Well it looks like the top three US N17 teams have split up and are racing with new partners. Handicapping the teams will be tough.

The Miami OCR N17 fleet is capped at 40 entries with 47 applications submitted... It looks like a good number of the US teams won't make the cut. (The US gets one extra and then each country gets a slot until the magic cutoff is reached) Dec 5th is the cut day.... The US looks like they will allocate the remaining slots at the MLK pre regatta.

Hopefully this flux works out for the USA and we can qualify for one of the remaining 9 slots for Rio.

American Entries:

John Casey/Kristen Lane
Courtney Clamp/ David Whitehurst
Robbie Daniel/ Sarah Streater
Michael Easton/ Katie Pettibone
Cate Gundlach/ Garrett Brown
David Hein/ Jessica Claflin
Stephanie Hudson/ tbd
Mark Mendelblatt/ Carolina Mendelblatt
Sarah Newberry/ Matthew Whitehead
Stephanie Roble/ Tripp Burd
Sandra Tartaglino/ Tyler Burd
Jeremy Wilmot/ Louisa Chafee

Lots of potentially good pairings. JC will definitely be fast on the helm, and it will be interesting to see how quickly Kristen adjusts to the front of the boat (she had been skippering the 49erfx). Easton/Pettibone have a ton of potential in my opinion, and they will be training a lot leading up to the event. Roble/Burd will be fast because, well, Burd. Newberry/Whitehead bring lots of experience and will likely get up to speed as a team quick.

My prediction:
1. Easton/Pettibone
2. JC/Lane
3. Wilmot/Chafee
4. Roble/Burd

Only four spots left for the US to qualify for Rio- 3 at the 2015 Worlds, and 1 at Continental qualification event

Is Jeremy Wilmot eligible to sail for the US?

Jeff,

My read of the US Sailing team selection process is that the top three ISAF ranked sailors are teams 1 through 3..

So that puts
Newberry
Daniel
Hudson in the OCR's with their new partners. (usually the helm takes priority)

The US probably gets 2 more slots that will be awarded at the MLK event.

I would say that Casey, Easton and Mendelblatt are the most experienced helms in the remaining pool and hopefully the US gets six teams into the OCR.

It will be very tough to get into the remaining gold cup events without scoring well at the OCR and that is important to have a good shot that a team could catch fire an qualify the US for a spot.

Of course, lots of cat sailors on the list from which to choose your favorite.

I'm highly intrigued by the list of "unknowns" (or at least, lesser-knowns, aka non-cat-sailors like Jeff). Are these folks the future of our sport, or are they just in it as an experiment?

Any rundown of hometowns and prior experience available for the field?

Here is my extent of "knowledge" of the newbies, feel free to add/correct...

Stephanie Hudson is the former dinghy sailor, was sailing the N17 at a ton of international events with Ian this past year, correct? Their results were steadily improving over the year.

Jessica Claflin is from RI and came up through NBYA regattas before heading to Brown. She used to hang out on the side of the signal boat and talk to the RC while waiting for the rest of the fleet to finish. No clue how she wound up on cats with David Hein?

Chafee is a very RI name (politicians), Louisa's another Brown grad, and raced with Hein at the F16 Worlds in Newport this year. Wilmot's an import, maybe he has citizenship by now? I've seen their boat at Sail Newport.

Mike

Mark,

I believe you are correct, and I'm pretty sure the ISAF ranking travels with the skipper. What I don't know is if US Sailing is having a qualification event for any additional spots, or if they will allocate all the spots through qualifying. It an incredibly transparent process/organization (sarcasm).

Mike,

As far as some of the new folks:

Kristen Lane- experience as helm in Melges 24, 29er, 49erfx, etc. Not sure cat/crewing experience

Courtney Clamp- Sailed in college for UF, I don't think a huge cat background

Katie Pettibone- America's Cup and Whitbread experience

Jessica Claflin- Started sailing with David earlier this fall, been training in Newport and Miami. Did some F18 sailing with us this spring as an intro to cats.

Stephanie Roble- Sailed for ODU in college, top level Laser Radial sailor before switching to match racing where she is one of the top women in the world

Louisa Chafee- Sailed for Brown, been sailing with Jeremy regularly for the last year. I think her first cat sail was also on an F18 with Tripp.

Pretty certain Jeremy can sail for the US now.

Cool, thanks Jeff. Glad they're cutting their teeth with existing cat fleets, maybe that will help with retention?

Mike

My prediction:
1. Easton/Pettibone
2. JC/Lane - This is going to be a tight battle for the top 2
3. Daniel/Streeter
4. Roble/Burd I'm split here over Wilmot/Chafee but I think they Stephanie will get up to speed fast especially with Tripp's nice forearms running the boat.

Jessica Claflin and I were friendly from when I worked at Vanguard. I introduced her to Tripp. Her, I and Tripp sailed a few times.

It is impressive to see the interest in the 17 fleet from outsiders. This might be the biggest entry from the US besides the Mens Laser, more than Radials. Impressive considering that it's a new class and the commitment level to buy a 17 over a Laser, 470, or etc.

Jeff



They actually are transparent this time... Adams has a memo that clearly states... after the top three ISAF slots.... the MLK pre event will decide the remaining US slots in all classes...

So... It is 40 slots... I think 17 countries are entered so far... Only the USA has more then 4 boats registered... so... I think the US gets 4 certain slots and maybe 5 boats into the game. Six would be perfect.

It will be game on for all of the new teams at the MLK event.

I am confused about the total slots for rio tho...

I read that there are 20 slots for multis... so 19 plus Brazil. (This is more then in China???)

They have awarded a bunch so far (10).... and then 3 at then next ISAF worlds and then 1 more at the 2-15 continentals... Other continentals are also awarding one slot.. (Africa gets a continental slot to award)

Does that continental slot have to go to a country within that continent? Is that why you say 3 plus the 1 slots are available? or are there really 9 open slots left with a year plus to go?

Good to know, haven't seen that memo anywhere.

My reading of the qualification system is that a continental qualifier can only qualify NOCs from that continent. If that is the case, there are 4 more spots available to the US.

Here are the relevant links, maybe I'm reading it wrong:
http://www.sailing.org/news/37382.php
http://www.sailing.org/tools/documents/201402Rio2016QualificationSystemFINALSailingEN-[16399].pdf

Ah... I see that you are right...

Wow!!!... that means that somebody from North America has to finish what... top 15 at the next worlds or it would come down to the US vs Canada vs Puerto Rico at the 2016 OCR.

How does this not turn into a judging nightmare with charges of team racing the other countries just enough to get the spot.

hmm... (well.... it won't be the first time that USA catamarans have the...." you are team racing" protest battle.)

Um... Captain Obvious says: "Simple. Just finish first. If you can't do that at a qualifier, you have no prayer of Olympic medals."

Mike

Countries that have qualified:
1 FRA , 2 ARG , 3 AUS ,4 ITA, 5 NZL, 6 SUI, 7 GBR, 8 DEN, 9 AUT, 10 NED

Notable countries not on that list:
USA, CAN, ARU, BRA, SIN, SWE, ESP, GER, PUR, RUS, URU

The Continental qualifier should be (that have active teams):
USA, ARU, CAN, PUR

Also interesting what happens if there is not a team from a continent (Africa?)

Where do they put the arab gulf states...... they are spending big bucks supporting sailing?

You have to think south africa will find a team to play... They have strong hobie 16 history and Dart 18 history in the past... Why not... and doesn't Hobie have a central african country with a fleet of Hobie 16s.... The whole point of this system was to get those countries to put in a team... (god only knows how much it costs to send a team... but still).

They do have a mechanism to reallocate... so I suspect that they go back to the results of the N17 worlds and take the next ranked country as qualified.... (so a 4th slot plus [1 continental]would open up)

Sliding in through the back door will only result in a harsh slap of reality at some point that you just don't belong there... Not sure that anyone spends the time and effort to get to the Olympics "just for the experience."

Mike

funny, my coach once asked something very similar... "you've spent 14 years of your life training to be a spectator?"

Don't get me wrong. I line up to spend my time and money going to NAs for the experience. These athletes put their lives and careers on hold (or should), and spend their (and others') money to the tune of many, many times what we spend to be at the middle or bottom of the fleet at our NAs.

Mike

Mike

My point... there is honor in representing your country ... that is unique...... and winning a medal... priceless.
We honor and respect all of the sailors working that hard to represent the US... winning something is icing....

China had sailors who had never raced catamarans before and they represented their country at the last multihull event.... better still... they beat the USA.

There is no backdoor... just opportunities that are now global.
Its like being allowed to buy a lottery ticket.... no play... no shot. To your point about skill.... This is why some argue that it is tougher to win a Worlds then a Medal..

Somehow.... we remember medal winners more so then the world champ top finishes.

Maybe once you get there, but go ahead and ask JC that question right about now.

He's been working his manparts off to get where he is. His whole life is centered around his effort to get to the Olympics to represent his country. He even moved him and his wife to Miami just so he could be a couple hours closer to his training center.

Its an incredible amount of work to try and do what these guys are doing.