Anyone else seen this?
http://www.internationalmultihull.org/
Has a new organization started up?

Firstly the preferred cat was a one design F18, not a Tiger. Considering the (VERY) large majority of the attendies were from the Pittwater Cat Club (Hobie Club) it was never going any other way. The Tiger would be a great choice for Hobiecat and would see their values jump quiet a bit while knocking the resale values of the other class and effectively hurting the F18 concept. This is not what the F18 class needs.

I am sure the Hobie guys would not be so keen on the idea if it was the Nacra Infusion that was selected.

Don't think Bundy was offering to do this. He suggested we should, however is a very unrealistic idea. Purchasing a second boat to sail once a month on.... Who has the time, the space to keep a second boat, a second boat/trailer to register, insure, maintain. It is not going to happen. Most off us don't have enough time / money to ballance racing our serious boat, travelling every month whilst balancing our sailing with our home life and careers.

That sugestion was knocked on the head very quickly.

As for Bundy, you rarely see im race in OZ on the F18 and not at all on the Tornado now days as he is too busy with his off shore campaign.

The one thing I was sick of hearing at the meeting was a lot of sailors turning to Phil Jones as asking how can the YA help us with a youth development program and how can we get funding for it.

We have a lot of smart cat sailors around and there is no reason why with a little effort, they can not get a well funded program off the ground themself at their clubs. Why would the YA want to help us if we do not want to help ourselves. If we made an effort, showed them we were very serious, then and only then should they even consider assisting us.

To tell you the truth, I was very embarrassed by some of the comments coming from some top sailors there. Many of these sailors will put their 2 cents worth in, but when it comes to crunch time, it would be up to the avaerage club sailor to put in the hard yards to get it off the ground and continuly support it whilst the 'good' sailors are off sailing for themselves, looking back at the club guys as second rate sailors.

Firstly it's great to see cat sailors getting all excited with enthusiastium. But I would like to see true facts when one puts a posting on open forums, it is also not the time to be critical of ideas or other class's, the vote was for one class design F18. The only mention of tiger was from Darren,as there is only two F18's at this stage that would qualify, the Tiger and the Infusion, and I think the tiger is the only one that is a legally registered ISAF boat!!! As to the comment regarding values of the boats, yes it probably would increase the value of the tigers if chosen, is this a bad thing I don;t think so as I believe the 2nd hand market is far too cheap. It would only be good for all F18 boats and sailors the added exposure, the credability and the increase in competition, I think you will find that majority of sailors will come to the F18 class not necessarily the tiger but to prove their worth as a possible olympic campaigner. Something that my good old mum used to keep reminding of, it is always a good idea to shoot for the stars but start at the clouds first.
Love always Mark

Geez, don't get too far ahead of yourselves, the Tornado has only just been dropped and you're already arguing over the next cat to get into the Olympics!? umm hello...

Then write a report yourself next time you arrogant butt.

It'll be great to have another major competition you cant come to if you havn't got a friggin hobie

Berny, tell us how you really feel. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

And don't forget that most of the Olympic classes only "survive" as dedicated Olympic classes. I think the laser is the only class that has a reasonable contingent of non-Olympic hopefulls. Maybe the 470 in Europe can be thought of similarly.

Why would any other class want to be Olympic? It has decimated participation in many classes, 49er, Tornado. Only Olympic hopefulls are tempted to these classes generally. The Etchells refuse to be Olympic despite being the most popular keel boat in the size range of the existing classes. This is because it would destroy their local club class racing.

There are fairly good T fleets in the UK. Not massive fleets, but they grew as a result of the new rig.

Scooby... how did that work..

You had a Hurricane fleet (which I understand is a Hobie 20 like boat with a main and jib) going strong. The F18 fleet was going well in the EU and the F20 fleet was collapsing. And then you had the Spitfire spin fleet start and grow as well.

What was the magic that let the Tornado revive.. other then being the best ride out there.

Sorry to Hijack... never understood how it happened.

According to a reliable source, the A Class also declined an invitation to become the Olympic single handed dinghy or something like that. I guess it was after the tests in Quiberon about five or six years ago.

All very interesting. I never raelly thought about anyone not wanting to be included in the olympics, [no capital intended]

The "Australis" A cat was once proposed as a Olympic boat.. The idea was rejected by the A cat association in the 60s or was it 70s..

The 49er was designed to be the Olympic boat from day 1. Just a good lobbying and marketing push saw it in.. I'm fairly certain the whole SMOD idea for Olympic classes was Bethwaites idea. As I recall the class wasn't that big when it was selected. It helped that "Monkey" Bethwaite set up a series of manufacturers to build a few hulls in various continents to ensure "International" compliance day one.

As I read the "International class rules" even the F16 would now qualify for official ISAF International status!! Apart from we are a strange bunch of owners and I suspect the class would reject the "honour"..

The A class saw inclusion into the Olympics as their death knell to the class numbers worldwide (and they were probably right).
This was primarily due to what happened at the time when the Tornado was chosen for the Olympics.
To make an important correction here, it wasn’t really the Tornado that was selected, but the selection had been made that a cat representing the “B” class of catamaran was to be included into the Olympics and the Tornado was the cat that was then selected from a series of “trials” between several types of “B” class cats.
At that time the “B” class was the most innovative, experimental and largest growing class of cat in the world and the variety and numbers of different cats being built within it’s “box rule” was impressive. After the Tornado gained inclusion into the Olympics, the “B” class simply died and the only example to be seen for decades has been the Tornado.
Many multihull people over the years have stated (perhaps cynically, perhaps not) both privately and publicly, that the only reason the “B” class was included in the Olympics was (mono hull bias) trying to “kill” the growing numbers of cats being put on the water, and looking at the numbers historically, this was the overall effect (whether intentional or not) until someone called Hobie came along and attracted an entirely untapped market – people who had never sailed before!

Mark

With the modern rig on the T it meant that there was a 'modern' assymetric boat for the 'fat boys' to sail, so that those people to large for the F18 could sail the T and be competitive. The Hurricane has now followed suite and has modernised its rig to include an assymetric, as the Hurricane SX and has also seen a resurgance in its popularity. The F20 never really caught on here in the UK although there are a few around.

Anyway back to thread...........

*nods*..
I am old enough to remember as a kid watching the B class take off.. Mantas, Tornados & Quest B2s all in one fleet.. Hell I even recall a fleet of Cs!!..
Interestingly while the T had been chosen here at least the QB2s were faster.. (the low aspect rig had attended the trials and well beaten on the day but the high aspect rig was far superior and the overall package was quicker here at least).. Also the T was a home build boat was favoured as I recall over the professionally built QuestB2.

After the choice the Mantas and Quests had their own fleet with the Ts wanted to sail alone in the "Olympic" fleet.. Eventually only new Ts were built.. The B Class died as old boats disappeared due to old skippers retiring or broke..

At least I guess the decision allows for a B class to revive.. With the updated rig should be interesting to see new versions of the Blade B2, Capricorn B2..
<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I know the A-cat class specifically declined to be considered as an olympic class for this reason. ISAF and IOC see only OD classes as viable meaning that they have to pick on specific brand out of a formula class thus effecting a huge inbalance inside that class. The A's and I suspect the F18's much rather do without. Either the olympic class needs to be the full formula class or they need to choose the Tornado again. A hobie 16 without a spi is just not doing it televison wise.

Wouter

On legal terms the F16 class satisfied those requirements first in 2005. And we have indeed thanked for the honour thus far. When I was still chairman the main reasons for this was the application fee (quite steep) and the fact that the class rules had to be totally rewritten to be more reflective of an unreadable bureaucratic document were all rights for changing the class rules were signed over to some obscure ISAF committee. Yeah ! as if !

Wouter