Mark _australia said...
It is still BS how the RS:X class even started.
The PWA sailors started Formula in 1998 ish to try and get the Olympics into planing sailing which is what 100% or windsurfers aspire to, and lets say 90% (?) of windsurfers actually achieve.
And how well has the PBA done? it's been shrinking for years. About a year ago, the world women's racing champ had to go onto the Starboard forum to ask if any other women were going to do the racing - now they've dumped it.
Not exactly a glowing success, is it?
Planing windsurfing in all conditions from 8kn to 35kn.
If the Olympics had Formula, yes they'd have to put it off some days so why not have 30 days set aside for racing not just the 16 (?) of the Games.
Because it would increase the expense dramatically. You'd have to have a spare race committee, course boats etc sitting around, day after day, waiting.
Sailing already cops criticism for being too expensive to run - having people idling around, getting paid, eating, etc while not racing will not help that.
But instead they looked for a slightly modernised version of One Design which has given us what...... expensive One Design racing.
Make it Formula and allow a few more entrants and some TV coverage will be realised.
Are you sure? I remember doing many regattas where we got nothing like the TV coverage expected, because no TV crews will sit around, twiddling their thumbs, while windsurfers wait for the winds they want.
How many other sports expect teams of professionals (the media) with massively expensive kit (choppers, boats, cameras, "talent" etc) to sit around for 7 days or more, eating, drinking, getting shuttled around, using up scant accommodation and press accreditation and hoping for wind?
What will other sports say while a bunch of people are sitting around and not filming them?
How do they run a TV schedule when they have no idea when they will get vision, and how much?
Trouble is Olympic windsurfing is so far removed from what we do, and what people want to see, that it will forever remain on the sidelines. We missed our chance big time.
Add up the people who did the Australian nationals, US nationals, German regattas, UK regattas, French regattas and you'll see that they overwhelmingly sail hybrid or longboard - NOT shortboards (apart from slalom in big events).
If we cast aside the hype, the fact is that competitive windsurfing is pretty close to Olympic competitive windsurfing. Sure, casual windsurfing is different, but casual bikeriding is differint from Olympic cycling, jogging is different from the 100m, Olympic horseriding is not like the riding most people do, etc etc etc.
PS I am not knocking the Olympic windsurfers, they are the fittest athletes out there .... they pump for hours on end. I have enormous respect for them, I just think the IOC and sailing associations need to get rid of the pipe smoking tweed jacket wearing fossils they have and replace them with some progressive thinking folk.
Rant over.
Well, that got me fired up.
I think it's complete rubbish to trot out this tired, incorrect old "fossil" crud. Yes, the YA and ISAF can be annoying, but the simple, clear, undeniable fact is that the part of sailing they are running (the boats) is doing one hell of a lot better than windsurfing.
How many windsurfer classes get about 800 sailors to RESTRICTED world championships (ie, it's not just anyone who can enter) like Lasers do? The over-35 year old's worlds got over 400 entries in FOUR DAYS last time around, before they closed the books - that's more than any windsurfer event can dream of.
How many windsurfer classes have up to 10,000 people in a single event like several yacht races (UK RTI, Barcolona etc) do?
How many windsurfer classes for kids have to restrict entry into their junior state titles, like Sabot dinghies do?
How many windusrfer classes find that there are TOO MANY highly-paid pros and have to try to keep their numbers down, like the yachties do?
How many windsurfers get to make damn fine livings, like many yachties do?
Across the full wind range, a Moth is probably quicker than a Formula board, so they've even outpaced us in speed.
Let's drop the cliches and look at reality.
The world cup is struggling, sailing is (in some places) booming. The world cup doesn't allow in the fastest-growing, biggest-selling board in the world (Kona) or the hugely successful T293 scene in Europe, or the T15 in the UK (about 800 kids racing in something run by those 'pipe smokers'. What is so bad about a bunch of people (like the UK yachties) who get over 1000 kids into competitive windsurfing?
Did you see how many kids did the Formula worlds? The numbers are a tiny fraction of those who did the 293s. Personally, I'd much rather sail Formula, but the kids have voted with their feet for T293 (a board I personally dislike).
The "tweed jacket" types do it better. Simple fact, as proven by the number of sailors their events attract.
Oh, and many of them are out there, still sailing despite the fact that some are ageing, risking danger far greater than windsurfers ever meet. And they are more responsive to the average class organiser as the International Windsurfing Association is, IMHO.
