The quality of the racing game is what is important. A fair level playing field with equipment that lets the best sailor win and minimizes bad luck WAS the standard.

So... change the boat.... or change the rules of the game.

ISAF has changed the rules of the game for cats before... TornadoAlive reminded me... they lowered the Tornado class min rule of 5 knots... this opened the door to midget sailing or Code zero chutes for China.. The USA went with code zeros and it failed miserably

There is the standard 25 knot wind limit in the N17 class rules now. If you turn down the volume on that Wagner loop running in your head.... ISAF could lower it to 20 and go racing.

I like the smell of epoxy in the morning ...

If i was competing at this level, and for future job/career support, nothing would stop me unless i was ordered not to race

Nah, more like "O Fortuna"

Reminds me of a tall ship cannon broadside... when the 32 pounders roar out their hate... I can't even begin to imagine the terror

Wait for it....

I understand that. But people can certainly decide that for themselves. Is it worth f-ing up a knee, or getting maimed? Not to me, but have I zero urge to be an Olympian either.

In Palma, they don't leave the beach until they are allowed to leave the beach (D-flag display). See Notice #8 (Amendment to the SIs).

The original SI did not include the Nacras, though - this change was made after the carnage day.

In Miami, there was a beach captain that hustled them off the beach, since they had a pretty good hike out to the race course. Then again, none of the conditions any day in MIA were bad when they left the beach. The wheels didn't come off until the second race on Monday.

Good points, Matt. Keeping folks on the beach makes a lot of sense, getting them in quickly when it gets gnarly can be quite a challenge.

Mike

The fastest any sailboat is, on any day, is when it's headed to the bar.

Wheels came off the bus a few pages back, and there's been no discussion on the actual results. Now that it's over...

Besson looked unstoppable.

Enrique was doing great out of the gate, then tanked the last three days. Anyone know the story there?

JC had two SPI scores (presumably scoring penalties). Anyone know that story?

Sarah had another DNC mid-week. Story?

Mike

Pretty sure Sarah was involved in a collision, but I don't know the details. I believe it was with the Austrian boat Zajac/Frank.

My guess with Enrique is that his vast experience in general really helped in the survival conditions on day one, then as the gold fleet split happened his lack of time in the 17 was exposed.

Overall for the Americans the 470s continue to show consistency at the top of their fleets, both finishing 7th. Best result yet in the FX with Henken/Scutt in 14. Paine stays consistent with a 5 in the Finn, C Buck just misses medal race in Lasers in 11, Railey showing a strong comeback to the circuit with an 8.

Probably a result of not signing out / in (picking up / dropping off the tracker) - that's what most of the SPIs were from.

The only other Standard Penalty is the non-display of the nationality flag.

Hi readers could someone explain,

What does all this qualifying the USA for a spot in the cat class in Brazil Olys mean? Specificly;
What place does a US team need to finish in one(or more?) of the international qualifier events to get in to the Olys?
If the required inter-national finish position never happens, will the winning team from the USA selection process still be in the Olys anyway, perhaps through some other means?

This was discussed in detail further up the thread, but basically the Nacra 17 gets 20 slots in the Olympic regatta. One of those spots goes to the host, so 19 are available. About half of those spots were allocated to nations based on finish position at the 2014 words. I believe 3 more spots are available at the 2015 worlds. The final spots will be available at a series of regional events (likely 2016 OCR).

If the US does not secure on of these spots, there will not be a US Nacra 17 representative in Brazil.

aka... Eddie the Eagle rule!

crap... that was my only chance...!

That you knew the reference without google is Proof that you are an old fart!

So, roughly they, the US cat team, need to get above 20th in the future worlds/ocr to get into the top third, and there are 7 more open spots .
Also there probably are not 7 better countries so the US is ok assuming the top 1/3 thing is no problem.

Top 30 will probably do it.

It is pretty safe to assume there will be:

3-4 Aussie teams
4 French teams
4 British teams
3 Italian teams

So even if you assumed just one team in the top 30 from other countries that still leaves 14 different countries in the top 30. 14+ the 4 teams listed is still only 18 countries.

It's not that simple. Only three slots are available at the 2015 Worlds. If the US does not get one of those 3 slots, there will be a continental qualifier with one spot.

So, there are only 4 remaining spots available to the US.