SailJuice Blog

So, what to make of the decision in Estoril?

Once again some members of ISAF Council have put personal interests ahead of the interests of the sport. Well, hang on, I should qualify that. Because this all depends on what you believe the interests of the sport to be.

My definition? Doing whatever it takes to grow the appeal of the sport, to make itself as attractive as possible to the next generation, in as many continents and nations as possible.

Does the Star do that? No. It’s a rich man’s boat. Not that the Tornado is cheap.

But keelboat versus multihull? That should have been a no-brainer. Think of the kids on the beaches of Asia or South America. They see a Tornado blasting around (OK, maybe not blasting around in Qingdao, but you get my point) on TV.… Read the rest

There will be no multihull in the Weymouth 2012 Olympics. But there will be Women’s Match Racing in place of the Women’s Fleet Racing.

Following a tense ISAF Council meeting in Estoril this morning, ISAF will need to batten down the hatches in preparation for a Tornado of protest from the multihull world, as the catamaran lost out by two votes. It lost out to the Men’s Keelboat, aka the Star, the class that just refuses to lay down and die.

In the vote for the final women’s class, the votes went 21:20 in favour of Women’s Match Racing, the Women’s High Performance skiff just losing out by the skinniest of margins.

Once again, after a promising discussion and series of votes by the Events Committee two days ago, ISAF Council goes its own way. The wrong way.

But more… Read the rest

More than 1,000 responses, and mostly this Olympic Classes 2012 Survey has gone down well with people. I think you’ve understood what I’m trying to achieve here. However, others have let me know how disappointed they are with the lack of choice available in the way I constructed the Survey. They don’t like the fact that I have stayed very closely to the current structure of the Olympic Regatta, its Events and Equipment. They are frustrated that I haven’t offered a wider choice of possibilities.

There is a good reason for this.

What I have tried to do with this Survey is to get you to consider the same issues that ISAF has to face next week. There is one very specific question that they must address, which is how to reduce 11… Read the rest

What makes a good Olympic class? What do you think are the important criteria? Is it availability and affordability? Should it be high performance, or maybe low performance? After all sometimes the slower a boat, the more tactical the racing. But then faster boats can be more fun to sail, and certainly more fun to watch.

Is it media appeal? After all, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) say that minority interest sports like sailing and equestrianism need to start appealing to broader audiences to attract greater share of the global TV audience during the Olympic fortnight.

In a little more than two weeks from now, the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) will sit down to determine which will be the categories for the Olympic Regatta in Weymouth, England, in the summer of 2012.

So over the next two weeks, SailJuiceBlog.com will… Read the rest