In actual fact, I don't believe the T was removed because not enough countries canpaigned it..we all know the gory details on how the voting went down...it was accepted once (twice?) before a backroom "deal" was made and 3rd vote took place to drop it. Yes, we can state the boat needs better acceptance globally...but let's not cloud the issue, that is not why it was dropped.
You're starting with a relatively small slice of sailors (multihullers), then further slicing that to spin boat teams willing to devote time/money to campaigning 200+ days per year x4-8 years. Costs of this were staggering...many non-Euro teams typically kept a second boat kept in Europe for the several key events there while still having one at home for training to avoid shipping and the inherent down time during transit. The reality is you cannot do this on shoestrings...being independantly wealthy or having generous sponsorship is essential.The same should also be true to other Olympic classes...but they start with much larger monhull numbers.
Both boats are essentially entry level, low purchase. Juniors can get into them at local clubs. Parents would consider buying for kids. Any multihull is at a disadvantage in comparison since build costs/storage/portability is higher/more difficult.
Mike,
This pretty well sets up what happened. There are a few falicies out there concerning the tornado.
1) It was removed because it was too expensive. It is an expensive boat, but the most expensive boat for 2012 is the Star with the Elliot coming in a close second. While Lasers are much less exspensive for a boat and a rig, to compete at an Olympic level requires many boats and many rigs to do a four year campaign.
2) It was removed because it was not a tightly controlled OD class. The only true OD class in the Olympics is the laser. The 470's and 49'rs are pretty tightly controlled classes but with more room for development than the Laser. I do not know about the Elliot, but believe that is/will be tightly controlled for the one cycle it competes in. Finns and Stars are very open in comparison with hull shape and rigs being in a constant state of flux. Melges, Lillia, Mader, Folli, P-Star in the Star class. Some Flatter with less rocker, some fuller with more rocker, some for light air campaign some for heavy air regattas. But it is the tornado that got the press.
It was politics and back room deals that killed the Tornado in the Olympics. Participation in the Tornado class dropped as the rules for and cost of campaigning increased. At one point you could campaign a Tornado in the US and maybe do an occassional overseas regatta such as the Worlds and still go to the Olympic trials. You had between 70-90 boats at the nationals and 60-80 boats at the trials. The last Olympic trials held in San Diego had five boats. Today you have do most of your campaign traveling around the world. The US has one Schedule 1 event a year and that is the Miami OCR. This change began sometime just before or just after the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta/Savannah. The worldwide ranking system comes in to play in geting an Olympic berth. I have heard that campaigning can run over $250,000 per year. This limits those who can play the game.
