This sub-thread about women has been one of the most interesting I have ever seen on this forum -- but that's probably because I am a woman.

I started this digression by asking why few (if any) women compete in Olympic level sailing on the classes of boats that are open to both men and women: Laser, 49er and Tornado.

Bill, Wouter, Rolf and Luiz all gave excellent answers. Bill Roberts is the only one who is way off base. He thinks the differences between men and women can be corrected by proper boat design.

But my theory is that if you use a boat that women and men can handle equally as far as strength and agility and endurance requirements, if righting leverage is not an issue and if weight is not an issue (and may even slightly favor women), men are USUALLY still going to win.

Let's take the Hobie Wave, for instance. No reason whatsoever why women should not be able to compete equally against men on that boat. And they probably can in fun, Wednesday-night beercan races, and maybe even in the Nationals and North Americans.

But if you put the Wave into SERIOUS competition and make it an Olympic class, men are going to dominate.

I think Wouter and Rolf and Luiz know the answer to why. It is so simple and basic.

It is hormone differences. When you are talking about competitive sports, it is about testosterone. Men have a lot more of it than women do.

Testosterone does not just make men stronger and faster. It also makes them more aggressive and competitive and combative. When women compete in sports it is a game. When men compete, it is WAR.

And, of course, at the Olympic levels, we are not allowed to add testosterone to our systems, because it is illegal under the anti-doping policy. (Look what Kevin Hall had to go through as far as getting approved to sail in Finn Class in the Olympics. He has to take testosterone injections because his body no longer makes it [testicles removed due to cancer]. He didn't know until a couple weeks before the Games whether they were going to approve him to sail.)

And that raises other interesting questions. If Kevin Hall had been sailing in the Laser Class instead of the Finn Class, would they have allowed him to race? The Finn Class is just for men. So obviously you need male-type testosterone levels if you are racing only against men. But, the Laser class is open to both men and women. Women have low testosterone levels. So if you are racing in an "Open" class, would it be fair to allow a man to add testosterone and not allow the women in the same class to do the same?

So the playing field is never going to be exactly equal even though we pay lip service to the idea that sailing is a sport in which men and women can compete against each other equally.

As I said initially, the only two Olympic sports in which men and women compete against each other are Sailing and Equestrian. Why is that? I think somebody a long time ago must have decided, "Well, in Equestrian the horse is doing all the work and in sailing the boat is doing all the work. The people are just riding on the horse and riding on the boat, in both cases they are just pulling strings."

Well, I have not been able to see any similarity between the two events. There is no "racing" in Equestrian events. And horses are not one-design. The horses do all the work. The riders need more skill than strength. The events are all individual. I haven't been able to find the results of the Equestrian events, but I would bet that not many women win in those "Open" events either. (But at least quite a few women are able to qualify to get to the Olympics in Equestrian, unlike "Open" sailing events.)

Heck, they don't even have men and women competing against each other in Shooting and Archery.

So let's get off this idea that women should be competing against men in sailing. The Laser? The 49er? Give me a break! The Tornado used to be very amenable to male-female crews in its old rig, because it was single trapeze, no spinnaker. It was set up perfectly for a woman skipper/male crew. A tiny woman could helm the Tornado, no problem, as long as she had a big, strong guy as crew. But, again, there is that problem with aggressiveness and competitiveness and combative fire that the helmsperson needs.

I think pretty much all women will agree with me regarding testosterone vis-a-vis sports. My daughter, who is a very competitive person, agrees with me. My sister, who has been racing sailboats as a skipper all her life, agrees with me. Any woman who has crewed for a man will agree with me.

So it is a farce to have these Olympic sailing classes that are declared as "Open."