I was going to respond to this thread with some of these things. I was involved with the class from the late seventies through the new rig change in 2003/04. The top sailors in the class were the ones bringing development into the class with some of the top builders. This was one driven and innovative class considering the constraints of being a OD-DC.

As to what is good for multihulls versus the Olympics. It seems that multihull racing is doing a pretty good job of driving development with the A-Class and F-18 class leading the way. I think that this is separate from the Olympic guidelines which for sailing want strict one-design racing. It is kind of funny though that this was one of the complaints about the Tornado, the rules were not tight enough. If you have been around the Star, Finn and 470 class you will find these rules are equally as loose. My bottom line thought is that I do not think that the Olympics should or will have much impact on Multihull racing in general. If the Tiger is chosen for the Olympics it will give a new use to a boat that is no longer competitve on a national or worldwide level. It is probably competitive on a local level. This would help out Hobie, but would have no real affect on the F-18 class as a whole. Maybe there should be trials as was done when the Tornado was chosen for 76 in effect using guidelines similar to the B-class but smaller. This could produce a new boat with up to date building and design processes. This would negate the battle over whether it should be an F-18, F-16, B-Class or Hobie 16. A new boat, a new class for the Olympics.

With that stated I still think and have since its removal, that the Tornado is the proper class for 2016.