Readers share their views

Your reactions to the events selected for the 2012 Olympics

Your feedback continues to pour in with regards to the ISAF selection of Olympic events for the 2012 Games.

GBR Olympic Tornado representative, Will Howden says:

I think most of these comments [below] are spot on. ISAF are supposed to be working
in the interest of the sport, one of their core principles is to keep sailing in the Olympics!

After picking a windless venue for the 2008 Olympics, which could certainly do more harm than good for the sport. It will only take a few windless days next year and the media and IOC will not be very impressed!

So ISAF had the chance with Weymouth to put on a real show, showing what sailing can be like, showing it does have some TV appeal as well an internet interest. However, that would have meant picking disciplines/classes that would have looked good, been fun to watch, produced exciting sailing where the public would watch and say, holy S*%£ that looks cool, how do I go and do that!?!

So why have we got women's match racing instead of the high performance dingy? Why have we got a men's heavy single hander and men's keelboat instead of the multihull?

The reason is because the ISAF Council is stuck in the 60's, they have no vision, they are too scared to put their necks on the line! I don¹t know for sure, but the youth of today is, in my mind, struggling to pick exciting classes to sail, I guess that's why the 49er and Tornado has/had such strong youth teams in the UK/France/Spain etc!

I would have chosen a 5/5 split,

Multi-hull double hander Men's and Women's (Tornado/Hobie Tiger)
High Performance Double hander Men's and Women's (49er/???)
Windsurfing Men's and Women's (RSX??)
High performance single hander Men's and Women's (A Class/Moth/a boat for
heavier men?)
Single hander men's and women's (Laser/Laser Radial)

I think sailing is already struggling with the demands of today, with the popular Olympic sports being those watched on TV, athletics, swimming etc. Sailing will never match up to these sports, even the interest in the Americas Cup/Volvo Ocean Race does not match these, where sponsorship is already incredibly hard to find!

So Olympic Sailing in 2012, arguably the pinnacle of all sailing has in my mind just taken a huge step backwards in promoting our great sport!

From Long Beach California Dave Beck says:

Just as many of us feared, the worst possible, most boring selection of old fashioned, slow, non-interesting boats. Tradition wins over innovation and true athletic ability, agility and skill.

Of course, I don't refer to the inclusion of the 49er, the only truly, modern boat on the list. But to have dropped the multihulls and the women's skiff if criminal. I love the Star, but it's a century old conceptually, how ever much dressed up in modern gear. Match racing can be interesting, but men's or women's, it never screamed "athletics" in an Olympic context.

Oh well........

F18 Sailor Oli Egan comments:

Why when the whole sailing world is looking towards cats for TV audiences do ISAF drop the catamaran class. It’s painfully obvious from the VX40 (Extreme 40) class that fast boat on boat action draws spectators. The Extreme 40 race in cowes this year had the crowds flocking to watch, if we think back to the Portsmouth VX40 regatta nothing could be more spectacular than the two capsizes!

In Holland one of the biggest sporting events is the Round Texel Race, people all over the country with no interest in sailing follow the race. The issue with cats is they look exciting to people with no knowledge of sailing. Talk to most non sailors who have been on a beach holiday and they talk of the Hobie 16 they went for a blast on.

Treasurer of the NSW Hobie Cat Association Australia, Kyle Amadio writes:

Completely disgusted at the removal of the multihull from the 2012 Olympics.

What is wrong here? Thousands of sailors take part in Cat sailing - the monohulls have ten classes - they cannot see their way to having a single cat class?

Speechless really - bastards….

Founding commidore of the Shanghai Yacht Club, Alistair Skinner comments:

IYRU Boat Selection...

...I know the name is wrong but ISAF is as modern thinking as their old organisational name.

In the 100m there is no fast and super fast so why do we need sailing and fat sailing in the Olympics, or slow two person and fast two person?

I understood the idea is to make the Olympic Sailing Events more inclusive. The Star at US$60k is hardly inclusive.

The Olympics thrive (or is that depend) on TV coverage and viewing rights - which is more exciting, a two man keelboat or a two man multi'?

ISAF have, in my understanding, two responsibilites. Firstly, through the national bodies, they are supposed to be representative of sailing and more importantly sailors around the world and also to promote our sport as exciting to attract new fans and sailors.

For the record, I am a lead mine sailor but would rather watch Tornados or 49ers zooming about than slow boats much in the same way most car drivers wouldn't turn on the TV to watch SUV racing but F1 is one of the most watched sports events in the world.

ISAF are a law unto themselves, they don't accept individual membership. As a sailor in China I thought it would be a cool thing to try where, as a foreigner, I don't have direct access to the national body where I sail. However, I was turned down flat - they really didn't care even though their constitution appears to allow it.

I know even China could afford far more Lasers, 49ers and Tornados than they could Stars and Ynglings (so could GBR for that matter) and as far as the smaller developing nations are concerned (sailing development not ecconomic development) it does seeem rather like ISAF is trying to keep the limited Olympic competitor numbers to themselves with what in effect are little more than ecconomic sanctions.

Designer of the Capricorn F18, Martin Fischer comments:

The choice of the Olympic classes is a shame!!! To throw out the catamaran discipline is another confirmation that those who decide on one of the most important showcases for our sport do not look what is really going on in small boat sailing. To my knowledge the F18 class has been the fastest growing two person racing class over the past years - it obviously would have been a natural choice in my opinion.

From a spectator's point of view (live or via TV) a catamaran class surely would have been ways more attractive than most - if not all - of the categories that now were chosen. Instead they decided to have a "two person dinghy - Men" and a "two person dinghy high performance - Men". Why do we need two "two person dinghy - Men" classes in the games.

To conclude: It is a shame

Two time Olympic medalist Simon Hiscocks has this to say:

Haha the ISAF cannot get themselves out of their comfortable little place and move the sport on. They are still clearly stuck in their choice of disciplines with relation to the actual classes used. What clear thinking person could justify a single handed boat for the men as well as a single handed boat for the men [heavy], when the women get only one choice of single handed or double handed boat to sail.

They hark on about the need to improve the sports' image to raise the media profile etc and then fail to deliver when it really matters. What's more the damage they do to general participation is surely directly influenced by the choice of boats they use, what other classes are the one person dingy men heavy going to use? Is it; one, representative of the sport? Or two, does it serve a section of the sailing community? Or three, does it hinder another section of the sailing community?

I argue that the one person dingy serves the same sailing community as the heavy, particularly as the keel boat also fits into the heavy category. Look at, currently, the class in question, either you get lighter and sail a Laser or sail a Star, simple. It doesn't serve a particular sector of the sailing community. Nor is it representative of the sport - the Laser is the worlds most popular sail boat, nearly all other single handers are a slightly smaller or larger derivative of this, (go on Phantom and OK sailors get your arms in the air) so the Laser represents this sector of the sport.

Does it hinder another sector - off course it does, it misses the opportunity to showcase something modern, something cool which affects the sport as a whole. Then, of course, it hinders the introduction of a women's high performance boat. Less women’s disciplines at the games = less women sailing or considering sailing as a sport, look at the 29er and 420 fleets there are loads of females sailing, then what happens - having babies excepted.

The 2012 games are going to be about youth - look at the thinking behind the logo and the introduction of skate boarding and bmx, look at the IOC's policy of making the games more youth orientated.

In a few more games cycles Nintendo Wii (or whatever derivative it becomes) will be an Olympic sport and sailing will still be arguing about whether the men should have a heavy one person boat whilst the woman cook them large dinners and pamper their grandparents.

Get the gist ISAF - it just aint cool to stamp your authority on how to run media friendly races, yet make the woman stay at home and the men to sail pieces of history.

However there is hope....... the Laser could be the one person dingy heavy, the moth the one person dingy, the 49er men and woman the two person dingy, the keel boat men could be match racing along side the woman in supplied boats with a world cup race circuit, which the Americas cup teams would use, massive media interest as the circuit roles around the world.

Cam Lewis skipper of the maxi cat, Team Adventure in 'The Race' 2001 shares his views:

Hey lets put in Dragons, Tempests, Solings and 5.5 meters back in - while we kill the Cat and let lead mines in our world showcase!

What are my boys going to think - ages 11 and 14 - about Olympics? Maybe they should start training for the 2014 USA Curling team instead - they get more TV coverage than grass growing on lead mines bottoms!

Mike Home has this to say:

Yesterday it looked as if we might get a real step forward with the positive inclusion of an open multihull class and dropping either the star or Finn and frankly I feel we don't need two single handed classes. Then the women were to be given a chance to show what they can do in a high performance dinghy instead of the boring yngling.

NOW!?! We have gone backwards, and abandoned the exciting classes in favour of the boring - oh what a yawn it will be at Weymouth - hardly media grabbing stuff watching a bunch of tremendously worthy but pedestrian boats chase each other round the bay! It could have been electric and done wonders for our sport in terms of engaging with the public and getting recognition for what our sailors achieve but frankly only the keen sailors will bother watching this selection and most of the non Olympic class sailors and public will switch off.

What a bunch of sad old men are the ISAF. Can't they see the huge interest by young sailors in high performance dinghy and cat sailing?

Foiling Moth sailor, Doug Culnane, feels for the athletes:

I feel so sorry for the Olympic athletes that will have to sail these boring boats for the next few years. I can choose not to show an interest in Olympic sailing but this is their job, and they cannot all sail the one high performance boat.

William Tucker says:

I can't see this decision being to my peoples liking. It smacks of issues being ducked and short term measures being taken. I predict the whole issue will be re-opened for the games following Weymouth.

What it does do is go a long way to dealing with the issue of body sizes (sailing being a sport that can work for many different body shapes and sizes both male and female.)

The cost though would seem to be a lack of excitement in female sailing in particular, and no reduction in infrastructure costs. Whilst this may not be a problem for 2012 as most of the infrastructure already exists, it does nothing for 2016, however.

What will the IOC make of this? More pressure on ISAF to change for 2016 thereby giving no real scope for long term planning. The keelboats had better watch out!

Paul Reeve shares his views:

I have just seen the latest listing for 2012, and obviously the RYA succeeded in its quest to ensure that the Olympics only have classes where GB stand a high chance of winning a medal! (One Tornado medal in 31 years).

However, what I cannot understand is why the girls get match racing, and the men do not. Women's keelboat sailing is a poor joke at the moment, so how is match racing going to improve the situation? Whatever boat is selected is going to need at least 3 crew, so nothing is going to improve with respect to cost, plus now specialist match racing coaches as well as speed coaches will be required, with only one boat to look after.
The ISAF appear to be obsessed about having women's sailing, but actually are doing all they can to make it unattractive to women!

Phillip Lawrence spots and interesting point:

We now have Match racing in the Olympics and probably Catamarans in the Americas Cup!

What do you think about the selected events, e-mail us at batmail@thedailysail.com