Sadly there will not be any cat at the 2012 Olympic Games!

http://www.sailing.org/21257.php?PHPSESSID=e6cf5e7f6953efa9cbce5e99d282ab98

I was just about to post the same thing.

Outragous IMO.

Ref: http://tornado.org/html/news_article.asp?ArticleID=272

Seems like GBR and RYA(?) did an multihull effort after all. Any way to find out who voted and where their votes went?

I know nothing about windsurfing, but it seems odd that there would be mens and womans windsurfing, but no multihulls. Could have at least had one open class in each.

The "open multihull" (Tornado) lost to the men keelboats (Star) by two votes in the ISAF Council meeting.
The results of the ballot were the following:

Men's event (first six selected)
One person dinghy – Men (36 votes)
Windsurfer – Men (35 votes)
Two person dinghy – Men (34 votes)
Two person dinghy high performance – Men (34 votes)
One person dinghy heavy – Men (33 votes)
Keelboat – Men (23 votes)
Multihull – Men or Open (21 votes)

Women's events (first four selected)
One person dinghy – Women (35 votes)
Windsurfer – Women (34 votes)
Two person dinghy – Women (31 votes)
Keelboat match racing – Women (21 votes)
Two person dinghy high performance – Women (20 votes)
Multihull – Women (3 votes)

Screw the Olympics! Let's continue without them.

The A cats seem to be doing quite well on their on.

Of course catsailing will continue, but our flagship just went under. With it went lots of media coverage and money. We no longer have an olympic class to push development and we are no longer represented in the "olympic classes" regattas.

What media coverage?? Again, the A cats are doing just fine without the Olympics.

Maybe this is a good opportunity to push a multihull class in the summer X-Games! I bet a lot more kids would watch that than the Olympics.

Flying a hull under spinnaker has to get someone's attention! Do it BK! Who would you contact?

Ugh...

You realize that most of the top competitors developed their game chasing that Olympic Carrot.

The A Class is the WORST example of what No Olympics will mean.

I agree in full with you.
The decision is detrimental to all catamaran classes, even if some are likely to suffer more the others.
The most damaged is for sure the Tornado class:
the production of new Tornados is very likely to stop abruptly.
It is worth to be noted that ISAF President is the Swedish Goran Petersson and the only Tornado builder is the Swedish Marstrom AB.
I believe that this morning Goran Marstrom, presently in Islamorada for the A cat Worlds, is not very happy with the other Goran.
The quotations of used Tornado are likely to drop abruptly as well.
Another class to be hit by the decision is the Formula 18 class, which will lose the young crews aspiring to the Olympic Games.

I want to take this opportunity to urge all of you in your respective areas to try to include one major "monohull" regatta in your area schedule for 2008. We sometimes do one where we share a course in Columbia and wrapped it up last weekend. Yes, the racing and waiting and traffic is a PIA, but the comments and inquiries we got from the Opti sailors to the Melges 17 sailors, to the Jboats, et all was like they have never realized that catamarans (F18's N20, etc) were high-tech machines. I'm pushing to get us to go to two events. This can help us gain exposure, acceptance, and potentially recruit new blood.

All,

please go to Y+Y and vote in this poll:

http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3570

Well, we didn't REALLY believe that the situation was hopeful, right ?

I believed we had a chance to continue the Tornado but never never a big chance.

The mono world never really wanted any other design next to their collection of dinghies.

The fact that certain National organisations were "forgetting" about the Tornado in their ballots was the warning signal that something serious was going on.

So now this fight have resulted in a loss we, as cat sailors, are free to decide what to do next.

This seems like a good time to revisit the discussion about building our own power structure and getting a serious youth track going.

Wouter

Mark! Are you on crac?

"You realize that most of the top competitors developed their game chasing that Olympic Carrot."

Nonsense! Olympians have always been an elite group, hence, few in number.

Not so fast Pete,

All the big names in catsailing are pretty much Tornado sailors who can justify their full time involvement with cat sailing through their Olympic campaigns.

For example Glenn Ashby sails Tigers for a living in addition to having a sailmakers shop. He sails the A-cat because that gives him the most pleasure (and to promo his own Geltech boat) not because there is some A-cat builder paying for his expenses as Hobie is doing for his F18 campaign.

Lets face it, winning the A-cat worlds doesn't bring in a load of cash. It is a honour thing that is funded by other activities.

The true reason for their sailing is the Olympic slot.

Now, cat sailing will indeed survive, but things will change.

Wouter

Hmm, think we were just insulted... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

But seriously, I agree with Jake. The Opti's sailed off the beach with us and we had several kids come over and ask lots of questions both days. "What is it?", "Is it fast?" "Is it safer?" "Where is the centerboard?" Since these kids are already into sailing, this was a great intro to cats for them. Maybe next time we should have some test rides and show them the thrill of speed! I will gladly volunteer since we have the forward tramp.

Ok! Point taken.

Quietly and calmly:

big names - there can't be many or they wouldn't be considered "big".

A-cat worlds doesn't bring in a load of cash. - THANK GOD! Most of the hundred are doing it because they want too. As such they represent a client base to sell to!

I just sailed (notice I didn't use the word "compete") in the Area D Qualifier. By any estimation, I got my butt handed to me. I don't care. It was a pleasure to be around top-notch sailors. If the Area D was pre-Olympic, I wouldn't have been allowed on the course.

"Now, cat sailing will indeed survive, but things will change."

We need to make a special effort to expand the Alter Cup format to include the Tornados. And make it a World-wide event. If we do that, the change will be much better.

Pete,

we (catsailors) just lost our R&D department, all executive accounts and the whole PR budget to put it into business terms.
Olympic sailing get coverage in media, and the Tornado enjoy some part of it. You might not believe it, but there really is some. We loose that from 2008, after what probably will not be a good event for the Tornado.

(Olympic )Sailing as a whole just lost one of it's most interesting classes. That is really ironic becouse ISAF have been warned by the IOC that sailing has to become more "media friendly". Matchracing might be a step in the right direction, but removing multihulls is a giant leap in the wrong direction.

We just sold our Tornado, but it will be very interesting to watch the Tornado class after 2008. It can either fizzle and die, or start doing stuff for regular sailors not just the olympians.