US Sailing Olympic... screwing us again!?!

US Sailing Olympic has announced two development programs.
They have an 18 and under team and a 23 and under team.

Both teams leave out Multihulls and Windsurfer sailors leaving us with NO develpment program or support. Once again... we are getting screwed by Dean Brenner.

Is John Lovel still in charge at the MHC for the Youth programs. What is the story here?

If we don't get this situation corrected NOW we will never have a pipeline and never generate sailors who qualifiy the US... much less medal!

What is going on!

The windsurfers have more right to be pissed of about this. Right now there is no such thing as an olympic multihull, so why would you invest in a development programme.

Why complain? ... because ISAF still runs Youth Championships in cats plus events like the Pan Am games have a Hobie 16 class and US Sailing promised us support for these on going events as well as support and leadership for future inclusion in Olympics.

I didn't say why complain, I said the windsurfers will be more pissed off.

not sure they give a damn... Most windsurfers I know don't need or want to join the Yacht Club infrastructure that sailors with boats join and support, much less USSA. They don't seem to have much involvement with USSA and seem to to just ignore most of what USSA is doing. I am in the Farrah Hall part of the world and the stories she tells of USSA and the fiasco with the trials are awfull. So... they have such negative interaction with USSA that they would have to care before they get pissed.

That would be the same US Sailing that promised to vote for multi hull in the Olympics
Why are you suprised by them and do you really believe them when they say something about multihulls?
I've watched all the angst die down and the moderate talk, if clubs sold some of their mono's and increased their multi's for juniors that would catch attention.

Not one catsailor from the US decided to build an F12, the new youth multihull. If none is willing to put an effort individually to support youth multihull sailing, none should complain against a similar behavior from the collective representatives.

sailing mono's on tv is some of the hardest to watch sport already! None of they never pitchpole or flip over 20 ft. So IMHO the oympics are lame only every 4 years and only a few watchable sports now. Boycott them by competing in your local, regional and national events every year. It seems like a lot of you are upset about this. The commercalization of the winners like Phelps on everything from popcorn to toiletpaper ads its all about making a paycheck after the medals are put away! LOL the only people affected it seems to me are the sailmakers, boatbuilders and other advertisers, makes sense for the latter, bigger sails and hulls make better billboards for sponsor. Hope this isn't taken the wrong way no offence to anyone here or involved.

Hello Charlie

The current consensus is that Olympic catamaran sailing is needed to set the standard of excellence and it establishes the stars who inspire everyone in the sport from juniors on up. The MHC discussed this notion in a well attended conference call with representitves from classes and fleets from around the country.
I don't remember any disagreement or well made argument suggesting that we ignore the Olympic problem because it makes no difference to the rank and file sailors which sounds like your argument.

Do you think that " our competing in our local, regional and national events" will generate interest in the sport of sailboat racing alone? (how does this work?)

In Baltimore, Michal Phelps has been absolutley huge in promoting the sport of swiming over the last 6 years and he is using his massive new fame to further the sport. I think sailing would be no different if we could build programs that generated world class stars who performed on the Olympic stage. (IMO, this is why we need a solid development program)

Do you not put a lot of stock in the inspirational aspects that are created by Olympic competition?

Kudo's to you... I have heard from several people who share your point of view but don't put the contrarian point of view out there!

Hi Mark,

I was inspired by Glenn Ashby the current world A-class champ he had a dream of Olympic competition several years ago when the racing catamarans video was shot. I just dont want to see so much complaining about it to spoil the fun of competition at the local events or even cause one multi hull sailor to walk away from the sport they have so much time and effort into over the O's

Michael Phelps won every thing he tried, set fantastic records and the US swimming management team deserve to share his glory. The US Sailing organisation can look upon the 2008 Olympics as they're crowning glory with a medal in Womans Lasers and Finn's. They still deny the women a high performance dinghy, the men and women a multihull perhaps its because 50 yo bilionaires only sail 50ft and above. Exactly what inspiration do the youth of America take away from the Olympics

The youth are inspired by everything from exgames freestyle BMX to the kids next door beating up his shins on that latest skateboard move. When I see young people sailing a 29er for example their parents got them into the sport either by sailing themselves or providing financial aid and a club membership. Like most people I was disappointed at the elimation of the multihull from the games I just dont have an attitude or the "we got screwed" point of view.

After further consideration.... you are right.

When I see young people sailing a 29er for example their parents got them into the sport either by sailing themselves or providing financial aid and a club membership

The YC is providing the leadership and venue for that 29ner sailor to get started, train, and excell. Without the YC and the subsequent support and direction of the Regional and National Associations, there would be no pathway for this sailor and his family to follow.

My complaint was that USSA Olympic is once again failing to lead and layout a program for a multihull sailor. Multihulls are not part of the development program just spelled out by USSA Olympic.

Luis jolted my memory.... after further consideration..perhaps this result is what we have earned. I am completely wrong about being screwed by USSA Olympic... ... you have to care first and be working towards a solution that is thwarted by USSA before you can vetch about being screwed by their actions.

Luis points out that nobody in the USA stepped forward and committed to the F12 project (little cats for little kids for little money). No club (read no cat sailors within a YC) stepped forward and took on the SL16 fleet offer for junior sailors. The Hobie 16 with chute boat for ISAF youth competition is the red headed step child in USA Hobie fleets and simply not allowed to compete. Meanwhile, the EU is getting 60 junior teams on the water racing with chutes. The US version of a catamaran junior program is to race 16's with your kids as crew at most events and then send them off to the weekend 16 junior NA's. The rest of the world and US fleets thinks that you should push the kid into sailing their own boat (solo or team). The program that we have is what we have. USSA Olympic is simply going to wait and see if it generates junior sailors skilled enough to compete on the world stage. ... They are not going to fund last place finishes!

Ah well...

If we're truly at the point where we have no youth boat, and need a grassroots upheaval to get the F12 (or pick a boat) going, then we have absolutely no business comparing ourselves to the developmental programs that have been established by monos.

Like it or not, the current state of affairs in the US exists simply because there isn't a critical mass of youth yet. We bring our kids to sail on our boats out of necessity, not preference. I would love to see huge numbers of double-stacked boats coming to regattas so kids can sail in a youth class.

As to the spinnaker debate, that's a can of worms that can only hurt us in the big picture. I'm not sure that there's a "right" or "wrong" side to this debate, but at the current time, we don't have enough critical mass to support two H16 classes (spin vs. non-spin), and too many of us lived through episodes where classes were fragmented and are now completely gone. I don't think that's a be-all-end-all answer, but it is the current reality.

Mark, what is your data source for those EU numbers? 60 boats in any one class at weekend regattas surely would be impressive.

EDIT: I still think the X-Games (NOT the Olympics) are more of the target audience for cats, and you might as well throw in boards and kites too.

Mike

Great point. Cat sailing is one of the original extreme sports--so cat racing should be in the X-games--let's push it.

The discussion between builders seems to indicate that there isn't enough of a market for a youth-only boat. Something that the Multihull Commission is working on is trying to establish a boat that can be a youth and a women's boat - looking ahead to the 2016 Games, we'll need to come up with a recommendation by 2011. If we have a boat that can be a youth and a women's boat, manufacturers will be in a much better position to support events.

Also, most feel that the jump from an SL16 or a H16 w/spin to the current Olympic multihull is too great. Other classes (29er-49er, Radial-Laser, 420-470) do a better job of managing this. I think we need to close that gap from both sides.

Simple-minded example: hot-rod Chevy driver directly to Formula 1: Does this happen often? Not exactly.

I absolutely agree with JW's description, we have a "disjoint". Jumping from Hobie 16 directly to Tornado is unlikely, yet $20,000 F18s are too powerful and too heavy. Most Carbon boats are going to be too expensive-- God love 'em. So- What do we have?

I just finished this fall's attempts to get local Sea Scouts onto cats. I got them out one day (they said they had a great time), but now the program is totally dead. The local high school crew program is apparently doing well- and hijacked all of our boys. (They have nifty carbon rowing shells on a big local lake- and girl crews train at the same location). DOH!

OK, Sailor Reality Show for the next Tybee 500 OBX, brutal up close action. I have seen BS footage of people trying to go from one place to another... not very captivating. There has to be a way to get sailing onto mainstream TV, freakin freshwater fishing gets time.

Personality makes good TV, not necessarily action...although it helps.

Personality PLUS TV

Sailing Anarchy interview with Dennis Conner
SA: You've had so much experience at every level of sailing - do you think there is a way to make it work on TV, or should we just stop trying to pretend it ever will?

DC: Other than the America's Cup, I don't think that sailing on TV will ever work. I think we should put TV out of our minds and stop letting it run the sport like it does so many others. It's changed what sailing is all about, even the America's Cup, which used to have a 4 ½ hour time limit, and reduced it to something that will fit in a two hour TV slot. They changed Olympic sailing forever, instead of a true competition of the world's best sailors, now we have a trophy dash that can fit in a five minute TV show with a Gary Jobson voiceover. People watching TV aren't paying the bills – it's not like they're paying to watch.



You have to give Clean credit... his interviews are spectacular! Check out the Melges 24 NA interviews with the women at the top of the fleet (Driving and fordeck).... inspiring!

not even the worst example...try this on for size...ESPN had 5 consecutive broadcast hours of **Poker** on the other day, and, get this....All broadcast in **HIGH DEFINITION** (truly a vast wasteland...)

Why would ANYBODY, except maybe some other sailors, care about watching sailing on TV? Why would they care about watching it in person, for that matter?

I think about the only thing that would make it to TV is some sort of highlight or "crash & burn" segment.

This is a participation sport, not a spectator sport.

Sort of like spelunking.

In Frank Bethwaite's "High Performance Sailing" bible, he mentions skiff sailing on TV in Australia was a huge audience. Is that no longer so? If it is still big, why?

>They changed Olympic sailing forever, instead of a true competition of the world's best sailors, now we have a trophy dash that can fit in a five minute TV show with a Gary Jobson voiceover.
Yeah- this above was the worst Oympic coverage I have ever seen, and yet it had commercial support! FROM WHICH DUMMIES?
Is there any recovery even possible?

It used to be on in the lunch break of the Sunday cricket a few years ago so ppl would be sitting down watching Australia beating India or England and drinking beer and would continue watching the 18's through the break. I don't believe that it is shown in the lunch break anymore...although haven't watched cricket on TV for ages, prefer to go sailing...

Speaking of cricket, it has a TV model that would suit sailing more than any other sports coverage because it is as boring, maybe even more so, as sailing. The only thing that makes it bearable to watch is it is a social sport to watch and the commentators are very good at entertaining the audience when the game gets dull.