From what I've heard there have been 12 or 13 deposits put down by US teams for Nacra 17s (number could be off). Of those teams, there is a pretty good mixture of both older established teams, and younger teams looking to jump into the game. The mixture is a very good thing, in my opinion, and gives the US the best chance of success in both the short and long term.

What will be interesting, is where the top contenders come from. I could certainly see a talented female skipper with international experience in the 470 or radial teaming up with an experienced cat crew and being seriously fast very quickly.

The other question, and perhaps the most important one, is what can we do to support those who are interested in making a run? At this point, the best way for a future campaigner to train is to sail big events in the F18 and F16 fleets. So, if we want to see success in Rio we need to make sure we are on the starting line and in the gym, pushing those guys as hard as possible every step of the way.