Macca
Example the 49er: Not really suited for club sailing but it is great to watch Olympic level teams sailing them to the best of their ability.
What kind of mere mortal sailing fleet does the 49ner represent in the world?
Who exactly is supposed to have some sort of affinity for the 49ner sailors and their boats? I bet the majority of US multihull sailors could not ID a single 49ner sailor from the USA. We have no relation to them. We don't see them on the water or beach, they don't cross sail our boats and vice versa. .... it's just a different world and we don't care. The 49ner is the vanguard for the X games version of sailing... IE unreal events disconnected from the sport that most of us compete in.
So... you want an edgy boat.
I think if you polled the world about the Tornado... the word ClASSIC would most likely come up.
It's a real choose the path moment here... do you want boats in the olympics that the rank and file relate to.... OR do you want an extreme version of the sport embodied in a maxed out boat. As you say... suitable for the spectators,
Personally, I think "spectators" is fools gold...
I ask... if you have to invent extreme variations for the Olympics to survive... why should we support them at all. and Somebody is paying for this show.
I view Pinnacle of the Sport to mean... the competition is reflective of the real world internationally. Moth's are cool... but 100 of them world wide is not Olympic.. Who do they represent?
Tornado's were not extreme when compared to F18's.... Just more refined and elegant after years of invention and tweaking. I see the step up from F18's to Tornado's as natural.
My hunch is... the IOC will not want extreme... they are going to want to see LOTS OF NEW COUNTRIES getting into the game.... I doubt Extreme works for the little sailing countries. (See 470 still in olympics)
I think the path we are now on.... will further dissociate the Olympics from the real world....
