The tightening up of the class rules were ordered by ISAF prior to Greece. (If you want to remain Olympic... do this...) The standard Alu stick could measure in under these rules BUT the properties of each stick were different. Marstrom was selling 2 to 3 times as many masts as boats... (because of breakage and picking the best stick) At any rate... A very expensive mast program ... (rumored at 100K plus) was undertaken by three teams/MNA's for Greece to gain an advantage. Coupled with the Cuben Fiber cloth coop/fiasco ...(three teams had exclusive rights to the stuff before the Olympics) ISAF had a big problem with Tornado's and the spirit of fair competition.....
So, while the class met the letter of the rule, in ISAF's view the class tolerated BS that undercut their benchmark... "fair competition". Once again the class had to respond. So, Grandfield led the class to the solution of the One design carbon mast with the Alu sticks grandfathered in. He had the cuben fiber material banned from use in the class AND in the F18 class… It was 4 times the price as every other material out there.
Some high profile sailors in the class were furious and mounted a vocal campaign to oust him for all of the changes he got through the class and ISAF.. Grandfield did a good job of not airing all of this dirty laundry in front of the world and prevailed on the equipment changes.
Again, ISAF insisted on the really tight tolerances for the mast and Marstrom was chosen with a two year window of exclusivity to recover his costs and to implement the mast certification program.
Remember... ISAF's stated goal was to have all Olympic equipment (laser's on up) certified this way at the factory but with an independent measurer. ... I guess ISAF thought that the system could be gamed by trying to measure these highly technical things on the beach somewhere. By and large, Marstrom and has been able to deliver on the masts. Of course there are still differences between sticks and the elite programs have to sort through them. I think it requires extreme abuse to break a mast these days... (eg pogo sticking the mast on a hard coral bottom in 20 knots with 4 to 5 foot waves will in fact break one).
So, From ISAF's point of view... the Tornado Class has not really been ahead of the curve with respect to assuring ISAF that all countries had a fair and equal shot at gold. In fact... they are probably convinced that the last Tornado Olympics were a bit crooked.
How much of a factor was the internal Tornado Class BS.... in the voting... now that is a good question!
So... when you hear the rumor.. ... "It was Grandfield's nasty behavior etc etc... realize... he has been stamping out fires for years (from all sides). Coupled with several personal legal matches with the USA duo of Bodie and Breener on US Team selection, conduct of the OCR, and many many other issues. The real story is more complex then we realize.
IMO, if Granfield is holding the bag... the pro sailors are responsible for filling that bag with enough CRAP to smell it up at ISAF.
Now... If you think Tornado Measurement is a bit complex... consider the Yingling... Again... to make sure things are fair... ISAF has to deal with a monohull shape. The Yingling measurements require this laser scanning device which costs about a $ 100 K . It scans the hull and validates the hull measurement and insures that it matches the proscribed template in the computer. Since we had Two Yingling teams... (and now only one). It was a bit expensive to get your boat measured... All of these rules have to be followed and US Sailing is responsible for assuring compliance. (FYI, All of these facts were spelled out at the US Sailing One Design symposium in Annapolis a few years ago.)
Oh and before you throw your hands up and blame pro Tornado sailors... Just to remind everyone how extensive this fairness issue goes at ISAF . ... consider the recent DSQ of the Brazilian Hobie 16 team at the last Pan AM games. They were fooling around with the Hobie 16… ( I think their boat was a bit wider and sail went a little higher). Catching him at the very end of the regatta and tossing the first place team... could not be much comfort to ISAF.
I think it is fair to say that ISAF does not like to have cheating determine the outcome of the elite levels of competition... IMO, Multihulls are not doing so well at convincing the world that we are all playing by the rules. Sigh....
