Build quality of the Olympic Equipment has been evaluated by ISAF for every class in light of ISAF's number one goal... growing the number of nations that compete for Olympic slots. Boats like the laser and 470 have known issues but they are affordable. A pricey but bullet proof boat (Tornado) is not the objective for gear selection. ISAF dumped the europe dinghy for the laser radial for this reason. The cost of campaigning is large relative to the cost of the equipment but the entry costs dominate the thinking. ISAF nations have decided the build quality versus cost issue... The Nacra 17 is good enough.... (same as H16, AHPC F16, Hobie Tiger)

Once upon a time... the catamaran world looked to the Olympic Tornado for much of the innovation that trickled down to the other classes and the boat was refined over and over again. This philosophy caused lots of competitive problems for ISAF as sailors innovated within the class rule and the Olympic playing field tilted in ways viewed as unfair. The philosophy changed... So now they want a boat that is completely cooked and one design, controlled by ISAF and their contract. The ISAF solution... you can't drill another hole in the Nacra 17. You also can't fix things.

Given the uber one design mindset.... the mistake made by the catamaran selection sailors and Catamaran committees was picking a boat that was not tested (two prototypes made)... but the N17 looked like it was high tech, cutting edge (curved boards,)designed by an AC cup designer. Two years of testing would have made the fixes needed (see Bert) clear. Unlike the rest of the olympic sailing world.... we bit on the bright shiny object.... Meanwhile, the rest of the world will use the same equipment in 2020 that they have for the last 20 years... So, fixing the boat mid stream is a political problem that ISAF and Nacra have decided to delay until after Rio. It is a failure and for the sailors... Well... it is what it is...and the game ends in three years to win their countries selection process.

The long term issue is the MIXED discipline for Multis.... Obviously the plan to migrate from mixed to mens and womans cats failed with barely a wimper and multihulls are almost unique in the entire Olymmpic games with a mixed sport. The powers that be should have stayed with Open or argued that all double handed sailing classes should be mixed or open. (470 and 48ner). We failed at the politics of this as well.

PS, Jake, Roman Hagarra (Aut) used his Tornado for three games and won medals.