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In fact... they blame ONE GUY.... the former class president for their woes. Now that he is gone... ISAF recognizes what a mistake it was to dump the Tornado!
This is a complete load of crap.
Bundy, Carolyn Roland etc did not want to show up at ISAF and schmooz... (They had campaigns to run... They had professional racing circuits to start and compete in, They had the clout to leverage their elite olympic status for lots of pro sailing gigs. Grandfield was a one man show for Tornados at ISAF .... on his dime!
A new found recognition that this politicking WAS important is self serving. This is just ignorant considering the years of snide comments that Grandfield endured by these and other well know pro sailors in the class. He was not an Olympic caliber sailor... In FACT he was that weekend sailor, Roland now speaks of, who stepped up to play and knew he would be dead last at some events. But he spent an enormous amount of energy working for the class... cleaning up after the children. He did not stop these elite sailors from going to ISAF meetings to represent the class.
Look at the indefensible actions that he had to clean up with ISAF for these entitled prima donnas!
Change class rules to add spinaker... Outcome... maintained Olympic status obsoleted the local fleets boats.
expensive private Alu mast program for medal winners... Not a level playing field... soln one design Carbon mast for next cycle.
Proprietary cuben fiber for medal winners another not level playing field... Soln, F18 partnership on approved sail materials.
Finally, you have a situation where an entirely new sail magically appears for the China games. Two cycles that look like someone trying to game the system gets you a reputation. ....
Yeah Grandfield finally snapped when this went south. ... I give him credit for sticking with it till the bitter end. I know he was working for at least 4 years to back stop the children's class. I know how little support he got from the pro's. As a dues member... I know how the class was run and for whom... I spoke with Mike and got the facts of life read to me by him. I supported his actions in dealing with the children.
When you operate for your own self interest... and ignore the warnings of the gathering ISAF **** storm and then throw more gas onto the fire... with a new sail at the Olympics... What do you expect?
Once the Tornado was finally tossed out
WE JUST NEED THE SCAPEGOATs. ....
"Its the **** T class president and those morons of ISAF that killed multihull sailing in the Olympics".
The fact of the matter is the former professional Tornado class Sailor's collective behavior was the reason that ISAF could make the mistake that they did. It was their ignorance and arrogant, "our **** doesn't stink", attitude that is to blame.
