[JimC]

that's it!

[freakIRL]

Read the report http://www.sailing.o...?ArticleID=8365

[simbert]

1. Multihull Open: Tornado
2. Keelboat Women: Yngling
3. Keelboat Men: Star
4. Double-handed Dinghy Open: 49er
5. Double-handed Dinghy Women: 470
6. Double-handed Dinghy Men: 470
7. Single-handed Dinghy Open: Finn ???
8. Single-handed Dinghy Men: Laser ???

[alpha]

JimC, on Nov 12 2004, 03:56 PM, said:

that's it!

Europe butts just got bigger

[couchsurfer]

well,ladies.....it's ALL 'on the water' now,eh?--time to drop the tecky finnsailor boyfriend,,and shaddapansail!!!! ,and it just got a lot less expensive,and a whole lot more competitive.

[SC Finnster]

Nothing like having a junior training boat in the Olympics.

[Remodel]

What do they mean by

7. Single-handed Dinghy Open: Finn
8. Single-handed Dinghy Men: Laser

Is the Finn open to both men and women? Are there any women that could be competitive in the Finn at the Olympic level - assuming there is breeze?

Why the fuck is there no three-person keelboat, or at least a kellboat with a spinaker?

Why are there two single-handed mens events?

[Chris 249]

SC Finnster, on Nov 12 2004, 08:15 PM, said:

Nothing like having a junior training boat in the Olympics.

[QUOTE]

I dunno, the radial just seems a nicer boat to me than the big-rig Laser, but then again I'm more Radial size (out here we sail Radials to a greater weight 'cause it's fairly windy)/

But is a "training boat" necessarily worse than a boat that is basically (some say, literally) a cut-down smaller-rigged cruising canoe?

After all, the Finn is basically a Swedish C Class canoe with the stern and mizzen cut off, and the little hiking planks removed (although as early as the '60s they started thinkin about putting them back in).

Isn't this about the time the Finn sailors start re-writing results and history to try to "prove" that Lasers teach you nothing about sail trim?

Then they go on to say that you shouldn't have a supplied strict OD in the Games, ignoring the fact that for decades the Finn was a supplied strict OD in the Games. And forgetting that the greatest Finn sailor of them all repeatedly spoke against having boats in the Olympic s unless they were strict supplied ODs, and tried to make a Laser-style strict OD of his own for the Games.

I really feel sorry for all those people with Europes. You wonder whether they couldn't make such decisions 5 years ahead instead of 3 1/2, but I suppose that would cause other consequences.

Notice how succesful the strategy of chasing a minute % of performance at considerable cost was for the Europe? It always seemed a dumb idea; the Europe was a from the start of the class a ONE DESIGN Moth; it was started in the first place as a reaction to rising costs in the development Moth class. And "developing" the Europe looked even dumber when the real development Moth was always going to be vastly faster.

I'm a bit nonplussed. The Olympic class I sail got dumped (so there goes my supply of cheap gear and probably the class) and the non-Olympic class I have/will sail got into the Five Ring Circus, so I'll probably never win another Open championship. Ahhh well.

I can't WAIT to see the 8' long NP boards try to sail in 4 knots. And I can't wait to see how quickly they learn to pump it. A lightweight's paradise??

[couchsurfer]

Chris 249, on Nov 12 2004, 12:42 PM, said:

I'm a bit nonplussed. The Olympic class I sail got dumped (so there goes my supply of cheap gear and probably the class) and the non-Olympic class I have/will sail got into the Five Ring Circus, so I'll probably never win another Open championship. Ahhh well.

A consolation for the heartache that this change causes europe owners,,,their sailing just got a lot less pricey.,and so did anyone's (of pip-squeek size)who likes to have good competition......also,,if you're happy with used laser gear,,the USED market price probably dropped some amount as well.
I kinda woulda thought that the BYTE,with it's new CII rig,and it's carbon mast/mylar sail,woulda been a better choice techniclly,,,,and also would have given 2 different manuf.designs the $ bonus. http://www.byteclass.org/ .....but it must be a bit early in it's development.