Editorial Andrew Hurst Dazed and confused
Honestly I have no idea what was finally voted for in terms of Olympic classes for 2024 and beyond. I was lost long long before the announce- ment of a ‘Mixed One-Person Dinghy’. It does seem that the Finn, which produces
sailors closest physically to the public perception of an Olympic athlete, is hanging in (very good).
But the 470, not a wave-jumping foiling skiff but a class that is established throughout much of the world, suitable for lighter sailors and women in particular, with a huge supply of existing equipment, is in trouble. (Maybe the Finn could boost its chances further by revisiting supplied equipment, but that is a personal opinion.) I had another go at re-engaging with the selection process but
again I was quickly lost: the slate voted through was a proposal from the Romanian Sailing Federation. Romania did not compete at either of the last two Olympic regattas and their successful submission was for a mix of classes that mitigates their chances of being there in four years’ time. For a sport that is trying to make itself more interesting to the wider public this must all look even crazier from the outside than it does from where I sit. But, as happens every four years in the cycle of Olympic class
selection, World Sailing is the easy target… Meanwhile, at the grass roots there is the usual big dose of ‘not my fault, guv’. Member National Authorities (MNAs) put forward these proposals
on behalf of their memberships. And those MNAs are put in place by clubs and sailors who normally take little or no interest until the time arrives to moan about it all afterwards (or to head to the hospital for a complex gender-reassignment in order to compete in the mixed singlehander). I have not read all the submissions – guilty as charged – but
what stands out on cursory examination is some of the blatant self- interest that continues to be on display. (On that point the Romanian delegation deserve a gold medal for selflessness.) One such was US Sailing’s submission, from a great sporting
In a period of less than two weeks more than 20,000 active
sailors – including many Olympic medallists – had signed a petition supporting last month’s open letter in Seahorse from an elite group of Olympians lobbying sailors to get more involved with the MNAs that represent them. In 1992 Paul Elvstrøm wrote that ‘so long as my old friends in
their jackets and ties sit at the top making these decisions nothing will change’. Elvstrøm was not pointing a finger, he was noting that his old friends are there because no one else wants the job. For Paris there is still one last bite at the cherry – although the
odds are stacked. The final vote on classes for 2024 will be taken in November. There is still time to contribute. Best to avoid that trip to hospital.
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nation whose Olympic sailing position is now desperately sad, as they struggle with a huge funding deficit in comparison to today’s Olympic sailing giants. In their favour US Sailing vigorously supported the introduction of a mixed-gender offshore event with supplied equipment; so full marks there (and the US is not the first country you think of today in terms of racing offshore). But then they rather blew it, proposing mixed-team racing in non-spinnaker dinghies, something that dominates the strong US college sailing scene but is vanishingly rare outside a tiny handful of other nations. But most MNAs are similarly guilty.
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A designer catwalk… Doug Peterson (bow) and John Reichel (middle-man) model what the best-dressed sailors of San Diego are wearing in 1982 – onboard Doug’s self-penned sportsboat
NOT JUST US I think that a mixed singlehanded event is when a Finn sailor must first win the race and then second find a girlfriend to accompany
him to the podium – Simon Hiscocks, 49er Olympic medallist
OOPS I am happy to return to the Finn. I’ve not sailed
Finns for 30 years... – Olympic gold medallist José Luis Doreste wins this year’s World Masters title
you’re OK – Capt Tammie Jo Shults after that Boeing 737 engine explosion
OUR FRIEND, TAMMIE As long as you have altitude and ideas,
CHALLENGES? How do we ever create strong, self-sufficient young sailors when their landscape is dominated by this all-enveloping
support system? – Pete Sanders
THAT’S A NO AC75? Just catamarans
dressed as monohulls!! – Ernesto Bertarelli, Alinghi
PURE GOLD Engineer: three laps left, you’ve got to... Daniel Ricciardo: Yeah mate, got it (followed by radio silence) – this Red Bull driver is going to win the Monaco Grand Prix
your issue, Carmen – Former F1 world champion Jenson Button responds to perennial mid-fielder Carmen Jordá’s claims that strength is the only issue keeping women out of Formula One
OUCH A physical barrier is not
q
WHEN GIANTS WALKED THE EARTH Without getting too egocentric, we thought it was time that people heard something about us other than that we were eating women and throwing the bones
out the window – Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin
Seahorse magazine and our associate raceboatsonly brokerage site are both at:
seahorsemagazine.com The editor is contactable by email at:
andrew@seahorse.co.uk
SEAHORSE 9
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