What is the drive for the Omlympics? Top level competition. Who knows whether or not I would have had what it takes. I let raising children and work sideline my efforts that began in the late 1980's. What the status of the Tornado as an Olympic class did for me was to get me interested again in cats, build my firt Tornado and into racing to begin with. Had it not been for the Tornado, I never would have even looked at racing. It took the Olympic carrot to get me focussed on multihull racing.

The decision on which boat to build was also decided by the fact that the Tornado was the Olympic class. I could have built an A-class or even a C-class at that time, but the Tornado was the Olympic class and that was that. I was going to build and race one. Now does that effect anyone else who sails cats? I do not know, but it sure motivated me. So even if you loose only one future multihull sailor because there is no Olympic event, it is a loss.

What impact does the Olympics have upon our sport? You have only to look as far as the Star class and its alumni to see the far reaching effects of Olympic status. Does this translate to more multihull sailors and greater visibility for our end of the sport? A little, but maybe we need to address the real issue which is our own promotion of multihull sailing and racing. We can be much more effective ambassadors for our sport than we are and much more active in its promotion.

Does this answer your question Mary? No, but I still remember the day I discovered the Tornado and began my planning to build one. Two years later it was measured in and given the sail number of US-775.