Tornado class in chaos

The controversial Code 0 development has created a major rift among Olympic catamaran sailors

It promised to be a glorious send-off for the Rodney March-designed catamaran after 32 years as an Olympic class. But the Code 0 development (read more about this here) has caused a deep rift in the class setting luminaries such as Roman Hagara (AUT), Mitch Booth (NED) and Charlie Ogletree (USA) against each other.

So much so that Hagara won’t even rule out the possibility of his quitting the competition due to start next Friday. The Austrian double Olympic champion wants his fellow sailors to sit down and thrash out whether Code 0s should be allowed or not.

A series of recent practice races in Qingdao have shown that the two crews leading the development, Mitch Booth’s and the Ogletree/Lovell combination, have a marked speed advantage in light winds. So unsettling has this been that the Aussies Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby are amongst several crews to have rushed into the building their own copies of the Code 0s.

With six world titles to his name, two of them with Ashby, there’s a valid argument to say that Bundock is an even clearer favourite in the Tornado than Ben Ainslie is in the Finn. Fortunately for the Aussies, Ashby’s a talented sailmaker and so has been able to buy sail cloth and make a Code 0 in Qingdao. It’s the fact that the Aussies feel the need to make 11th hour sails that shows just how fearful that the Dutch and Americans could walk off the medals if the winds stay super soft.

Not for nothing does Britain’s Will Howden fears the Gold medal could be “won by a technical advantage rather than a sailing advantage.” His partner Leigh McMillan believes that the Tornado is now effectively a one-design and “unless the class rule permits something it is prohibited” and therefore the Code 0s should never have seen the light of day in the first place.

This is where the dispute starts to get messy as Hagara has accused Ogletree of acting in his own interest and not that of the class. Ogletree is chairman of the class technical committee, on which Howden also sits as does Hagara’s long-standing crew Hans Peter Steinacher.

It’s not quite an internecine knife fight, but it is probably not far off it.

“Charlie is the president of the technical committee of the class and if he finds some holes in the rules that are maybe causing some problems, which allow things to happen like now, then he should stand up and say ‘there is something wrong, we have to do something,” said Hagara yesterday. “It’s not really fair from him. I don’t want really to race against a different boat.”

Ogletree’s helmsman John Lovell confirms the operating window of the Code 0 is small; under 9 knots he says. So by not measuring in a spinnaker but getting a Code 0 stamped in its place and then using it to provide extra horsepower upwind, the crews using the sail could have a huge advantage if the breeze stays soft.

“If the weather conditions are like this it is very hard to compete against Code 0,” says Hagara. “If you have three boats with these sails the medals are done and you sail just for the 4th place. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to come here, spend a lot of money and then sail for 4th place.”

This is a sentiment echoed by British team leader Stephen Park, who is not sure whether it will only be the Dutch and Americans using the sails. “Frankly if all the races are sailed in four to seven knots we’d expect them to be 1st and 2nd overall so that everyone else would be racing for the Bronze.”

One reason for the Aussie’s decision to build their own Code 0 is that Aussie Olympic sailing supreme Michael Jones failed to get them closed down. Jones asked the Measurement Committee in Qingdao if an upwind spinnaker contravened the class rules.

No, said the committee, “the concept of a smaller gennaker does not contravene the class rules. Class Rule G.5.3 does not specify minimum dimensions.”

Jones tried another line of attack, asking about the dolphin striker fitted to carbon spinnaker launcher the Dutch and American boats to try and get the necessary luff tension into the Code 0.

“The addition of a compression strut and associated rigging below the bow sprit spar would contravene class rules F.5,” responded the committee, thereby negating a tiny bit of the advantage the Code 0s seem to have.

The full extent of the problem will only erupt when the Tornado measurement process begins on 9th August. In itself this presents associated dilemma to those crews considering using their Code 0s as the choice will surely be based on the latest weather information. The Dutch measure-in on the 10th, whilst the Americans have been allocated a time on the 13th. The Tornado competition starts on the 14th.

“We shall see what will be presented at measurement by the competitors and if the sails and the equipment complies with the class rules or not. The measurers will decide,” said ISAF secretary general Jerome Pels who is monitoring the gathering storm as one of the two ISAF Technical Delegates to the Olympic sailing event.

If lack of clarity in the class rule is what’s given the space for a downwind sail to be used upwind, then it is too late to go through the due process of changing the class rule.

Howden has a neat suggestion however, provided there is an appetite to block the Code 0s. Could ISAF issue an amendment to the Sailing Instructions only permitting Code 0 use if a yellow flag, or some such designated signal, was flown by the race committee?

For this to happen they’d need to be a clear message coming from the 15 crews in Qingdao. Consensus is what Hagara would like.

“I think we have to sit down for sure and make a decision within the Tornado class and the Tornado sailors. We will see what happens,” he said.

When asked a second time about whether banning the Code 0s was a condition for him to compete, Hagara left plenty of space for people to draw whatever conclusion they wanted: “I want to participate for sure…. We will see.”

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