Feedback

From Brian Raney
How would you set about selecting the Olympic classes for 2008 and beyond? 1) Eliminate redundancies: Basically, the Finn and Laser serve the same purpose - singlehanded male. There also seems to be overlap with the 470 and 49er. 2) Move to the out-of-the-box approach, as in the Laser, with popular, cheap classes. 3) Use the same hulls for male and female events. Eliminate the male/female split for crewed boats. 4) Reflect the most common forms of sailing, not anachronisms that have political clout (Finn, Europe, Star). So this leads to... Singlehanded male: Laser standard Singlehanded female: Laser Radial Board male: limited formula with standard board Board female: limited formula with standard board Doublehanded dinghy open: 470 or something else Doublehanded skiff open: 49er or something else Doublehanded catamaran open: Tornado or something else Keelboat open: Etchells (admit that mistake from the past), or maybe something else like a J22 or J24, but not the Soling or Yngling.

From Linda Johnson
How would you set about selecting the Olympic classes for 2008 and beyond? Does Paul Henderson really think about one design? There is nothing more one design than Mistral boards and changing to Formula is only going back to cheque book sailing. One youth turned up at the Formula Worlds with 14 different mast, as many sails and other equipment. How on earth can other people compete on a even playing field. I am not against Formula but have already seen young people dropping out of windsurfing after changing from Mistral to Formula because after one season they realise that the three people at the top with unlimited amounts of equipment are the three who always win. Most of the Mistral sailors have two boards (if they are lucky) one of training and one for competing, two sails, a mast and a boom. These are replaced as and when necessary. Mistral sailing is real one design and Formula will never be that.

From Jim King.
How would you set about selecting the Olympic classes for 2008 and beyond? One of the reasons why sailing has managed to keep a constant flow of new people into the sport as well as retain others is the development of new and exciting classes. This is brought about by technology and learning from what we have done before. I cannot see a reason why people should not be allowed to race technology classes alongside talent classes. This is what happens now so keep the status quo.

From Paul R Reeve
How would you set about selecting the Olympic classes for 2008 and beyond? Henderson is right but also naive, the extreme development side required for most of the Olympic classes has no real place in modern sailing. Pictures of 3 top male coaches working shifts to sand down the inside of Shirley Robertson's Europe mast on the eve of the last Olympics are not a good advert for the IOC ideal of purity of competition. In all Olympic sports, talent and preparation win medals, and sailing at Sydney proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt. However that preparation should be in sailing, all sailors in the world face similar restrictions in being able to practise, but very few are capable of research projects into wing masts, and minute variations in hull shapes. Henderson's naivety is that the amount of money required to win a medal is uncontrollable, all that Henderson's proposals can hope to do is that the money is being spent in a direction that does not preclude others from entering the games.