Posted by: Andy Rice | April 15, 2008

Star shines exactly when it needs to

According to readers of US website Scuttlebutt whose Olympic Events 2012 poll concluded recently, the keelboats shouldn’t make the cut for Weymouth. Below are the results.

Ironically, this result comes in a week when 104 Stars are competing at their World Championships in Miami. That is a phenomenal turn-out and speaks volumes for the health of the class, although of course Miami is the spiritual home of the Star fleet. Turnouts here are always going to be good.

The strength in depth of the competition is impressive too. Former Finn Olympic Champion Mateusz Kusnierewicz and his Polish team mate Dominik Zycki (shown below in Fried Elliott’s photo) turned in an outstanding performance to win the first two heats, only to drop to 8th overall after scoring 44th in the third heat. There are some very good sailors finding themselves very deep in the results.

Americans John McCausland and Kevin Murphy hold the lead, tied for points with Australians Iain Murray and Andrew Palfrey. Now in his early 50s, Murray is showing he is as sharp as he was when he made his name winning a clutch of 18-foot skiff titles on Sydney Harbour in the 70s. Good on him.

So who’s right? The pollsters who voted the keelboats out, or the 208 keelboat sailors going about their business in Miami? Such a strong show from the ancient Star couldn’t come at a better time for the class, as its Olympic future hangs in the balance.

If the revote does take place this November, and it came down to a battle between multihull and keelboat, who deserves to win? Regular SailJuice readers know where my preferences lie, although of course I’d love to see both stay in.

I just can’t see ISAF going back to the IOC, cap in hand, begging for that 11th medal back. Remember, it wasn’t so long ago when the Star crept in through the back door to be reinstated for the Sydney Games. What’s a responsible parent to do when his prodigal son keeps overspending on his pocket money? We’ve already been bailed out once. I can’t see ISAF having the cheek to go back with the begging bowl for a second time. Yes, Jacques Rogge is a former Olympic sailor and it’s useful to have friends in high places. But he’s so keen to be seen as whiter than white and break the old accusations of corruption in the IOC, that his association with our sport could even work against us in situations like this. Never mind the fact that, with all the controversy around China and Tibet, Rogge has rather bigger fish to fry this side of August.

Nevertheless, former ISAF President Paul Henderson says this is what ISAF should seek to do, and he knows the politics much better than me. So I hope the ex-Pope is right to be so optimistic. Getting that 11th medal back would solve all the in-fighting about whose boat is better than whose – for the time being anyway. At some point we’re going to have to cut down to 10 Events. If not this November, it will be four years hence.

So who’s going to go? The Stars have thrown down the gauntlet with their 100+ entry list. That’s a strong statement by any measure. How will other Events under threat respond?

QUESTION: Someone once said: “The Olympics needs the Star boat more than the Star boat needs the Olympics.” What say you?

For overall results from the Star Worlds, click here…

For some ‘my boat’s better than yours’ arguments about the Finn, click here…

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Whose Star will shine in China? »

Responses

The 100+ boat turnout isn’t that unusual for the Stars. Last year’s europeans at Garda had 105 boats if I remember right.
More importantly, looking at the spread of the competitors, there is something like 31 different countries amongst those 104 boats [I think it was 27 countries at the 2007 Euros] and currently after day 4 we have 4 europeans, 1 austrailasian, 3 north americans, 1 south american and 1 asian boat in the top ten. By my count that means the only continent not represented in the top ten is africa. I’m not even going to start counting up the olympians and world champions that in in there as that is partially a different agruement.
It would be interesting to see what the other olympic classes manage to achieve regarding spread of countries and continents at their major events, but given the Star is widely touted as being (a) irrelevant, (b) expensive and (c) rarely sailed outside the US I think the performance from this old duffer in sustaining these sort of fleets is exceptional.

By: Kenny on April 16, 2008
at 7:00 am

Couldn’t agree more that the Star is putting up a wonderful performance. But that isn’t hugely relevant to the argument about about Olympic suitability. If popularity were the only criteria then a multihul is a shoe-in.

The Star is no doubt a hugely satisfying boat to sail and compete in - hence part of its popularity. It would no doubt continue to do well outside of the five ring circus. But how well would it be supported without Olympic status? The die hards off course - all classes have them. But the current active potential Olympians would no doubt sail anything they could with Olympic status. Others do it for friendship, companionship, rivalry established over years etc. If it were down to me though I’d be Dragon sailing instead given the extra dimensions it brings with kites etc. But that’s purely personal.

No, the real argument is about what makes for the best Olympic boats. It is a combination, I would suggest, of popularity (across the continents), speed, wowfactor, youth, agilty, strength, televisualness (is that a real word?) etc. After all the invitation at the end of the Olympics is made for the ‘youth of the world’ to come together again in 4 years time. How does the Star measure up there? Unfortunately not well - but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a fantastic boat for some people to sail -just not in the Olympics.

We should all not forget that the Olympics is not about showcasing the entirity of what a sport can offer. It can’t do that with a sport as diverse as sailing so what it needs to do analyse properly what the requirements are and then apply the conclusions. The ISAF events committee did that (and you may disagree with the results but at least it did it) whilst the council itself took no notice of this work put in and made decisions based purely on an odd voting method and MNA self interest. The rest of us wait with baited breath to see if the council will actually look at the arguments and do a similar job to that done by the events committee but again the process seems weighted against this. Maybe next time??

By: Bill Tucker on April 16, 2008
at 10:37 am

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