The conditions they expected did not come, so they gambled and lost. I doubt it that the silver medalists from 2004 did this just to cause confusino to the rest of the competitors, putting themself out of contention in 2008

I dont think there was a 75% rule in the Tornado class for the 2008 games, just a minimum measurement specified in millimeters going from midpoint leech to midpoint luff. By cleverly working on the clew height and the other parameters they could build a class legal CO (to much teeth grinding from the measurers, competitors and ISAF ).


The "upwind" option is just a bonus, it is on the shy reach it should shine, or for distance racing where you sail many different courses. On W/L course the spi should be faster as the complete sailpackage with spi will give better average VMG.
If the wind is respectable or you do a lot of downwind, you loose with the CO in distance racing as well.

Just my opinion. I thought about this like 7-8 years ago when the spis was allowed on the Tornado.

The rating hit for an F16 without spi but with a giant jib sounds "special". Perhaps Simon have time to calculate it