Bob...
Since this is about Bodie's assesment of the talent pool in Tornado's... Boards, Women' and Men's Skiffs...

Did they talk about the pool of women on olympic campaigns?

How about the total pool of skiff sailors in the country?

I guess I am asking if this decision was based on fantasy, wishful thinking or politics... or do they have real facts ( eg names and assesments of potential Olympic sailors).

The fact of the matter is... US Sailing has never believed that medal talent could come up through the beach cat community. Robbie Daniel is the current exception. Johnny Lovel and Lars Guck were great college sailors who paid for their own development to get into the Tornado elite. So... what is the difference in 2007. They have to build a program to train skiff girls from scratch.. The skiff men pool is equally small and lean.... What is their reason for not training talent for catamarans. The jump from college 420's to skiffs or cats is equally demanding.

They ALWAYS seem to pick their pony early and then start tilting the game in that persons favor. Is their an element of ... none of the catamaran sailors will play our game... so. a pox on them?

The Brits and Europe are not likely to dump the Tornado in 2012 so... the 64,000 question is... WILL THEY PUT RESOURCES INTO DEVELOPING THE Catamaran TALENT POOL... or does this ISAF decision mean... we surrender in the cat and board area... no matter what?

How much of this decision is based on ...the notion.. crap... we have no training programs whatsoever... BUT... women's skiffs are brand new... we have a shotin the first cycle... after that... the other nations will kick our butt in the development game?

Is the olympic game so proffesional now that we just can't afford a developoment program... So we need to pick our 1 or at most 2 horses early and push them... the trials are just an exhibition sailing exercise. The rank and file cat sailors are not even close to this game and so our complaints about this are naieve.

Before, I asserted that their reasons would be laughable... While we might disagree with the final decision of US Sailing.... Did their points have merit and US Sailing and ourselves disagre on how to evaluate the facts?

I guess the notion that a strong grass roots sailing program through out the country will strenghen our Olympic efforts is completly wrong.

I believe the changes that US Sailing put in place would make it easier to understand the budget. How much of the general membership dues are devoted to Olympic sailing. Dean Brenner has supposedly done a good job fundraising... Is the Olympic portion approaching self sufficiency?

Do we have a beef about how the budget is being spent?

Thanks again for taking the time and money to go make the case. Sounds a bit like you were talking to the hand... It must have been frustrating.

Thanks again
Mark