Thank goodness! Actual sailing to follow instead of all my drivel about voting!

No worries.... Lets' vote on wether Malcom (an expat Aussie) should be leading the US Olympic Program. (I figure any US citizen votes yes... and the Aussie's vote No! seems like a fair system to me (grin)

I vote YES! While the quirks and limits of the US Collegiate system is new... I think he finds a way to find talent before college and get them on track through a college experience. Time will tell.

Ha we'll get him to come home, the only reason you got him was because of some big egos on low skill people established in our Aus yachting system and they're now exposed

He seemed like a real pro in the interviews that I have read. The number of aussie comments about how you guys screwed up in not recruiting him is impressive.

Wow

USA 133 Riley Gibbs/Louisa Chafee are in 5th place going into the medal round.

Great JOB

Now, anyone know who Riley Gibbs is??

Um... Google is your friend...

Or are you really asking if anyone here knows him personally from regattas, etc?

The bigger question might be, how were those rankings determined that you posted earlier?

Even bigger question: Will we see Easton again for this quad?

Mike

If the USA beach cat racing community are not going to be fans of the Olympic Sailing... nobody will be.

Mark,

Riley is new to the catsailing scene, he is only 19 after all, but has a fair bit of international experience according to google. It appears to that him and Louisa gelled in Miami, but it was a relatively small fleet, without the foils, and more concerning is the british squad were pretty dominant. Without someone else to push them hard, I'm not sure our chances in Tokyo are any better.

Easton isn't just a local stud, him and Burd have won races at the highest level of the sport and finished 10th out of 118 back in 2012 at the F18 Worlds. He doesn't need my defense, I can't say if he'll be back but right now the U.S's problem is finding and developing talented crew for sailors like Easton, Riley, Bora, and developing the next generation looking beyond 2020. I do know that Bora will be back, he has a small fleet of Nacra 17 Mk. 2's on order.

Bora's claim to fame is foiling, so he certainly needs to be watched.

Mike was a very close second during the last trials, but if he comes back, will need to ramp up on foiling (assuming he isn't already doing that).

Mark, I think the rankings you posted previously were before this event, do you know how they were determined?

Mike

Hey Mike

must be some confusion.... I don't know anything about rankings... What I was posting was cribbed from the miami OCR site... I never paid attention to the ranking numbers... I suspect the numbering was order of entry... or alphabetical... not sure..

The point to reviving the thread was...

I am a fan of olympic sailing.... So, part of the fun of the game is to find your team and root. In this day and age... its easier and harder... Easy to google and facebook.... harder to have actually had a conversation with any of the sailors if they don't compete at the rank and file... mere mortal classes.

"Local stud..." was not to diminish.... rather to point to Mike's New England roots and his shared roots with Easton's

AS to crew problems... well I suspect every skipper on the planet shares that whine... doesn't matter if its a 2 man boat or a TP52, crew issues just come with the game.. Drives many a sailor to a single hander.... (but... its just not the same experience).

ahem... I will just remember my noisy complaint in changing the game from Open to Mixed. but.... The actual issue here is finding sailors with the drive and time... its a tough tough game.

If Mike's out, I'm rooting for Louisa's team. Closest thing to local for me, I guess?

Mike

I can't say if Mike is in or out for the next cycle. I can say he is pursuing a masters degree at the moment and sailing currently isn't his primary focus, though I know he is staying involved with the F18 class and sailing what events he can.

You are correct that Bora could be a serious threat in the Mk. 2 Nacra 17, but sailing with who?

I'm not bitching about crew problems for nothing Mark, these are highly competitive teams and several top U.S multihull sailors had problems in the Nacra 17 because of the mixed requirement, which is good for our sport, but challenging with the low number of female sailors in the U.S having top level international sailing experience.

This is a great read about the similar results for US Rowing.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5Vxjl6CZONyZjJuX1hIS3ptSUE/view

Do we care about international competition... or are we content with being a country club sport or worse... just a recreational pastime?

At the end of the day, that is the question...

I still think the Mk. 2 Nacra 17 has great potential as a multihull fleet from club level to the Olympics if Nacra proves they can build a boat that lasts through a quad (not sure if that was part of their design brief) and there is a level of class structure placed below that of the Worlds/Olympic level.

Sam

OK.... it starts up again... lets try and not rewrite history. WHY good for our sport?

Pt....Nobody else has mixed teams.
Pt... Nobody creates ultimately competitive sports that are mixed.
PT ... When is the last time you saw mixed doubles tennis on the international stage... Its a country club sport/pastime.

MIXED XXX is a social/political solution... not a competitive solution. In fact you highlight the problem... Not that many woman seem to be all that interested in competing in a MIXED competition.

So... why again is MiXED good for the sport?

What happened to the Nacra 15 idea as a training boat for entry into the Nacra 17?

Will the Nacra 15 ever be fitted out for foils?

re... the N17foiler as lifeline for high performance cat racing.

Maybe

I think it depends on what the competitive weight range turns out to be for this design. Does it go up because of the physics of foiling. What is unknown... is the fun factor in light air conditions and fun factor in weed areas.

I also think that SMOD is not the winning economic solution... rather... the F18 class leadership proved that a multiple builder model is a winner.

Could the N17 foiler be a great boat.... sure! lets hope... But I think human nature argues for the F18 model for the next 20 years.

From Todd

The 15 is on line... and the upcoming season looks very promising leading up to youth champs. I don't think they are sloted to foil yet at this level... (although they could with the proper boards)

hey, why isn't ice-boating an Olympic winter sport? That would be pretty cool to watch...

Aren't there a lot of female skiff (49'er/F-18) sailors that might transition well if they don't make the top 1 or 2 spot in their original discipline?

They would be comfortable foiling and trapeezing and would be familiar with closing speeds and calling tactics on apparent wind boats.

Jay,

Could they... sure... That was the plan... Have they.... Well they seem to be flushing through the system at a good clip. I don't have an explanation beyond...You don't see elite competition with mixed teams. I recognize that its a very complex environment and lots of things have to go right to have multiple teams working through a quad.... It's a tough game even when the discipline was Open.