First, the Tornado is a classic one-design class. It is not a manufactures class, like most of the cats today. It has it's roots in an era when most catamaran racers built their own boats and thought these new "hobies" were great for people who were not skilled enough to build or assemble their own boats. The rules for the Tornado are consistent with other one design classes. (For example the Taipan 4.9 looks like it borrowed a whole lot from the Tornado Rules.) The intent of the rules are to promote fair competition, allow innovation, encourage durability, and prevent cost escalation. What this means is, if you can build it out of commonly available components, fine . If it requires expensive custom fabrication with no paybacks except speed or it makes existing boat obsolete, probably not. By the way you can't build a Tornado out of Styrofoam and duct tape. It can be wood, fiberglass, resin, and approved core material. Also the measurer has the right to refuse a certificate if you don't meet the intent of the rule, for example BALSA WOOD and duct tape.


Second, I doubt the Olympic Committee would care to return to formula racing. The original Olympic Classes were formula. The nightmares these formula classes caused is why they went to one design. For one thing the Olympic Committee is afraid of country level manipulation ( 30 minutes before the "deadline" a manufacturer introduces what they think is a superior design and remarkably only sailors from that country were able to purchase boats before the deadline)This is probably not true but most of the world thinks it is.


Third, the Olympic Committee is not sailing organization. I'm not sure it's a sports organization. It is a political organization. Poorer countries get to vote too and most of them would prefer if all sailing were like the Laser. You don't even have to own a competitive one, you can just charter one at the event. (personally I don't like this, you get beat just as badly by the top sailors and you can't blame the boat) I am willing to bet at least $5 (total and I won't bet more than 1 person) that if another cat is added to the Olympics, it will fill a special need, a boat designed to make women really competitive for example or maybe even as a replacement for a skiffs, since skiffs are perceived as too difficult to sail by a large percentage of the world.


I do not think there is much of a chance for a formula class, today. From a world population perspective, very few people race F18. Also the Olympic committe has been the butt of a lot of jokes about what most of the world considers strange sports. For example, that thing were you slide a rock on the ice and someone else sweeps the ice with a broom. If F18 catches on in Asia or South America you might have a shot

Carl Bohannon
US782