Unfortunately too many clubs have more Stars than Tornados. The Iate Clube do Rio de Janeiro (largest in Brazil) has from 20 to 30 Stars (I never stopped to count) raced on a regular basis - but only two Tornados and two 49ers - that are raced two or three times a year.

At least two US women match racing teams competed in Brazil last week. Those are the best ranked, but I am sure there are others among ocean racers.

I couldn't agree more with your words about the Laser and Finn. Ainslie can't win Scheidt, so he went to the Finn. But Ainslie is a UK national and "UK rules..." - so the Finn HAS to stay. And since his 'enemy' left the Laser, it can stay too. Now that Scheidt is sailing Stars, Brazilians were afraid it would be excluded... so they'd accept any deal to keep it - more or less the same situation as the Canadians.

The 470, Finn and Laser are all outdated and about everybody (but those few sailing current Olympic "equipment") is unhappy with the situation. As I see it, today there are only two equipments in the Olympics: monohulls and windsurfers.

"Equipment" by definition shoud not specify crew gender, crew weight, race format or subdivisions within a given equipment. "Equipments" are kites, windsurfers, monohulls, multihulls and foilers. Everything else are class specifications and should come with the class choice. There's a better text about this point in Rohan Veal's website - and I like the logic of this argument.

I guess those who voted the multihulls out will become more and more uncomfortable now that criticism comes from about everywhere. Has anyone heard any reasonable defense to ISAF's action?

Still, it is time to stop complaining/discussing and start coming up with new ideas for the short, medium and long term actions. Anyone?