They had stuff for guys, and that stuff got kicked out of the Olympics. Apparently this is what the powers that be had to do to get ANY stuff back in the Olympics. It is what it is, and if we wanted a cat back in...this was how it had to be done. Others here know the details far better than me.

The problem with men on cats had nothing to do with men, or cats. It was an easy target with little political support. There are a million interpretations of this situation, and how we've arrived at the current state, but that's what started it all.

The real question is, how do we dramatically improve those rather dismal Miami results to have any shot at a medal in Rio?

Mike

So what your suggesting is there are no women rooting for women skippers just because they are women, and if they were they are out of touch? LOL!

JC and Sarah did OK, even winning a race. Plus they won the event before against some of the same field...maybe peaked a little earlier? I'm not sure if Robbie and Catherine are in it to win it or? My personal notes:

1) The results are disappointing, considering this is the U.S.A's home territory, I expected stronger finishes from all our teams

2) Clearly the Italians, Australians and British have strong teams. I think that is one key ingredient we are lacking

3) Our teams NEED to be training in Europe. I wouldn't even bother playing this game if you don't have the financial resources for a 2 or even 3 boat campaign, with 1 boat in Europe and another in the U.S to use when qualifying for the U.S team. We saw a similar smack down at Nacra 17 Worlds this past summer. Most of our sailors just don't have the big competitive fleet experience of the Euro's. Take a look at Luke Ramsay's results; he's training with our team in Miami, but AFAIK also owns a second boat in Europe. Further, this was a light air event. What happens when the breeze gets cranked on for the teams that train more in the light (cough cough U.S.A) than the heavy??

I do think JC and Sarah realize #3, and are attempting to raise capital for a 2nd boat to be left in Europe. IMO, they are our best chance for this quad, but there is plenty of work to do.

And you did bring up a good point. Some women are strong enough to handle the job of N17 crew.
i did point out it's a bigoted comment. sort of half joking, but i think you will find there are plenty of olympic records held by men. There is a female saying: men are idiots and i do fall into that category. Prolly being good at sports doesn't mean men should run the world though.


Again, there was the initial reaction that women would be driving the N17s at the next oylmics meaning men would need to wait a dozen years for a shot at winning a gold in cats at an olympics.
It now looks like both men and women are getting a shot, but it would be more fair to the women to have their own division.

No one doubts that athletic performance is fundamentally tied to one's intrinsic biology determined by your genes. Obviously men and woman differ with X an Y chromosomes making up the 23rd pair. So, their athletic performance will differ. We ARE egalitarian... we support Mens and Woman's events...

OPEN multihull with the right equipment would be egalitarian, eg. sailors are sailors...

Mixed Multihull with the right equipment is political...eg what sex is driving... what sex is crewing....what about muslim countries... Gee, what other Olympic events (that are not performance art) are mixed.... Settling for Mixed multihull was a short sighted mistake!


The bottom line, the OCR's prove that the intrinsic US Sailing tradition is simply not strong enough or deep enough in the new high performance disciplines to get you up to world class performance standards quickly ...
20's in the 49FX and Teens in the N17s
US Olympic understood that it could be an 8 year effort to get there. AND... It's not going to be easy!

I suspect we would be much more enthusiastic about the future if we saw 20 junior teams at F16 youth champs and another 40 youth teams around the country trying to get to youth champs or ISAF world selection events.. ditto for 29ners!

I knew a few that were strong enough to handle crew on an N20 when it's honking... Gina, Kathy, Laura, Laurie, the list goes on....

The reality is regardless of gender to make it in an olympic sailing event you have to be supremely fit.....any of the sailors would knock spots off the fitness of any of us forum posters regardless of their sex......I have very close contact with all the GBR teams and I do know how many hours a day they spend in the gym on fitness and strength.......the girls level of fitness makes me ashamed of my physical ability.......any one who questions their fitness and physical aptitude really have no f**king idea.....

And to that note, the Brits seem to have the recruitment and development program figured out pretty well also.

Long Live Eddie the Eagle (who was, in his defense, a pretty decent skier)

How's about you keep any comments involving my wife to yourself?

Technically the comment was about you. As for myself I do not have the same opinion because I know you're like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day and an absolute delight to live with.

i think the same is true for windsurfers and kite surfers. The top women can put most all men to shame and only the top men have a chance of putting in a better performance than them.