I went to the International Star Site and went through the classified ads yesterday. Folli boats are hot, Lillia boats took Gold and Silver in Athens and Mader boats are perenial favorites. There are many other Star builders out there, but these three are the prefered boats. There were 5 Follis on the site used, but in top race configuration. Most came with only one set of sails, but had two masts. I do not know if trailers were included, but the used price for these boats ran from $38,000 to $45,000. A used Tornado runs between $18,000 to $25,000 in full race ready configuration. This price is based upon 2001 and newer T's. There are some deals out there for used T's as there are for used Stars, it depends upon how motivated the seller is to move the boat. A brand new Star runs between $55,000-$65,000 for a fully rigged, race ready boat. A Tornado straight from Marstrom is $33,500 USD excluding VAT. The sails will put you back another $4,200 including battens, putting the price at $38,000. This does make the tornado of of the most expensive boats for it's size. While the Tornado platform does have a two campaign life cycle, the teams do use quite a few sails and more than a couple of masts over this period. I am placing this information out only to answer a question posted earlier in this thread. The reality of this still is that the equipment costs are still a small portion of what it takes to support a campaign financially. While a race ready Laser can be had for $7,000-$8,000 race ready, you might use 2-3 hull, masts and boards to finish a campaign. Most well funded teams whether it is a Star, Tornado or Laser have 2+ boats. One for racing in the US and another for the European circut. You may ship the US boat to do the Australian, NZ or other Southern Hemisphere venues and keep the European boat solely for that circut. One of the greatest costs in campaigning is the constant travel required in some classes to be able to race and compete with other top level sailors. The US tornado scene right now is quite small. The Tornado Nationals held in 90 or 91 in Quincy Bay had 87-90 teams competing. By 2000, you did well to get 10-20 boats in attendance and 6 sailed this year at the nationals and US Trials. Many things have contributed to the decline; trailerability, cost, new design obsoleting older boats, the level of competition and the lack of promotion, US builders to name a few.
Right now the equipment question for the Olympics is not the issue. It is the slate of events. Once the slate is set, then the equipment question comes in to play. Up until this point, the past runs at the Tornado have primarily come from Hobie. Hobie has put forth the Hobie 16 as their choice to go up angainst the Tornado for that spot. It truly never had a chance even given the number of 16's that are out there racing. I think that if the right class got behind the right boat, it could displace the Tornado, but to date I do not know what that boat would be. the tornado has been developed from a class structure to be an Olympic level boat. This has taken many years work with strong guidance at times to elevate the class to this level. Over the past 10-15 years the level of competition in the Olympics has risen to the elite level solely. It is primarily a professionsal level now. the Star attracts the stars of the monohull world to the class and to the Olympics. Some rise through Lasers or 470's others come from the AC and other elite venues to the Olympics. The Tornado and other multihull classes have not had that ability to draw these high profile sailors to compete on multi's. Have we had our stars? Yes, the likes of Randy Smyth, Paul Elvestrom, the Glasers, Pete Melvin and others, but look at the list of Star celebsand ask yourself why US Sailing is so supportive of this class in the Olympics. This class represents throuout its history some of the all time great sailors of this country and from around the World. It is with this pedegree that US Sailing and the ISAF support the class. They feel that the overall exposure that these stars bring to the event will translate into greater interest in Olympic sailing. They may be correct about that. I followed the Star class in Athens as closely as I followed the Tornado class. But enough said.
We need to decide our course and plan are actions.
