Today will be now known as Black Friday. ISAF have just killed two high performance boats fom the Olympics, the multihull and the Womens HP double hander, leaving a very sour taste in the mouths of all cat sailors, or anyone that sails a HP boat for that matter. Looking from the outside in, not only will it look pretty stupid having boring and slow boats in the Olympics, but the consistency and naming of the Events is ludicrous!

I really do feel sorry for the cat sailors though, as now they have nothing to aspire to. Instead I am quite certain they will form their own International Catamaran Federation and disown themselves from ISAF. I can't help but think that a International Foiler Federation won't be far behind. Or maybe we should just join heads and form the International High Performance Sailing Federation? ISAF should really do everyone a favour and change it's name to the European Low Performance Dinghy Sailing Federation, because really, that is all they seem to care about these days.

Personally I have nothing against the Finn or the Laser, but what annoys me is that there are two boats extremely similar, so similar that a skipper can easily jump between boats and do well in both. I can only wish that the ISAF Executive force the ISAF Council to choose only one! Leaving the remaining event to not only be High Performance, but also an Open event (as with the Multihull gone there is now 6 Mens Events and 4 Womens). In fact during the Events committee, one of the members from France/Belguim proposed such an event to be included to be voted on with the other seven Mens/Open events, and wouldn't you know it, he was shut down within a minute so there was no chance it could even be considered. Just goes to show that as much as people like the Foiler Moth, they know it is a huge threat to their pet dinosaurs and refuse to give it a chance.

So what next? Just for a laugh, I think next year we will submit our Bladerider in as the Men's 'Heavy' and 'Even Heavier' Dinghy Events and see what happens. Don't worry Finn and Laser fans, your bath tubs will be safe, but I look forward to seeing what they define as a 'Heavy' Dinghy. Here is what I think it should be:

Absolutely must not sail faster than the wind
If it sails faster than the wind, add more weight to the hull and mast
Must not be able to lift the boat with less than 10 people
Must cost more than 20,000 Euro
The average age of the class membership must be more than 70 years old
The class selected must only be sailed in Europe
The class selected must begin with the letter "F" and end in "N"
Or to make it less complicated, maybe they should just rename the event as the 'Heaviest Mens Dinghy', that way no one else will even be able to submit their boat, and if they do, ISAF will have to have a weigh-off. The heaviest boats wins!

Seriously though, I have lost all respect now for the ISAF Council to make decisions that are the best for sailing, rather than what is best for their own country or interests. I will have to seriously consider whether it is even worth submitting our Bladerider now to get international status. We don't have to as we already fit within a International Class Rule and the Moth Worlds will always be the premier event. Worst of all is that we would have to pay ISAF's annual class and boat registration fees, therefore allowing Council members to fly and shack up every six months at five star venues. No thanks! I think I would much rather do our adminstration and organise grand prix racing along with the cat sailors.

"Some" have said that there is a lot going on behind the scenes just now, but I have no idea what they are doing. If I were to guess I would guess current efforts is directed towards lobbying ISAF and IOC to include a multihull for 2012.

That may be true, but I think negotiating on that basis should not precede efforts to tackle a more fundamental issue - that ISAF council members have by their own admission violated their own regulations and ignored IOC guidance in reaching their decision.