I don't know what happened to all of my edits to my post above, but there was more there...

Anyway, that interview is quite telling. Sarah looks utterly disgusted. Not sure of the timing of the video relative to the protest, or if something else was going on.

Hopefully, they aren't falling into the mentaility that they're playing catchup (which it clearly sounds like that's exactly how they feel). They agreed that racing against these top sailors, in Europe with the coaches, is improving their game. Sadly, they intend to come home and not race or practice over there until the next major event...

As for the cat vs. mono sailing background: The AC45s bolstered the idea that any high-caliber sailor could jump on a cat and win against folks from the cat sailing background. I think that primarily works because of the size of the boats, and the match racing experience; neither of which exist in the beach-cat Olympic regatta.

Said another way, while all those dinghy sailors are learning how to sail these beach cats, the beach cat guys will be learning how to make them go faster than they already race them.

The old Hobie racing books don't lie. The key to winning beach cat regattas is going fast, preferably on the favored side of the course. Boat on boat tactics pale in comparison to the importance of just plain going fast. (Somewhat over-simplified, but I'm sure you get the idea.)

Mike