulls.
Is this want you really meant to do?’. Even ISAF acknowledges the degree of
correspondence the November decision created. This weekend the ISAF Council
sits down again at its mid-year meetings, staged in the Olympic sailing
venue of Qingdao. — Read on: http://tinyurl.com/67g4c3

The Olympic Games brings out the best, and the worst, in a variety of people. In certain areas, it is all about winning, and ONLY winning.

By Bob Fisher
10:08 PM Mon 5 May 2008 http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?SEID=2&Nid=44129&SRCID=0&ntid=0&tickeruid=0&tickerCID=0

I hardly think that was what Baron Pierre de Coubertin had in mind when he formulated the Games back in 1896. While winning is indeed one of the purposes of all Olympic athletes, the qualification or team selection is equally important. There are many for whom membership of the Olympic family is an achievement in itself.

Like all sporting events, it should be stimulating and provide enjoyment for those who take part. For sailors, this is particularly true – competition is an extension of the recreation. And, lets face it, the boats themselves are best if they are exciting.

Certainly this is true of the Tornado catamaran, the 49er and the windsurfers; most of the other classes are pedestrian and should be examined with a view to change.
The chance was not properly addressed in Cascais last November, too much emphasis was placed on providing a continuum that would reduce the costs for the smaller nations. That thinking is spurious and all the Council members are aware of that.

Mention of the Tornado brings back memories of 41 years ago when, given a summer off from my job at the BBC, I was concentrating on preparation for the Little America’s Cup with Lady Helmsman. While time consuming, it did allow me to work with the Tornado’s designer, Rodney March, and builder, Reg White, on the rig for the prototype.

The Tornado is one of the most spectacular of the Olympic classes -  Richard Gladwell   Click Here to view large photo

It presented a new set of challenges, but they were overcome with sufficient lead time for us to take the boat to Sheppey, on the north Kent coast, for the IYRU trials to select suitable boats for international classes for two-handed and single-handed boats.

Reg and I sailed the standard Tornado while Terry Pearce and the designer sailed a similar boat but with a wing-mast una-rig. They had a slight speed edge on us until the mast fell down, but it was close. The wing mast would, undoubtedly, have clouded the selection issue, but the two Tornados were well ahead of the rest and the Tornado’s selection was almost automatic and the class has gone from strength to strength, at least until last November.

It is interesting to muse that the B-class (20ft overall and 235 square feet of rig area) has subsequently died, but the A-class has become the leading edge in single-handed catamaran sailing. Whatever happened to the Australis, the boat that won those trials at Sheppey in 1967?
John Fisk, as Chairman of the IYRU Multihull Committee, was one of the selectors at those trials, and subsequently worked tirelessly to ensure that there was a suitable class in the Olympics. He was rewarded when the Tornado was chosen for the Montreal Games in 1976, which he attended despite suffering from the cancer that was to take his life shortly afterwards. John would, however, have been very amused at the America’s Cup taking place in mega-multihulls.

As I said at the Opening Ceremony for the Tornado World Championship at Takapuna, John will be turning in his grave at the decision made in Cascais to drop the multihull from the list of disciplines. To him, and to many others, the incomprehensibility of that decision beggars belief. One only hopes that ISAF, at the mid-term meetings, can distinguish the level of urgency of a re-think of the decision and act quickly to restore some balance to the nominated disciplines. There is an overwhelming case for the restoration of a multihull and care must be taken to avoid the lobbying that led to its demise. I have no need to point fingers – you all know who you are.

To disenfranchise the multihull sailors was a travesty of thought last November. It is a huge constituency that deserves to be treated properly. One could understand the move coming from a tyrannical body seeking total authoritarian control, but from a democratically constituted body formed to administer a sport, it was outrageous and must be rectified.

Tornados power off the start line in the penultimates race, 2008 Tornado Worlds, Takapuna, New Zealand -  Richard Gladwell   Click Here to view large photo

2009 Singapore Airlines Sail Auckland Dates

Organisers of Singapore Airlines Sail Auckland have confirmed dates for 2009… the regatta will take place over 5th – 8th February 2009. Any classes interested in participating should contact info@sailauckland.org.nz

Takapuna Worlds on SKY Sport If you have the luxury of SKY Sport then don’t miss the screening of a half hour programme on the recent Olympic Class World Championship Regattas sailed off Takapuna Beach between January and March 2008.

Featuring the RS:X Worlds, the Tornado Worlds and the Laser Radial Worlds the programme will screen on SKY Sport 1 three times over this coming weekend…

Friday 2nd May – 1500
Saturday 3rd May – 2340
Sunday 4th May – 1830

ARE KEELBOATS OUT OF THE 2012 OLYMPICS?

SCUTTLEBUTT 2574 – April 14 2008 (www.sailingscuttlebutt.com)
This was the headline in Scuttlebutt 2471 (November 8, 2007) leading into
the meeting at the ISAF Annual Conference where the events for the 2012
Olympics would be decided. The ISAF Events Committee, which had been tasked
with recommending to the ISAF Council the events to be used for the Olympic
Sailing Competition, had just submitted their list, and keelboats were not
included for either the men or the women. The Events Committee was
affectively ‘the experts’ and their recommendation was intended to help
inform the Council’s decision. By all accounts, it appeared as if the Star
and Yngling sailors at the 2008 Olympics would be enjoying the end of an
era.Of course, we all know now that the ISAF Council paid little attention to
the Events Committee recommendation, and went about voting for those events
that served the voting members’ personal agendas. However, now that the
international sailing community has convinced ISAF that a review of the
selected events is in order, the ‘buttheads were asked last week what their
preferred event list would be. Guess what… the ‘butthead’s list of events is
the same that the Events Committee had initially submitted. In case those
with a vote at the ISAF Mid-Year meeting are listening, here is the list of
preferred events… AGAIN:

Men’s Events (only six events get chosen)
1. Two person dinghy
2. One person dinghy
3. Windsurfer
4. Multihull
5. Two person dinghy – skiff
6. One person dinghy – heavy
————————
7. Keelboat
8. One person dinghy – skiff

Women’s Events (only four events get chosen)
1. Two person dinghy
2. One person dinghy
3. Windsurfer
4. Two person dinghy – skiff
————————
5. Keelboat
6. Multihull
Link to complete poll:

http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/polls/08/0403http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/polls/08/0403

 

Regatta Calendar

 

2008

Winter Champs – Murrays Bay

2009

NZ Tornado Nationals (to be combined with Sail Auckland)

 

Apr 10, 2008

GREAT CONDITIONS FOR TRAINING IN HYERES

A little bit of rain with a temperature as if we were on a ski-field!

 

Today was the 1st day out on the water in Hyeres. It is cold to say the least,

but with a nip in the air it produces a fairly stable breeze. Great twin wiring

conditions for the Tornados.

Over the course of the week we have picked up the lease car, trailer and

boat from northern Germany and taken in all the fantastic autobahn sites

along the way. A little sorting out with logistics in Hyeres, a bit of rest, along

with changing systems on the charter boat, we made for a late afternoon

sail today to check the boat and ourselves! All still in one piece.

Boat feels great so over the course of the next 10 days before the regatta

starts we have some great sailing ahead.

The plan is to work on speed the first 4 days, then leading up to the final

days of preparation will include boat handling, starting and mark roundings.

Thanks for the support and to all the people of have made this possible.

 

Mark & Aaron.

 

 

 July 13, 2007

Click Here To View Video>> Aaron McIntosh sailing with Bruce Kendall off Takapuna.

 

http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com

From Peter Johnstone: (Re. USA Sailing – 2012 Olympic events)

If tasked with choosing medal prospects versus creating excitement for
the future of sailing, shouldn’t we ALWAYS pick the future of sailing? Hope
our US Olympic Sailing Committee takes a less myopic position on Olympic
Class selection at the next ISAF meeting. This is a note of encouragement to
our US SAILING politicos that make up our ISAF delegation and
direction…please get it right this time. Tornados and women’s skiff!!
Excitement. Future of sailing.  

DEFINING WHAT THE OLYMPIC REGATTA SHOULD REPRESENT
by Richard Gladwell, NZ Editor, Sail World
To our mind ISAF Council needs to make a simple strategic decision, which is whether the Olympics should be representative of all the major sailing disciplines. If the vote to that question is ‘yes’ then the events must be selected which recognise that composition. If the vote to that is ‘no’, then the 2012 Olympic events schedule must be seen for what it is – an outcome from political lobbying by various classes to maintain a position at the Olympic table. And having secured that position, they then adopt the cloak of an ‘Event’ and justify their existence for another four years.

Looking at the former option, the disciplines are reasonably clear – windsurfing, singlehanded monohull, two handed monohull, multihull and keelboat. All the classes and forms of sailing (save maybe three man 18ft skiffs and sportsboats) can be tucked under one of these categories. Then we proceed to selection where ISAF current has a ratio of four women’s events and six men’s events. From the menu of five disciplines, for women, any four are chosen; and for men six events are chosen from the five disciplines – meaning that all must be represented and one can be duplicated.

If at some stage in the future, there is a shift to a gender equal Olympic events slate then the decision becomes a five events from five disciplines for men and women, which still works. Of course, this solution is far too simple to be adopted.

But if they support the status quo, then the ISAF Councillors should have the strength of character and honesty, to say why the Olympic sailing regatta should not be representative of the sport; why some disciplines of the sport should be at the Olympic table and why others should not; and why they support discrimination and exclusion in the sport they are charged with administering.

Everyone makes mistakes. Generally, no-one really minds, provided you don’t make the same mistake twice. By now, judging from the reaction from the sailing community, the ISAF Council should be in no doubt they made a mistake in November 2007. In May 2008 they have the opportunity to fix it. Please do. — http://www.sail-world.com

* Not everyone has welcomed ISAF decision to vote again on the selected 2012 events with open arms. The UK Catamaran Racing Association’s Simon Morgan questions some of the language used by ISAF in their procedural document, and question whether this is a mere charade to appease the disenfranchised, or if this is a serious review of the event decision made at the ISAF Annual Meeting in November 2007. His posting can be found on the Sail Juice blog: http://www.sailjuice.com/blog.asp?u=http://sailjuiceblog.com

* Some interesting results on the Scuttlebutt poll, where the ‘buttheads are rating which events should be in the 2012 Olympics on a 1 to 5 scale. Here are the current standings:

Men’s Events (only six events get chosen)
1. Two person dinghy – skiff (4.02)
2. Multihull (4.03)
3. One person dinghy (3.92)
4. Keelboat (3.44)
5. Windsurfer (3.15)
6. Two person dinghy (2.86)
————————
7. One person dinghy – skiff (2.65)
8. One person dinghy – heavy (2.45)

Women’s Events (only four events get chosen)
1. One person dinghy (4.18)
2. Two person dinghy – skiff (3.68)
3. Windsurfer (3.07)
4. Keelboat (3.04)
————————
5. Multihull (2.87)
6. Two person dinghy (2.84)

The polling booth will be open until Friday morning (PT). To place your vote, go to http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/polls/08/0403/#2