In the US it would be the intense fear of putting a spinnaker on the H16.

I'd like to see it on a formula boat, but not OD or SMOD. I'd like to see the development that comes out of it.

$$$$

This was one of the knocks against the Tornado in the last Olympic appearance of Multis, that they were NOT one design, specifically in the sail inventory. A lot of time and money was spent by teams developing sails. This led to some crazy out of the box thinking, but wasn't that good from a press perspective (lets not forget the US team's 'code zero' esq kite and how well that worked....).

The T class has worked hard to eliminate this stuff and is now a strict OD (AFAIK), with OD sails now as well. I think they have possitioned themselves well to be the next Olympic boat again.

Nice development track for juniors as well (one example):
Opti (under 15)-> F16 (15 - 18/19) -> F18 (18+)-> Tornado
(example ages and boats)

(I would suspect in places like NA where their never was a huge Tornado fleet even with Olympic status teams would have an F18 here to get into bigger regattas, but maybe not)

It's the culture.

I'd do an Olympic "fantasy camp".

Sorry; do you mean Optimists for up to 15 year olds? I was breaking Toppers and lasers at that age and helming a Dart 18. Most kids in the UK leave the oppie fleet way before 15.

as I stated example ages, class rules are that you age out of the opti at 15. yes, some kids size out before that (from your comments, you are an example).

My experience coaching Optis State side is a lot of the top opti kids stay with the class until 14 or 15 (basically if they qualify for the Nat team or not), even if they could handle a laser 4.7, as the quality of the events / fleet warrants staying in the Opti. I would also argue that a kid who doesn't size out of an Opti implies a smaller person, and would not be an ideal candidate for Olympic Laser or Finn, but perhaps ideal for skipping a Multihull. Right now in the States and Canada (the only places I have experience with) those 'smaller' kids tend to have a hard time finding a home in sailing, usually going the route of skipping a 420 or a 29er (if they are lucky) and end up getting bored with sailing and leaving (hence, why I proposed the development track above, get them hooked with Multis). This is just my 2 cents, and I doubt it is even worth that much

This is neither here nor there though, and is a bit tangent to the discussion in this thread, so I'll leave at that

Screw the opti if you want to develope cat sailors Bravo,wave, 450 , dragoon ect.

Opti until 15? My 15yo is 1.80m and hasn't been able to fit in an opti for years! He's been sailing cats for the last two years, rotomolded relatively slow ones (but with spi). The problem is the lack of cat regatta for kids in the UK, all his regattas so far have been on RS Feva, a two man hiking asymmetric mono because there are no kids regatta on cats in the UK...

Just think, if the boat chosen is a single manufacturer, one-design, the manufacturer will have to make sure that their boat is really 'one-design'.

That means every main, jib, spinnaker, rig, laminate schedule etc, etc down to the last ring ding will have to be exactly the same. Could be good for quality. As it sits right now, there's a lot of variation...everywhere.

see above... example ages, just listed class rules

Exactly. Only one team wins your country's slot.... it's a zero sum game. Bad things happening to a countryman are good for you. Training with a US Team is bad for your chances... Consequently you train with an international team who faces similar circumstances. The culture is corrosively competitive and more like a pro sport... (without the big pay checks)

I bet if you asked every US Cat Class they uniformly will tell you... Oh... the class is very friendly.... People are very willing to share information and help you out.. So, If that's the case... Why is high ligting "sharing" and "Friendly" even an issue?.... answer... they are in stark contrast to Olympic Classes.

2) The Olympics dominates your schedule. Grade I regattas are locked in a regatta circuit. The only window for the US to host a grade I event is January in the Keys... or perhaps Dec. Boats have to be shipped to the next big event.

3) Last point... when you have your signature regatta... you expect your US Olympic sailors to participate.... But they are racing in the EU... and sorry... they are not going to make it.. Since people are closer to sheep then they admit and ... they want to follow the fleet leaders... Regattas crater when they fail to get critical mass of the top sailors.

All in all...It's better for a sailor to choose to opt into an Olympic flavor of your kind of sailing. Let the popular classes develop their own culture and traditions minus the attitudes needed to survive Olympics.

I have no idea why people are so content with the proposal of a mixed Catamaran (versus Open or M/F).

Quick Test... who won the US Open Mixed Doubles Tennis Tournament?

Good luck "screwing the opti", biggest junior fleet in the world, one of the biggest OD in the world, all the top worlds sailors started in them. They may not be the sexiest things out there (or at all), but I wouldn't try to replace the Opti, I would simply work with it.

besides, its hard to argue that kids who learn how to drive an in an opti don't know how to drive anything else... I digress.... beauty of sailing, you can find a boat / role for almost all personality and fitness / physical types, the key is finding it early enough that you don't leave the sport.

Now, back to Multihulls in the Olympics....

Do we REALLY think that 10 or so (US based) teams that would put forth a serious Olympic campaign will have a negative affect on one of these classes? Really? I don't think that is sound thinking.

Blimey! where have you been?

There are quite a lot of people doing quite a lot for junior and youth cat sailing in the UK. It might mean a departure from what you want to be doing, but its worth the effort

Naa; I'm a microlight; I was about 60 kg until I was about 18! went up to about 65 / 68 while sailing the Hurri and T ; now about 75-80 (lard is good for ski racing!!!!).

Sorry, didn't want to offend anyone, I know about the cat youth squad, they train at Datchet quite often. I'm saying that the inter-club youth regattas are not on multi: You have toppers, vibes and lasers and not one cat anywhere. See the youth open last week at queen mary. Cats were not invited (but them, queen mary people are racists, they do not allow catamarans with spi...)

As Russell Coutts says, "You don't have to be a good Opti sailor to be a good sailor."

Not true (I sail a Tornado)

Unfortunatly it was the change in the Tornado Class rules for those Games only that generated the development of the Code Zero. The Tornado Class does not race in 5 knots or less however some feared that in Beijing we would not have seen any racing due to the history of light wind there. Sadly, Beijing ended up being the windiest Olympics the Games have seen for a very long time and the Code Zero did not make the impact it was intended to do, however made quiet a negative impact in the press.

So, moral to the story.... Don't F#$k with the class rules for such an event.