Originally Posted by maritimesailor
This was one of the knocks against the Tornado in the last Olympic appearance of Multis, that they were NOT one design, specifically in the sail inventory. A lot of time and money was spent by teams developing sails. This led to some crazy out of the box thinking, but wasn't that good from a press perspective (lets not forget the US team's 'code zero' esq kite and how well that worked....).

The T class has worked hard to eliminate this stuff and is now a strict OD (AFAIK), with OD sails now as well. I think they have possitioned themselves well to be the next Olympic boat again.

Nice development track for juniors as well (one example):
Opti (under 15)-> F16 (15 - 18/19) -> F18 (18+)-> Tornado
(example ages and boats)

(I would suspect in places like NA where their never was a huge Tornado fleet even with Olympic status teams would have an F18 here to get into bigger regattas, but maybe not)


Sorry; do you mean Optimists for up to 15 year olds? I was breaking Toppers and lasers at that age and helming a Dart 18. Most kids in the UK leave the oppie fleet way before 15.

Last edited by scooby_simon; 10/20/10 11:09 AM.

F16 - GBR 553 - SOLD

I also talk sport here