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The debate continues over the optimum Olympic classes mix

These latest offerings from you stems from a feedback article we published last week looking at what we would like to see as the possible Olympic classes competing in Weymouth in 2012. If any Olympic sailors wish to join the debate we will happily publish their views anonymously.

Join in the debate by emailling us here

B14 Class Chairman Tim Fells writes:

The sport needs to step away from its class-oriented mindset and instead structure events around different sailing skills, athlete size/weight ranges and racing formats, all with a goal of accessibility and TV attractiveness.

Within the area of sailing skills we should organise events to test the human skills of Speed, Boat Handling and Tactics. This could lead to different race formats e.g. a sprint format to measure outright speed, a short course format to test boat handling and a more traditional long course format to test tactics. Why not mix the racing up so that each class has some or all of these elements? For instance the high performance disciplines (Board, Foiler, Skiff) could have a 400m speed trial, a slalom and some windward-leewards. For added excitement the slalom could start with a beach start!

Currently equipment choices determine the athlete’s size/weight and gender. Surely we should have athlete categories which determine the equipment and encourage as many open and mixed gender teams as possible - a unique aspect of sailing.

Additionally, we saw with the Ainslie/Scheidt battle in Sydney just how much the TV audience is attracted to boat on boat action and how this can enhance an individual sailor’s personality profile. We should therefore look at the inclusion of team racing to produce a high action, TV friendly event to get the viewer on the edge of their sofas. It may also be possible to schedule the racing so that sailors from other disciplines can take part and go for more than one gold medal. Team racing is also gender neutral so you could have for example a GBR team including both Ben Ainslie and Shirley Robertson - the media would love it.

So my suggestions for classes would be:
Single-handed Lightweight – Laser Radial
Single-handed Heavyweight – Laser Std
High Performance Lightweight – 29erXX
High Performance Heavyweight – 49er
High Performance Single-handed – Foiler
High Performance Catamaran - F18
Board Lightweight
Board Heavyweight
Match Racing – 3 person keel boat
Team Racing – 2 person dinghy


Peter Lowndes, Vice-President, Australian International Yngling Association writes:

While I do have a vested interest in the Yngling like many political debates, as ISAF Olympic classes inevitably are, you have managed to bag the Yngling without proposing an alternative. In fact your article acknowledges the need for a female 3 person keelboat, in line with IOC's request to keep the male/female split even. Etchells, apart from wanting nothing to do with the Olympics, are to big and powerful for three 'normal' women and IOC doesn't want to shell out for more than three medals for those that want to sail them four up. Also on these lines the J/22 and J/24 were dismissed. Talking about more recent keel boat designs. I don't know what is available in the northern hemisphere but out here in the colonies the recent alternatives are pretty lame. The Elliot 5.9 and Elliot 6m have massive mains, hanky sized jibs and as such are generally a handful above about 10 knots.

If not the Yngling - then what? Give us your opinions here


From Noumea, New Caledonia (for, yes, we have readers there too...) Martin Fischer, designer of the F18 Capricorn and co-designer of Franck Cammas' Groupama 2 and 3 writes:

I would like to join the discussion about the Olympic Classes for 2012:

The Olympic Games are mainly an event for individuals. Team sports like football or others are not really popular at the Olympics. The most popular disciplines are probably athletics (running, jumping, ...) but also technical sports like skiing, horse riding, ... all practised by individuals.

I think the choice of the Olympic Classes should reflect that. Therefore sailing at the Olympic Games should represent the highest possible level of our sport - as done by individuals. This excludes naturally fully professional events like the America's Cup or big boat racing. When I say the highest possible level I am not only speaking about the sailors themselves but also about the boats. Sailing is a technical sport and spectators can get fascinated by a high level of competition and a high technical level. Therefore, the boats chosen must be modern, fast, attractive to watch...

I would suggest the following categories:

board sailing women
board sailing men
single handed dinghy women
single handed dinghy men
skiff women
skiff men
single handed catamaran open
two handed catamaran women
two handed catamaran men
keelboat open

Since I am mainly involved in catamarans I have some clear ideas about those classes. For the single handed catamaran I suggest the A-Class or a derivative of it. For the two handed catamaran women an F16 type boat, and for the two handed catamaran men an F18 type boat. Here my first choice would be to stay with an open rule (Formula-18) or to use the Capricorn, since it is a much more modern boat than the Tiger. By the way the F18 class is - as far as I know - the fastest growing race boat class in the world, so it would be a natural choice.

I did not propose a singlehanded catamaran specifically for women, since at this moment there is no suitable class. The Yngling shows that it does not make sense to create artifically a race circuit for something that does not exist. For the same reason I did not propose a women keel boat.

Match racing is in my opinion not the right sport for the Olympics. There exists a professional circuit, I think that should stay outside the Olympics.


From Dublin, Stephen Lee sends us this:

Firstly, I would like to say that I am very disappointed to hear that there will be one less class at the 2012 olympics.

Secondly, and more important I am horrified to hear that people are contemplating the removal of the symmetric spinnaker from Olympic sailing completely! However, I realise that there have been no symmetric spinnakered dinghies designed recently, which would bring us back to something like the 470. Maybe a custom one design symmetric spinnakered dinghy should be designed for the olympics?

I think if high performance spectacular viewing is required, then 60 foot trimarans and high performance windsurfers are the only way to go.

My sailing background started in Enterprises, moved to team racing in Fireflys, fleet racing in J/24s, windsurfing on high performance boards and now onto Laser SB3 racing.

If there was no limit on the number of competitors then I would recommend team racing, however, as the ISAF president pointed out there is (380 athletes) a limit and to bring 6 competitors would severely limit the number of countries who could be involved. As a compromise I think that match racing would be a very interesting addition to the olympic lineup. However with the limit on competitors in mind there cannot be a move to any boats which require a large number of crew.

My opinion (for what it's worth) of what the line up should be is:
Windsurfer - Men - RS:X
Windsurfer - Women - RS:X
Match Race - Mixed or Seperate? - 2-3 person hiking symmetric spinnaker boat
High Performance - Men - 49er
High Performance - Women - 29erXX
Single Handed - Men - Laser
Single Handed - Women - Laser Radial
Performance Single Handed - Moth / Finn / Musto Skiff
Catamaran - Tornado or Similar
Keelboat - Something around the 25 - 30 foot mark, with offshore capability (Figaro?)

I think sailing needs to decide whether it wants Olympic sailing to be a simple spectacle (ie. skiffs, windsurfers, foilers, etc.) or if we want to keep it more representative of how most sailing is done around the world and have a balance of high performance spectacular sailing and close tactical racing.


Paul Reeve sends this:

Sailing has some unique problems compared to other sports. In theory it should not be restricted to one boat per country, but if it is not, then there is always the propensity to team race.( The 100m final may contain four US sprinters, but if the Trinidad sprinter is faster, then there is nothing they can do about it).

Maybe the top 30 from the preceding World Championships should attend the Olympics.

What sailing can do is get away from the high cost/high development classes that it has currently got? Sorry but Star, Yngling, Finn, 470, Tornado, your time has gone. (The youngest of these is 40 years old?)

Ignoring the boards (because I do not know much about them) the classes should be:

Mens Singlehander (lightweights)
Mens Singlehander (Heavy weights)
Mens 2 person twin trapeeze boat
Womens single hander
Womens 2 person boat
Mixed 2 person non trapeze boat. (only tennis and badminton can match sailing for having mixed events)
Women should not have equality in numbers of classes because not so many women sail. This obsession with equality, has resulted in small fleets of bad boats.

If there are no boats suitable, then get some designed. Have strict one designs, but with decent longevity and equipment, not built down to a price.

Less classes so bigger fleets, some of the current Olympic fleets would be considered small club race fleets in the UK.


Simon Nelson writes

Firstly, I need to start this with an apology! Kenneth Wilson is right that Paul Elvstrom sailed with his daughter in an 'open' class but the sad thing is we are arguing whether it is one or two women who have sailed these boats. It makes a complete mockery of the open class concept. However, the problem isn’t the concept, it’s the execution. I wonder if anybody would really champion the Finn as an open class. In my previous email, I pointed out that the process was first to choose the 'events' and then allocate classes to the events but if we see the same mentality of allocation as made the Finn the open class, the whole process would seem a waste of time. However, having spoken with soma of the key decision makers, we shouldn’t underestimate just how complex the situation is.

But back to the real 'challenge' of finding a way of choosing a boat that will work as a truly open class. We must not forget there is already an Olympic class that works as an open class, namely the Paralympics 2.4R. Why can Helena Lucas compete so well against the men? Besides her obvious talent, she does not have the problems of weight and strength to contend with. Weight and strength are the biggest challenges to overcome. In most cases if you manage to sort the weight issue out, men still have an advantage due to having a better power to weight ratio. There are 2 ways of addressing that power to weight issue. On is to take kinetics totally out of the equation (2.4R) and the other is to find boats where kinetics aren’t a major advantage.

Even then, I believe that us men have real issue about being beaten by women. So, even if you do level the playing field, will everybody come to play? Yes, but only if the boat gives the right rewards or is the only boat for a given size of sailor. In the current debate, the only boat that meets the criteria is the Bladerider Moth. Ideal weight seems to be 65-70kgs and pumping doesn’t give you an advantage due to the need to keep riding the foils plus its as exciting as you can get. If you take the 470 out of the Olympics, then the Bladerider would become the natural choice of the smaller male helm.

The Bladerider is an obvious contender for a true open class but I am sure that if an extreme open class dinghy is specified correctly, other contenders will evolve and we can see the same leap forward in sailing as we did when the 49er was chosen. All it takes is a little courage from ISAF.


Are these views right or wrong? What do YOU think? Join in the debate by emailling us here