The Tornado comeback

After becoming an Olympics-only class in the UK, the world's fastest dinghy cat is making a return at club level

The Tornado catamaran has held pole position in the dinghy cat world since it was first conjured up by Rodney March along with Terry Pearce and Reg White as a contender for the Olympic catamaran slot back in 1967. The boat first sailed in the Olympics in Montreal in 1976 where Reg White won Britain's only ever Gold medal in the class.

Like several of the more sophisticated Olympic boats, the Tornado as a class has suffered over the last decades through elitism - the level of talent and sailing ability of the potential Olympic sailors along with their extensive equipment development frightening off less competitive club sailors. In the UK this has been demonstrated when during the 1990s the only competitors who bothered to show up to the Nationals tended to be Olympic sailors.

However in the UK at least the tide is turning with a steady flow of sailors, both new and old returning to the class.

What is easily forgotten is that despite the introduction of a number of 20ft catamarans over the years, all claiming to be 'Tornado eaters', the Olympic class cat is still the fastest of its size out there. This was demonstrated when in 1999 ISAF were looking for a possible replacement for the Tornado. As Australian veteran John Forbes puts it: "except for the custom, all-carbon Marstrom 20, the standard Tornado dominated upwind, beating all production challengers from Hobie, Nacra, Mystere, and others. Only by piling on sail area, plus a spinnaker, were any of the challengers able to beat the Tornado around the race course, and even then the advantage disappeared as the wind increased."

If there were any doubts, then they were dispelled when following the Sydney Olympics the Tornado was turboed up to its present 'Sport' incarnation with the addition of twin trapezes and an asymmetric spinnaker.

"The thing which is amazing about the Tornado is just how smooth it is," says UK sailor Mark Howell who is one sailor to return to the class this year after a break of more than a decade. "Everyone says it is the best boat to sail. Having got back into one this year, I had forgotten how brilliant it is to sail one, how smooth they are and how they eat up the distance. I still giggle when I am sailing upwind because I can’t believe how fast it is. And then you turn the corner shove the kite up and put the turbo on."

When Howell last sailed the Tornado it was well before the Sport modification. Aside from the added power people are sailing them very differently, he says. "When I last sailed them you sat down to leeward and tried to draw a breath every 400m because of the amount of water coming past you. Now with the immense rig and because you can hold the power more because you have a 10ft wide platform, makes it a rocket ship downwind. And the wind range where you are kicking it in is much greater.

"When I was in them before you had to have certain wind conditions that you could 'wild thing' in. If it was too light you’d have to go up so high to get the boat heated up you’d lose too much distance. If it was too windy it didn’t necessarily pay, because you’d just sail off broad. With a spinnaker you have the ability to get the boat up and flying earlier because you have that much more power but also you can go deep and go even faster because you have that much more sail area taking you off the wind."

Aside from appealing to those interested in sailing the 'fastest boat out there', the Tornado currently scores well in terms of bang for buck. To buy one secondhand they are about the same price, or even fractionally cheaper than a Formula 18 and the class has the advantage of being a buyer's market for Olympic cast-offs be it boats or gear.

"The Tornado has evolved to the stage where there is a good secondhand market and people can buy the boats a bit cheaper," says Howell. "It doesn’t have to be an arms race to get value for money. And they have virtually become a one design now. Most people are sailing on a Marstram platform and Ullman Sails, or very few sail manufacturers, and it has got to the stage where you can go out with a basic set-up with a spinnaker and the twin trapeze and nothing can get near it."

Howell has appraised the secondhand market and for the sum of £5,200 recently acquired a secondhand Sailcraft boat that the previous owner converted to a 'Sport'. He says that one of the joys of the Tornado is you can get into at any level. You can buy an old Tornado for £3,000-3,500 and add the Sport package for around £2,000. Alternatively depending upon your budget/aspirations you can pay anything from £5,000 up to around £13,000 for ex-Olympic boats (one of Leigh MacMillan and Mark Bulkeley's boats is being advertised at the moment for this price) that have already had the conversion. Howell advises that anyone looking for a secondhand boat should contact UK Class Chairman Richard Allen ( by email here). Allen is proving to be a driving force behind the UK class at present and Howell says is another reason for the Tornado's resurgence.

Thus a good Tornado Sport secondhand is much the same price as a secondhand Formula 18, for substantially more speed. Howell's Tornado cost him as much as a good secondhand Dart... "The value for money is immense and that is helping the class kick in again. People have seen that you can have a lot of fun, you don’t need to be a monster to sail them. In the old days you needed a big strong crew and whatever. Because the way the boat has been developed it is easy for lightweights to sail or heavyweights. When I was 19 all the crews were pretty big guys. The Tornado was quite a grunty boat. Now the controls are so much better that you even get mixed crews sailing them."

Howell has recently joined Stokes Bay Sailing Club where there are eight or nine Tornados while the other big club in the UK for Tornados is Whitstable. Otherwise there are plenty of boats of varying ages and configurations dotted around the country. Aside from Howell other notables who have acquired Tornados recently include former Dart National Champion David Lloyd who has purchased Hugh Styles and Adam May's old boat. The Olympic cast offs of both Rob Wilson and Mitch Booth have also filtered down the food chain to UK sailors. Former Olympic windsurfer Johnny Hutchcroft after sailing an F18 for a couple of seasons has now got himself a Tornado as has RYA coach Marcus Lynch. From a handful of Olympic-types competing during the 1990s, 25 Tornados raced at the Nationals in 2003 and as many as 35 could be there in 2004.

Sailing-wise there is the prospect of anything from simply going for a blast, to open meets both in the UK and abroad (at Carnac for example) to class racing to Olympic classes regattas. "Take Leo Farrow - he started on a Hawk and now he has got himself a Hobie Tiger and he has had a Tornado for two years," says Howell. "Doing the circuit has improved his sailing immensely. He got a second place at the Nationals, a few years ago Leo wouldn’t have done that, so it is fantastic."

There is also the increasing popularity of long distance races. In the UK there is a series of five running as a best of three championship, including the round the Isle of Wight, the Three Piers up the Blackwater to Walton on the Naze and back, the Forts Race from Whitstable out to the Forts in the middle of the Thames and back, plus events at Pwllheli in Wales and in Scotland. "Making them a series is to encourage people to take part in three out of he five and so attendance has gone up every year for the last few years. We had 120 entrants in the first year and about 180 in the third year," says Nick Dewhurst, Chairman of the UKCRA who oversee this series.

The Tornado may not suit everyone. For competition F18s win hands down in terms of numbers with around 135 are expected at their World championship in Italy this year. But for thrill factor, value for money and the chance to pretend you're Mitch Booth/Randy Smyth/Darren Bundock - the Tornado is it.