Sailing (Yachting) classes selected for 2012 Olympics:

Men’s One Person Dinghy – Laser
Men’s One Person Dinghy Heavy – Finn
Men’s Two Person Dinghy – 470
Men’s Two Person Dinghy High Performance – 49er
Men’s Windsurfer – RS:X
Men’s Keelboat – Star
Women’s One Person Dinghy – Laser Radial
Women’s Two Person Dinghy – 470
Women’s Keelboat Match Racing – Elliott 6m
Women’s Windsurfer – RS:X

It seems that rather than debate which Catamaran might be the proper platform to follow the Tornado into Olympic history (assuming that a tamed T doesn't re-emerge as TopCat), it makes more sense to try and understand and address the politicical dynamics of being selected to start with.

The controlling bodies seem to want tightly controlled classes that are have broad accessibility and appeal. The Star survives solely because of 100+ years in the barrel. They did fall from favor for one cycle, but resurfaced because of traditional sentiment. They are on thin ice now, however, because of lack of solid control over scantlings, which in fact is probably the root of the Tornado losing favor.

I believe that any "new" multihull must be simple, durable and available world-wide, truly one-design...and actively raced within the sailing community and not just the beach cat community.

A unified approach without internal strife and self-serving prejudices will go a long way toward reclaiming lost ground. I believe that the TCA was late in recognizing their peril and evolved into something that eclipsed the Olympic profile. Perhaps they have lost their chance, but we need to learn from that and not get too fancy if we get the chance again.

There used to be only five or six classes and now there are ten and we are hoping for eleven or twelve. Not likely. The numbers really got out of hand with gender duplicity...not that this is a bad thing. Do we really need Finns and Lasers or 470s and 49ers? However, all of these share a relative simplicity compared to the modern T, F18, or god forbid a tricked out M20.

We don't need to worry so much about whether the best cat sailors will be interested in a selected platform. We need a new stategy to reviatalize interest within the whole sailing community as well as with non-sailing sportsmen in general, in whose minds we are all sailing Hobie Cats.

I think a bigger issue might be whether sailing is still a viable sport in the eyes of some IOC luminaries. We don't often have a spectator friendly venue, although the Chinese did provide what looked like as good an arena as you could ever expect, even though the media couldn't capitalize on it.

The cost of providing such lavish venues may lose favor with economics as they are, and that won't help the spectator appeal and accessibility.

Maybe we belong in the X-Games?