Sorry Scooby,
The Tornado and 49er are OD but they are not SMOD. Your Inter 17 is however SMOD.
There are varying types of OD from strict SMOD where you can only buy approved fittings and sails to SMOD where you have freedom of sailmaker, fittings and placement of, to boats such as the Tornado which can be built by multiple manufactures or even home built, but must fall within the build tolerances.
The Tornado whilst not SMOD, it is almost exclusivley made by Marstrom at present and is considered more OD than most other classes including Hobie due to Marstroms cosistancy of build. The Marstrom is also setting the benchmark for quality of build and performance.
I disagree
A One Design is where there are VERY TIGHT tolerances on the build, for example a Nth of mm here and there so you end up with a boat built in the USA being as-near-as-damn-it the same as one built in the UK.
The Tornado is a Box rule with additional controls such as 5mm+/- on some hull measurement (allowing mutiple builds). For example there are differing rudder profiles, how can that be "one design". If the Tornado class rules stated (and I have not read them) that :
- The hull must be this shape exactly +- small manufacturing tolerances
- The front beam must be in position X
- the back beam must be in position Y
- The rudder profile must be this
- The centre board profile must be this
- the plates must be made of wood and laminated with glass / carbon
- the sails must be this shape and made from these 'cloths'
- the mast tip mass must be this
- etc, I am sure you get the idea
then the Tornado would be a one design as the hull shapes would be the same, the sail shapes would be the same and the plate shapes would be the same
One design sailing is banded around as the solution everything. It is not (the Dart 18 is disappearing as it has been replaced by a Formula rule that allows freedom - F18).
The laser is about as close to a one design as you can get, but then this becomes a SMOD by definition. I do not actually beleive there are any non SMOD OD's around anymore.
you also state that my inter 17 is a SMOD, well it was when I picked it up from Nacra. I have now made changes to the deck layout etc but it is still an inter 17 as the hulls/plates/sails etc are the same. If I was to enter Performance week I would have to take some of this off the boat and make it less easy to sail. It still rates the same as an Inter 17 under SCHRS as I have only moved or replaced fittings with better ones etc.
My point is that a One design should be an "out of the box" boat. you buy one, you rig it, you tune it and then is goes as fast as every one elses, BUT, because there are some compromises that have been made in either the design or build, it may not be as light as it could be (only an example). If you buy the boat, change loads of fittings, buy your mainsail from Austrialia (because they make fast ones there for example), buy your jib from Sweden becasue these are fast for your weight and buy your kite from the states, is this one Design ? No, the sails are designed differently.
It is (box or otherwise) controled boat and so is a development class.
Taking this a little further.
I buy a Marstrom T and sail it for a while and decide I would like more volume up front (a La Reg White boats of old). I approach Reg, buy the drawings/plugs etc and build a new Tornado. My hunch is correct that a Tornado will be faster with more volume and I clean up totally for the next year, winning the nationals, Euro's and worlds. Now we are just starting a new olly's cycle and so every one wants a Scooby Tornado and Marstrom is now only supplying Carbon Masts etc. So you could buy a Marstrom Tornado, or you could buy a Scooby Tornado - is the tornado a one design class ?
I don't think so, it is a controled development class.
