The fate of the Tornado Class.... Doomed in North America

In North America, they have only held three regattas a year for the past several years.

the Miami OCR's.... the North Americans, the week before the OCR's and one other event, The US Nationals, usually in the Fall. (Cork has been dead for years)

So.... No Olympics... means. no invite to the OCRs... which means the RC and venue for the North Americans is also gone.

There is no club in the USA that has more then a single active Tornado in residence so... You have no club organization to step up and run OD events to keep the class alive. Not to mention the distances, time and cost in going to a 6 boat regatta.

As a two man cat... the Tornado has no equal... it's not even close! The refinements in the boat allow the crew teamwork and techinical skill to determine the outcome. Nothing will ever come close again without the stamp of the 5 ring circus. Sigh.... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

So... who exactly is the NATA class president who will be making these future events happen. He /She will be sainted if they can pull this one out of the grave. But with at most 15 to 20 boats in North America and 6 to 10 competitors.... You are hard pressed to see how you could keep a viable racing schedule going. Especially when the young teams, (Merick, Wierda, Jason) just had the carrot removed from the game and the senior teams are approaching retirment, (Lovel, Daniel, Chu).

As a beach boat.... You have think twice as well... Righting a Tornado without assistance is not trivial. 50% of the time... you might need a tow boat... The Tornado will join the other members of the dead boat society.

I think the nail is in the coffin... the OD Tornado activity is over after China!