Paris 2024 – how did we do?


The scheduling peculiarities of an international magazine that literally travels the four corners of the earth mean that a preview in Europe can turn into a review in Tonga! We invited Olympic coach and top singlehander Jon Emmett to try to please both...


49ers Once regarded as the fastest boat at the Olympic Games, with fully foiling classes in 2024, the 49er is now considered a medium-speed boat. Key changes since Tokyo are new all-black sails and new masts. The changes are visually striking and were prompted by Southern Spars ceasing production of all masts for boats under 30ft. The class took the opportunity to move from spiral-wound construction methodology to mast-joint methodology; a big step forward, the new masts having half the range of flex as before plus far fewer failures; meanwhile, the average crew weight has crept up. The sails now last longer and are more consistent since moving to being moulded rather than sewn. All of the 2020 medallists have now retired, leaving this year’s field wide open.


54 SEAHORSE


Even so, Dutch pair Bart Lambriex/Floris Van De Werken must be favourite having won three back-to-back world titles, as well as the 2023 Olympic test event. FXs The FX fleet is stacked with gold


medallists. Defending champion Martine Grael, once again with Kahena Kunze, is going for an unprecedented third Olympic gold medal for a female sailor, but some fast younger sailors have recently been moving to the front of this fleet. Once again we look at the Dutch with Odile van Aanholt/Annette Duette who are triple world champions. And we know how the Dutch sail well under pressure… Nacra 17 Development here really can


be considered revolution more than evolu- tion, with full-foiling now the norm. The biggest development since Tokyo 2020 is the upwind foiling with H1 (one hull in) becoming increasingly rare. Remarkably it only took a small change to the boat, with a new rudder system allowing rudder/foil rake to be adjusted (independently) during a race rather than only between races, enabling teams to optimise for both up and downwind in the same race. Unsurprisingly this sees the boats foiling


all the time downwind in 10kt+ while also being a lot more fun to sail! The boats foiling for the vast majority of the time


also produces a huge number of tactical options when chasing the optimum angles upwind and down. The key difference between the Nacra


and any other foiling boat is the absence of active surfaces under water; the Moth has a wand to actively adjust the main flap, but it is the Nacra team’s boat balance and sail trimming that keeps them flying. The crew work in this class is extraordinary. As the speed of the flying cats continues


to increase inevitably sails become flatter and flatter. This trend will only continue. Also with such high speeds and often


violent dynamics safety is rightly more of a concern than in other ‘boat classes’; today’s Nacra crews all carry SailGP-style safety knives and sharp edges wherever possible are now carefully rounded off. Italy’s perennial champions Ruggero


Tita and Caterina Banti are obvious favourites for gold, with their British training partners John Gimson and Anna Burnett odds-on for silver. 470 Now the oldest Olympic class, the


470 has found new life as the mixed- gender two-person dinghy – for which it is almost perfectly suited. Staying with a symmetric rather than asymmetric spin- naker also means a different style of racing from the other two-person classes.


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