SailJuice Blog

This is Part 4 of a series of articles looking at the Events and Equipment that will be contesting the Olympic Sailing Regatta in China next year. On 9th November, just a few days from now, the International Sailing Federation will vote on which 10 Events will constitute the Olympic Regatta in Weymouth 2012. An interesting task, considering that there are currently 11 Categories, so ONE MUST GO. This is your opportunity to have your say, by taking part in the SailJuiceBlog.com Olympic Classes 2012 Survey. More than 1,000 sailors have already shared their views. Read on, and then if you want to add your voice to the Survey, which closes on Monday morning, 5th November, click on the link below,

Olympic Classes Survey

now, on to the main article of the day…

CREW WEIGHTS IN THE OLYMPIC CLASSES

I can feel it in my bones. The topic of crew weight is really going to get you going. I know this because of the huge amount of feedback that has flooded into The Survey on this very subject. Some say there is nothing for the little people to sail, others say there’s nothing for the big people. All depends on your point of view, I suppose.

So I decided to take a look at the competitive weights currently operating within the 11 fleets. Now, before you remind me that Qingdao is just around the corner and that every Olympic aspirant is on an emaciation diet for the anticipated light – or complete lack of – wind in China, here’s what I did.

Firstly I asked a few sailors, people like Darren Bundock in the Tornado and Carol Cronin (former top American Yngling sailor) their views. But beyond that I took a look at the official website for the ISAF World Championships in Cascais earlier this summer. If you go to www.CascaisWorlds2007.com, you’ll see that under the Entry List for each class, the sailors have provided their crew weights in kilograms.

Now, the good thing about Cascais was that it was predicted to be windy. Do you remember the slogan for the event?

“The wind is calling…”

Well, as it turned out, the wind wasn’t just calling, it was howling! So I have made the assumption that sailors would have wanted to perform well in the anticipated strong winds and their crew weights would be representative of a normal Olympic cycle building up to an Olympic Regatta where any type of wind could be expected. It’s certainly the case that many sailors went on a crash diet immediately after Cascais in a bid to lose as much weight as possible before the Olympic Test Event in Qingdao a month later.

So I took the weights of the top 10 finishers in each class World Championship at Cascais, and did a few sums.

Below is a table of the Men’s and Women’s Classes, where I’ve shown the average (mean) weight for the top 10 in each fleet, plus the full range of weights in the top 10:

Men’s and Open Olympic Classes (Top 10 in Cascais)

Laser – Average Weight: 81kg. Weight Range: 78 – 84kg
Finn – Average Weight: 100kg. Weight Range: 94 – 110kg
RS-X - Average Weight: 73kg. Weight Range: 68 – 79kg
49er Helm - Average Weight: 71kg. Weight Range: 68 – 77kg
49er Crew - Average Weight: 77kg. Weight Range: 72 – 80kg
470 Helm - Average Weight: 65kg. Weight Range: 60 – 67kg
470 Crew - Average Weight: 71kg. Weight Range: 65 – 75kg
Tornado Helm - Average Weight: 73kg. Weight Range: 69 – 79kg
Tornado Crew - Average Weight: 76kg. Weight Range: 71 – 79kg
Star Helm - Average Weight: 94kg. Weight Range: 80 – 110kg
Star Crew - Average Weight: 102kg. Weight Range: 90 – 115kg

Women’s Olympic Classes (Top 10 in Cascais)

Laser Radial - Average Weight: 66kg. Weight Range: 58 – 70kg
RS-X - Average Weight: 57kg. Weight Range: 52 – 62kg
470 Helm - Average Weight: 57kg. Weight Range: 49 – 65kg
470 Crew - Average Weight: 67kg. Weight Range: 61 – 70kg
Yngling Helm - Average Weight: 67kg. Weight Range: 60 – 79kg
Yngling Middle - Average Weight: 67kg. Weight Range: 55 – 74kg
Yngling Crew - Average Weight: 66kg. Weight Range: 60 – 82kg

Now, there are a few things you should know. Not all of the weights were accurate. In fact, how would you know the accuracy of any them? But I’ve had to make the assumption that for every sailor that overestimated his weight, there was another that underestimated.

However, I had to remove some weights where they were just plain nonsense.

For example, all of the British weights gave the same statistics for every sailor in a given fleet. To give you an example, all the British Laser sailors come in at a standard 1.80 metres tall, and 80kg in weight. All the Finn sailors are 1.90 metres tall, and 90kg in weight. Perhaps this is the secret to Team GBR’s success… they’re CLONING their sailors!!!

Meanwhile, the Italian team appeared to have been put on a starvation diet, with the Italian women’s 470 sailors registering just 93kg between them, while among all the Italian Star crews only one weighed in excess of 80kg. Who ever said too much pasta makes you fat?

Then there was Greek Finn sailor Emilios Papathanasiou, whose registered weight was 69kg! Hmmm… 69, seems a bit arse-about-face. I wonder what Emilios was thinking about when he was filling out the entry form. I have made the bold assumption that perhaps Emilios, if he hadn’t been otherwise preoccupied, meant to write 96kg.

Now, while the numbers above are quite interesting in themselves, how do the numbers get on as ‘a family’? By which I mean, how well do the Olympic Classes share the burden of giving every size of human being given a chance at being an Olympic sailor?

For this, I’ve taken the same basic data and put them into the tables below.

First the Women’s Classes. Just click on the thumbnail to see it in full size:

Now the Men’s Classes. Click on the thumbnail to see it in full size:

Did you struggle to see that, even at full size? The trouble is, it covers such a broad range of weights it’s hard to fit it all in. So here’s a close-up of the main bit of the chart:

What do you think? Does everyone get a fair crack of the whip, from the midget to the goliath?

Some basic observations:

• The more people on the boat, the greater the spread of potential weights. Not exactly rocket science, this observation. But an important one. Where the Yngling has come off badly in other comparisons of recent days, the three-woman keelboat does very well here. The Star does pretty well too, with a wide range of weights catered for at the top end of the range.
• As Darren Bundock pointed out to me, with twin trapezing it doesn’t matter so much whether the weight is in the helm or the crew, provided your combined weight matches the fleet trend. This is an advantage the Tornado and the 49er have over the 470, for example.
• Not surprisingly, the singlehanders provide the least weight variation. Interesting to note that the Laser, which based on my Bums On Seats analysis is far and away the most popular Olympic class, is also the one that covers the smallest weight distribution. Perhaps this speaks of the high level of competition in the fleet, but perhaps it also speaks of the limitations of a strict one-design class, where you have to mould your body around the boat. In a Finn, on the other hand, with the possibility of varying your mast stiffness and sail shape, you have the potential to match the power of the boat to your crew weight.

Meanwhile, we’re reaching the final few days of the Survey. We’re well past 1,000 responses, but it would always be nice to have more. I see a concerted effort coming from one particular Olympic class, judging by the names and email addresses coming through to my SailingTalk Xpress Newsletter, but other fleets have been surprisingly quiet considering what is at stake next week in Estoril. Time to drum up support for your cause too?

You’ve got until Monday morning (GMT) to complete the five-minute Survey.