If TV would learn HOW to film cat sailing to make it as exciting to the viewer as it is to the sailor it might make it a more popular Olymipic event.

Brian, have you taken your AdventureTV helmet cam and spinpole cam stuff to the big networks that do Olympic TV? Yours is SO, SO, SO much better than their far off shots or all of that personal history non-sailing jabber they like to do.

It doesn't seem possible that cat sailing could be dull but I thought they did a good job of boring me last Olympics.

Hi Mary -

I think you're looking at thie upside-down. There should be a multihull in the Olympics because the Games should represent the sports enjoyed by the world. The events are intended to be a reflection of amateur sports competition world-wide. Multihull racing makes up a significant percentage of the overall small boat racing in the world - the events in the Games should reflect that. And our national organization had better get back in touch with that principle.

I am not sure the Olympics really qualify as "amateur". True, the root of the word implies a love of the sport, but also implies something done "unskillfully"!

My understanding is that an Olympic campaign is full time, all consuming and requires an extremely high skill level. Perhaps I'm wrong.

No, I am not looking at it upside down. You are exactly right. The Olympics is a REFLECTION of the popularity of certain sports in the world. The Olympics do not CAUSE those sports to become popular. So if the sport is not in the Olympics, it will not particularly affect the success of the sport in terms of participation.

If you turn it upside down and put a sport in the Olympics when nobody is interested in that sport, do you think that the mere fact that it is in the Olympics is going to make it become a popular sport?

And, as I have asked, has having a multihull in the Olympics done anything to increase participation in multihull sailing? I don't think so.

And has having sailing in the Olympics increased participation in sailing in general? I don't think so.

Mary,

Please let me play devils advocate. How many non-sailors are out saying "ha! why have sailing anyway?..it's not a sport..it is for rich white men! Track/ Field...thats the tradition of the games anyway."

I don't feel that way....but I would bet there are many people out there who do feel this....

What say you?

Mary --

Just because you have never experienced the Olympics as a driving factor in your sailing does not mean that the rest of the sailing world shares your opinion. Where I'm pretty sure that I'm the minority in this discussion, I know for a fact that there is an overwhelming number of sailors, youth or not, who consider the potential of Olympic competition incredibly inspiring.

I have to agree with John. And besides politics and money, there is no good reason (definitely none good enough for the sailors who are getting caught up in this mess) for the US governing body to withdraw support. We DID medal at the last Olympics.

But maybe the problem is right under our noses. In reading these threads I've noticed a heavy critique of US Sailing, the Olympics, etc. etc. I understand that most of us on catsailor have very little interest in "non-amateur" sailing. But why criticize something that requires little more than appreciation? Do you really think that nothing "trickles down"? That there is NO benefit to Olympic level competition? But that's beside the point, multihulls should be in the Olympics because there is no good reason for them not to be.

& WHERE is our youth multihull development team?!

Should we care? Yes. Does it matter? No.

I went to the US Sailing meeting, and the Multihull meeting in Newport, this past week end. Talked to the board members etc.

First, the problem with the "National Organizations" and multihull sailing, in a nut shell, it is not them, it is US. By that I mean, multihull sailors should just look in the mirror for all their issues. If no cares at the "National" level, then it is because we do not care at the National level. This is just my opinion as I have been going to US Sailing meetings for about 20 years now, so I have a pretty good feel for what's up. What I see, on the rare occasions when the multihulls (I include myself) do show up, is Hobie vs Tornado vs Nacra vs (name your favorite multihull). There is very little interest in the big picture for multihull sailing, by US. You say you support youth sailing? Well guess what? Art Stevens, is the only one single handedly battling the dark side for youth multhull sailing. If you really want to help, give him a call and a hand. He is trying to put together the youth event right now in California.
Want insight on the recent board issues with the Olympics? Simple really. Did they want to leave out multihulls? No, quite frankly they didn't even think of us. Why, look in the mirror. You/we weren't there, that simple. I am not talking about this last meeting, I am talking about the last several years. Sure a couple of us have been around, we represent a major percentage of sailing? That has never been present.

Now for the big picture, the feeling at the board level is that sailing in general is not long for this World in the Olympics. The Olympic Committee is all about World Political Correctness. They want 100s of Countries represented, and must have equal amount of women. Sailing is not viewed as making their life easier, so they want to get rid of it altogether. The board feels they are fighting a losing battle, multihulls quite frankly were not their main concern. As from their perspective, it did not look like it was ours either.

The future? We as multihull sailors have the brightest future in sailing by far. Our boats are fun to sail! We will continue to grow and enjoy a great sport. I hope when we gather in the future we can move ourselves forward with a little better unity and focus.

To drive my point home regarding our "National Organizations", we act like a minority expecting others to do our work for us. Why? Because we are so deserving? Get real. We are a major sailing faction in the country, however try and find a major faction of us at any "Nation Organization" event. Sorry for the cold water. But stop gripping and start doing. Give Art a call and start helping.

Okay, let me ask this in a different way:
Do you think those hundreds of kids who go to the Orange Bowl Regatta in Miami every winter are doing it because they are thinking about maybe someday going to the Olympics?
Or would those kids go to that regatta even if sailing were NOT in the Olympics?

And do youth sailors sign up to participate in the U.S. Youth Multihull Championship because there is a multihull in the Olympics? Or do they do it because they want to win the national championship and go on to the world championship? If they knew sailing was not in the Olympics or a multihull was not in the Olympics, would they just say, to heck with it and find a sport that IS in the Olympics?

Does an adult who is choosing a sport to get into in mid life make his decision based upon what sports are in the Olympics?

In many sports (I'll use swimming as an example), youth events are structured with the Olympics as the ultimate goal. Kids start out striving to qualify for Junior Olympic meets, and then as they progress, Senior Olympic meets, and then national events. The Olympics are allways the carrot at the end of the stick. Sailing does not have the same progression. So I don't see the Olympics as the goal. For the youth coming up, I think they are looking at sailing for a top ranked college program as their goal. But no Multi's there.

If nothing else. It validates the top performers in our sport.

These top performers often give back by doing seminars that help the rest of us. I've been to seminars by Jay & Pease, Randy, and Robbie. If it weren't for the Olympics I probably would not have had these seminars by these people which I've learned a lot from.

You can get seminars from lots of people but when an Olympic Campaigner gives one you tend to listen. I think it validates the top of our sport. I think it brings our sport together under a common goal. I think without it we would have National Champions in many classes and they would not cross over as much into other classes.

Mike Hill
www.stlouiscats.com

Mary

Sailing Sking and others have two components.

Recreational activity and Sport. I sail for fun... and I sail to compete in races..

I organize events for the Sport... (I don't give a damn about the recreational sailors and what they do on the water... I know this is a debate for another thread)

Lots of people sail... they don't compete in sailing for sport.

I think BECAUSE these distinctions are a bit fuzzy... Having the Olympics as the ultimate goal is essential for the sport of sailing!

The Olympics define a set of conditions and competition that is the ultimate in sport. Without such a standard... What would you compare a competition to.

For the vast majority of non sailors... They more then likely think of sailing as a pastime...The Olympics demonstates that sailing is a sport and worthy of our time and interest as a sport.

Good comments Sarah. We have used YOU as an example of our future Tornado Olympic Sailors in the discussions at US SAILING. Our youth program is growing, see http://www.ussailing.org/championships/youth/multihull/

Maybe one of our three Youth Teams from Sail Sand Point in Seattle will do well at the US Youth Multihull Championship this year, and follow your lead into the Tornado Championship racing.

Caleb Tarleton

First, the problem with the "National Organizations" and multihull sailing, in a nut shell, it is not them, it is US.

"We have found the enemy, and it is US"

Pogo

The only time our sailors are on the box is when they are headed to the Olypics or the AC. Never seen an F18 on the box or even heard of Cat competition of any sort in public media but our Tornado Olympic hopefuls have been on national news maybe six times. Sailors need to head toward something if they are to be excellent and follow through a strong campaign. The worlds are one thing but the Olypic medal is whats a serious ticket. No cats in the Olympics and they are a total also ran and deemed by the ignorant, of which there are many as unworthy.

Hobie and other manufactureers and designers had to push for years to get close to the Tornado as it was always the benchmark. People put spinnies and square tops and twin traps and finally caught up but the the T updated what happened??? The Tornado has driven the acceptance that more of us could sail faster and want more performance and that has definitely boosted the sport in all ways. Is it as potent to gains now? mayybe not, but the issue is to get another spot in the Olympics not lose the one we have. If we don't want to compete in the top sporting forum open to man, why compete at all? OR maybe it is just about going down to the garden to eat worms.

I think that having a cat as an Olympic class is motivation for our younger sailors to get involved in sailing/racing cats and therefore is pivotal to the continued development of the sport. The only hope they'd have without the 'T' would be to campaign a mono and I think cat sailing, particularly as a sport, would suffer as a consequence of not having Olympic representation. And while I think it's a good thing we have a cat at the event, I don't believe we capitalise enought on the fact. Not only that, but the boat is probably the most developed class there, and without doubt, the fastest which should count for a whole lot more than it does.

Whether or not the 'T' is in fact the right cat for the job though, is another story and was the reasoning behind my previous comment.

Here's the thing, the Olympics is supposed to be a proving ground for the best in each Nation to compete against the best of the "other" Nations, sort of like a World Championship but it only happens every 4 years. So you could say that all the World Championships between Olympic years are just to find out WHO deserves to be IN the Olympics, representing their country.

When I look at all of sailing, from Opti's to The Race, with 120 foot cats, the trend in Sailing World Speed Records is obvioulsy big cats or tri's. So maybe if any class of boat should be "dropped" maybe it should be the 100 yr. old Star, or the 40 yr. old 470's. Why are we still supporting those designs when clearly the future lies in lighter, faster sailboats? Yes the Tornado HULLS might be an older design but the rig has been updated several times and the boat continues to be at the front in all major open regattas.

So maybe the real issue behind US Sailing is not "The chance for medals." but rather, "We are affraid that more people will see multihulls as the future of fast sailing and we don't want to lose any more of our top tallent to them, we need them to stay in the Star and 470." You will remember that two of the top America's Cup skippers just started a "World Sailing League", and what boat did they choose for that?

What is the drive for the Omlympics? Top level competition. Who knows whether or not I would have had what it takes. I let raising children and work sideline my efforts that began in the late 1980's. What the status of the Tornado as an Olympic class did for me was to get me interested again in cats, build my firt Tornado and into racing to begin with. Had it not been for the Tornado, I never would have even looked at racing. It took the Olympic carrot to get me focussed on multihull racing.

The decision on which boat to build was also decided by the fact that the Tornado was the Olympic class. I could have built an A-class or even a C-class at that time, but the Tornado was the Olympic class and that was that. I was going to build and race one. Now does that effect anyone else who sails cats? I do not know, but it sure motivated me. So even if you loose only one future multihull sailor because there is no Olympic event, it is a loss.

What impact does the Olympics have upon our sport? You have only to look as far as the Star class and its alumni to see the far reaching effects of Olympic status. Does this translate to more multihull sailors and greater visibility for our end of the sport? A little, but maybe we need to address the real issue which is our own promotion of multihull sailing and racing. We can be much more effective ambassadors for our sport than we are and much more active in its promotion.

Does this answer your question Mary? No, but I still remember the day I discovered the Tornado and began my planning to build one. Two years later it was measured in and given the sail number of US-775.

Toss that stupid "sport" with the brooms sweeping the hockey puck (that looks like glorified shuffleboard) and put the multihulls back in!

This posting is from XSRacing site-Notice the picture they chose is of Tornados racing. Wonder Why! Had to set pic as attachement. Sorry, but here is the link. http://www.xsracing.org/index.php?page=23

Rolex Miami OCR Starts this Weekend





Jan 18 2007 - 0848 PST - From January 21 to 27, 2007, US SAILING's Rolex Miami OCR returns to the waters of Biscayne Bay, bringing together the world's top Olympic and Paralympic class competitors. The 18th annual US SAILING Rolex Miami OCR is a mainstay on the winter circuit for sailors who are campaigning for the next Olympic and Paralympic Games. The event is ranked by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) as a Grade 1 event and features competition in 14 Olympic and Paralympic classes. Photo courtesy of Rolex.