Transition??
This is the ultimate... build it... they will come program. ... With the happy outcome that many countries optimized their medal prospects at the expense of others.

Reality check time. Build up Skiff Fleets ????.... HOW COME YOU HAVE TO BUILD???...they are not like Moths after all. The 49ner has been Olympic for 12 years. going on 20

Fact of life. the interest in High Performance Sailing (Skiffs or Cats) is not not some enormous wave sweeping the youth sailors and the sailing leadership of the world.

You have to get people interested before you can build.

We would be thrilled to get 20 teams to US Hobie 16 Junior Nationals. We have petitions not competitions for the US Sailing Junior Championships for the 20 spots. Kids are not beating the doors down for skiffs either. In the Mid Atlantic, One well funded Club bought 6 29ners... used them for 2 months... then mothballed them. So much for kids demanding skiffs. There is no skiff sailing on the east coast.... When do we expect skiff sailing to catch on?

Why worry? The danger is that the Olympics become further removed from the sport and simply loose support. How many US Sailors care? In the US... we don't pay for the Olympics through US Sailing... in other countries... they do pay through their MNA If you don't have a financial interest... do you really care? Even more worrisome, 1f you make the Olympics alien to your experience and irrelevant to the Rank and File experience then how long do you support them?

So, beyond choosing boats that few sailors ever see... much less sail (49ner... Elliot 6) Now they want to fundamentally change the competition. There are no MIXED events in the world that normal sailors compete in. There are no Mixed events that the elite sailors compete in. OPEN events.. yes.... Is this important... Well, in the past when the US sent a MIXED TEAM to the ISAF world championships... they were sent home.... WRONG CHROMOSOMES! .... How different can you make this game and still have relevance to the real world. So, instead of ANY chromosomes... Now you must have the RIGHT mix of chromosomes to play.

If it was difficult to build a multihull junior program before... Now what? For every boy who wants to sail... you must find a girl? Is every thing OPEN until you get the national level or the adult level and then you play musical chairs and create Mixed teams?? ...Now that's a new spin on who gets the girl!

From a US perspective, this ISAF call is a terrible result. Anybody plan on giving money to support the Olympic effort of the mixed mulithull teams that will be forming? Did you give bucks to the Tornado teams in the past? Plan to rejoin US sailing now that we have MIXED Multihulls?

You could understand ISAF and the MNA's spinning this as TRANSITION only if you were clear on the goal. What the hell is the goal? Obviously we abandoned Keel boats this time... If that was the IOC mandate... Why was it such a surprise outcome on the last day of the selections?

Why even discuss 5 disciplines when you must eliminate one of them, and bastardize the other one?

The 5 disciplines. (Boards, Single, Keel, Multi, Skiff) male and female was simple, clear and connected to the boats of the rank and file sailors. What's the direction now?

About the only thing that was clear from the quadrennial FUBAR was that because of the America's Cup action now on Multihulls... All of the MNA's were shamed into fixing their past mistake. All options included a multihull choice.

Ok, principals be damned... we got an event back. BUT, The ramifications of MIXED will be far reaching. So why stop now. We can make the 5 rings into even more of a circus... Lets pick a hard wing cat which is a baby America's Cup machine.... Yeah... that will be cool!