As far as I know replacing the Tornado has nothing to do with the Tornado. It is related to IOC policy and politics

IOC policy : Sailing is expensive and nobody watches it so, get somebody to pay to donate the equipment for the publicity. (I can't think of any sailing company that would pay to donate boats like Nike does with stuff)

IOC politics - The poor nations feel they have no chance and they don't have the money to participate. The poor nations feel they might have a chance or they might participate if they could charter a stock boat (I think there are more poor nation IOC votes than rich nation IOC votes).

Maybe the thing to do is create a special boat for the Olympics. For example let's create a special F18 that can't be raced outside of the Olympics and strange enough that any F18 would be a good trainer Boron filament mast. Carbon rudders, dagger boards and rigging. A different size illegal sail. OR an F18 with a rigid or semi rigid main. Assemble the boat for the Olympics. Afterwards the "boat" supplier can put the stock parts on, sell it as the Olympic boat and hopefully break even.


Qualification would be must compete in F18 worlds and must not be in the bottom 10%. The F18 builders would agree to provide enough charter boats for all IOC members that want to attend the F18 worlds.


Carl