Mark _australia said...
All I said was that about 10 yrs ago there was an identified need by both the IOC and PWA to change what was going on at the Olympics.
I assume you mean the Olympic Programme Commission report in about 2004? That DID say the sailing had to get more viewers. However, the latest report from the OPC criticised sailing for not being universal enough (ie sailed in enough continents and countries). The arrival of the net means that lots of people are viewing the sailing that way (it's one of the sports with the most on-line viewers) and the change in the voting method means that sailing is in no danger of being dropped.
The shorter boards don't get as many nations competing as the RSX does or the IMCO did. Therefore, going for the short boards would go directly against what the IOC wants.
In the end, what we now have is
RS:X. Basically the same speeds and same to watch is the old One Design racing. Just a lot more expensive.
Very few people will start windsurfing, invest thousands in slalom or formula gear to compete at state / national level and then a couple years later decide to invest thousands in RS:X gear in the hope of going to the olympics. . They can invest less in slalom or formula gear and still race.
Sure, the RSX is a crap board (IMHO) It's normally slower than the old IMCO, and it's useless for club racing.
It was chosen after pressure from the shortboard side of it, and because ISAF wanted to be seen to be cooler. The particular board was selected by people like PWA champs, who know say it's crap - so it's obviously a much more difficult problem than just asking PWA people what they want to sail.
I don't see why RS:X was chosen when formula had already been developed as an "all wind strength" alternative to One Design?
Okay, check the input from the top slalom sailor in Victoria, to the AWA re FOD and RSX - "Qingdao has an average wind of only 6 knots(racing minimum) with a 4 knot current coming form the opposite direction! If racing is forced to start in these conditions or at future Olympic venues the board must have a centreboard surely?.
Input from one of the world's best FW sailors, a national FW champ - "London will great on FW, but I wonder what Spa or Kiel would be like. You ain’t gonna make it out to the startline in Kiel if you can’t move in <6 knots! (you know it Brendan!)"
A board that is part of the Olympic movement has to be able to sail at the major Olympic class regattas - Sail Sydney, Spa, Kiel, etc. Many of these are often sailed in very light winds, as Sean noted. And facilities are limited - the boards cannot get to hog the wind and they cannot get all the facilities to change rigs.
Look at the pics from China - the FW boards wouldn't be planing a lot of the time.
The FW boards were trialled against other boards at Garda in stage 1 of the trials. In the light races, the FW boards did 1/4 of the course in the time it took the longboards to finish. Such conditions are common most places, and FW in those conditions doesn't look good.
My analogy:
Lets pretend V8 supercar racing is still OK, but we want to reinvigorate it.
So we say: let's make a new class to replace V8 supercars.
So we test all the cars in the world and eventually decide everyone must use a Lamborghini.
We get the latest Lambo, detune it a bit so it is the same HP / speed / handling as the Commodores and Falcons we had, and make everyone use it. Now everyone pays more for something that looks and performs the same as before.
Nothing has changed really.
Except the newcomers no longer "progress" from a race Commodore (still fast) to the V8 supercar race car with the same performance, as it is a big step up and lots of $$$.
At the same time, the V8 supercar drivers invented a car that is the same price as the previous model, goes a little faster in marginal conditions and is cheaper to run and people may actually want to watch it race as it looks like what they drive.
Many poorer race drivers actually own this model as it is a natural progression from what they learned on.
But they find out they now have to buy a full on race-prepped Lambo to compete so they give up and just race their mates at the local....
Conspiracy theory: why was the IOC and international yacht racing mobs against forumula? The PWA guys saw the need a couple of years earlier, and did all the hard work for them, but the powers that be still wanted a One Design type situation.
Kickbacks?
In bed with the manufacturers?
I dunno.
Again, if the PWA is so hot-shot, why did they drop FW?
If the PWA are so smart and they dropped FW (as they have) then how do you use them as a reason to get FW into the Games?
If the "international yacht race mob" is so dumb, why are there so many more yacht racers?
If the yachties are looking for kickbacks, why would they look in the section of the sport that has the cheapest gear? If you got $100 bucks kickback from every RSX sold, it would be less than the design fee for a single one of the hundreds of big boats that they administer. If they were corrupt they'd go for the guys with bucks, and none of the multi-squillionaires has ever accussed them of wanting kickbacks. None of the dinghy manufacturers has ever accused ISAF of wanting kickbacks.
Formula is a fantastic class. Personally, I'd rather see FOD in the Games 'cause that way I could buy a second-hand one cheap, and I'd never own an RSX.
But there are many problems with FW in the Olympic environment, as the Aussie FW champ and the Victorian slalom champ both pointed out to the AWA.
I don't get the abuse of the sailing guys...maybe because I sail boats as well. They have higher-tech stuff, a more varied sport, and a vastly more popular sport. Despite being expensive, it's about 10th in the rankings of competitive sports in many countries.
That's an excellent performance, surely, and not one that we in a tiny sport that has shrunk dramatically (since the days when it was more like boat sailing) should abuse.
Wet Willy, in the world of the Olympics, windsurfing would not survive by itself - check the OPC reports to see what you need to get into the Games. So we cannot be a stand-alone sport with stand-alone events. And if concentrating on planing was so great for the sport, why is the sport so much smaller these days and why is a "non planing" board (as some call the Kona) the top-selling windsurfer at the moment?
The wind in China is light, but there IS wind - that's different from having no snow. And sailing, which takes place in light winds much of the time, is more popular than skiiing in many countries, so why should we assume that sailing is getting it wrong?
Thx Nobody!
to SeanAUS120 ...the only person to answer the question...