I think that this is a valid point that Paul Henderson makes.
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* From Paul Henderson: ISAF and Tornado: Let me first state my bias: I like Cats as they are a unique disciplne and they must be sailed as Kinetics are of minimal advantage.
Having said that I fully understand the militancy of the Tornado class but their attacks on the ISAF Executive and especially the President Goran Petersson are unwarranted.
The voting held in November 2007 by the 39 Council members was open and transparent with how each delegated voted published and they are the ones who are responsible.
The ISAF President must support positively the results no matter what his personal position maybe and he has. With regard to reopening the issue at the mid-year meeting, this is not the forum so to do as it is not an urgent decision at this time and the mid-Year meeting is mainly for financial subjects and not major policy discussions. The AGM in November is the proper and Constitutional time to address the classes for 2012. The Executive is right.
Many times the November meeting has reversed decisions previously made after due diligence especially listening to the sailing community and that is when the real indepth decisions will be made. November 2008 is when the final and binding decision on the 2012 events will be held.
The Tornado has a very good case to remain Olympic and they should make their case in a positive manner forgetting the personal attacks.
The solution should be to positively lobby IOC President Rogge (Belgium) and his IOC sailing colleagues who are still IOC Members like Peter Tallberg (Finland), Ng Ser Miang (Singapore), Fernando Lima Bello (Portugal), Prince Albert (Monaco), Barbara Kendall (New Zealand) to delay the deletion of the 11th Event until 2016 as the reason for doing so is now not relevant with the deletion of Basball and Softball. This coupled with the fact that the 2012 Games will be in London, the home of the now #1 sailing nation, makes this request sensible. It is a positive solution to a very disruptive problem. I personally support the other RYA positions also.
