I have actively supported the Tornado class for years from behind the scenes. I no longer race Tornados, but A's instead. This arguement needs to about catamarans in the Olympics right now versus which is the most suitable class to represent this discipline in the games. Right now at the 2007 Ronstan A-Cat Worlds there are 6 former and 2-3 present Tornado Class Olympians or medalists competing. You have former Olympians and world champions from other classes also racing there. The reaction from those attendees at the 2007 Ronstan A-Cat Worlds has ranged from utter dis-belief, shock and dumb-foundedness through to outright anger that this happened. There are some in attendance that are also fine or at least ambivelant to this. So be it, if you feel strongly about this issue, then speak up and get involved with the fight and help campaign to reverse this decision. I am a member of USsailing, ISAF, USACA, ITA and UKCRA for the simple reason of either giving support or wanting to have a voice. Since the decision came down, I have written and sent almost 30 letters out, letters not emails, to every individual that I feel is either responsible in some way for how the voting went or has the ability to impact this decision. I have also read the UKCRA letter and want to know much more about the US delegation and the 470 class. Is this real or is it hearsay? I do not want to begin throwing darts at targets that are wrong, but I do want to know if there were underhanded politics at play here. I want the TRUTH about what happened here and after the ISAF recommendation that listed 5 men's events, 4 Women's events and finally multihull as the open class. I re-post below the ISAF Events Committee reccomendations.
THE OLYMPIC BOAT DEBATE AT THE ISAF The events for the 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition are the main focus of the day at the ISAF Annual Conference as the Event Committee meet in Estoril, Portugal.
The ISAF Events Committee is tasked with recommending to the ISAF Council the events to be used for the Olympic Sailing Competition. The events are selected five years ahead of the Olympic Games, so at this Annual Conference the decision is for the ten events for the 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition. The ISAF Council will make the final decision on the ten events in their meeting from 8-10 November - the Events Committee are affectively the experts and their recommendation will help inform the Councils decision.
[quote] The ISAF Council, at the 2007 ISAF Mid-Year Meetings, had decided on a split of six male/open events and four female events, and drawn up a list from which the ten events could be selected Like the Womens Sailing Committee yesterday, the Events Committee broke the decision on the ten events down into several stages. First up was the decision on the discipline of the womens keelboat event (if selected): match or fleet racing. The Events Committee mirrored the decision of the Womens Sailing Committee and decided on match racing.
The voting process went through several rounds. First of all the multihull option was rejected from the womens slate. Next up the keelboat (match racing) missed out. In the mens events, the voting process ended with a choice between the two person dinghy and the keelboat to fill the sixth event slot. The two person dinghy won the day, making the Events Committee recommendation to Council for the following events:
Windsurfer - men One person dinghy - men One person dinghy heavy - men Two person dinghy high performance - men Two person dinghy - men Multihull - open Windsurfer - women One person dinghy - women Two person dinghy - women Two person dinghy high performance - women
The Events Committee will now pass their recommendation on to the ISAF Council, who will decide the events for the 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition in their meeting from 8-10 November[quote]
What angers me the most about this are two things. First are the back-room dealings and collusions that seem to have been perpertrated by our own US delegation and that is un-forgivable. Second is simply that fact that there are 6 dinghy events in the games. Count them 6!!! What is that all about? Please someone, tell me that this makes any sense, help me to understand why this is good for sailing in general, youth development or the proper representation of the sport. I am at the point that my anger at the organizing bodies is so great on this issue that I might begin sending out letters that actually show my anger.
I keep reading statements posted in many different places basically stating so what, who cares or what is the big deal. I think on a thread on Yachts and Yachting somebody posted a reverse look at the classes with every class being a multihull. Like: Men's Multihull-Single Men's Multihull-Two Handed Men's Multihull-Single-Heavy Weight Men's Multihull-Two Handed High Performance Men's Sailboard Men's Keelboat or Double-handed Dinghy Women's Multihull-Single Women's Multihul-Two Handed Womeen's Multihull-Match Racing Women's Sailboard, Keelboat or Double-handed Dinghy
This might look great to all of us who have or once had Olympic asperations. Imagine, 6 classes that could possibly get you there! But it is just as wrong as the decision that took place yesterday. We do need an Olympic berth, not for catamarans to thrive, grow and prosper, but to give our youth a chance to believe that they have what it takes to compete and win at that level. Let them have a place to dream about an Olympic future. This is not for everyone, but it should not be closed to this segment of the sailing community. Sailboards were not on either the US or UK initial proposals, but there was great support for both classes and great for them. It is time again to continue this fight or campaign. John William's email reply is basically that maybe it is time to look to 2016 with a laser like focus. I am not ready to give up on 2012 and believe that if we loose representation there, it will be much more difficult, if not impossible to be re-instated 4 years down the road. rmemember that Stars were removed from these games and petitioned their way back in and will now be represented in London 2012 as well. Please do not give up! Please join the fight. Thank You!
