A UK Olympic revival was hinted at in 1996 when Merricks and Walker won silver in the Men’s 470 and a 19-year-old Ben Ainslie won his ‘annoying’ silver in the Laser. By Sydney 2000 (above) an awesome generation of talent now had serious national funding and the steamroller was off. Home from Sydney (clockwise from top left) are Ian Barker and Simon Hiscocks (49er silver), Ian Walker and Mark Covell (Star silver), Iain Percy (Finn gold) and Ainslie (Laser gold). Missing from the picture is Shirley Robertson (Europe gold)
Careful what you wish for
With two Olympic medals in small boats followed by a Volvo Ocean Race win in something a little larger, it is hard to argue that Ian Walker is not well positioned to comment on the subject of a mixed-gender two-handed offshore medal, whether in time for Paris 2024 or, if that bird has flown, then at Los Angeles 2028
Waiting for the IOC to decide whether ‘Off- shore Mixed Doubles’ will be ratified as the 10th Olympic sailing event at Paris 2024 is beginning to feel a bit like waiting for the white smoke to emerge from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel. With the ‘distraction’ of Tokyo 2020 being held a year late in 2021 it is easy to forget that it is now only a little over three years until the fleets line up in the Olympic waters of Marseille. As time passes by, and with rumours growing, it seems increasingly likely the IOC might overturn the World Sailing recommen- dation to include the new Offshore event. If this were to happen it would not only be a
blow to World Sailing, but also the French host nation who have offshore sailing in their blood, and of course those who have already started their 2024 campaigns and have committed considerable time, money and energy. For these sailors it would be devastating, and I hate to see them as victims of this political game.
Stepping back from second-guessing the
politics of World Sailing and the IOC for a moment, I can’t help but think that if it were to be the case that Offshore Mixed Doubles is dropped from the 2024 Olympics, it might be a blessing in disguise for the new discipline. This may upset a few of my friends who have committed to it but, as a keen one-design sailor with Olympic experience and a bit of offshore history, I more than anyone would like to see this discipline flourish. Being selected as an event for the Olympics
should come with a warning to be careful what you wish for. History shows that a class or event being selected for the Games is not necessarily a guarantee of future health. Just look at the impact that Olympic
selection generally has had on fleets both in the UK and abroad. As Olympic aspirants push standards ever higher, others are driven out of classes by the increasing costs and the reality that you can’t compete for fun against people doing it for their living. How long before the pros would move in
to dominate Offshore Mixed Doubles and alienate the current group of double-handed enthusiasts? Maybe the vagaries of offshore sailing would keep this slightly more under control, but I suspect the normal pattern will emerge. Perhaps only the Finn and the Star have been able to buck the trend of disap- pearing national and club racing in Olympic
classes, although it is good to see that the ILCA (formerly Laser) class is starting to mount a fightback at club level in the UK. While excited by the potential of the
Offshore Mixed Doubles concept, I am also concerned that an event that hasn’t yet been fully tested may not actually be ready for the scrutiny of Olympic sailing. I can believe there would be an awesome race in a fleet of supplied boats for a lucky few in Marseille, but I am still no clearer on how we get from here to there. In the time since the discipline was selected by World Sailing there has been little development of fleets of boats and pre- cious few events. Without fleets of evenly matched boats there can be no regattas and without any regattas there can be no rankings and no method of selection for these events or for the Olympics themselves. Time is very short to address this and
Covid 19 will not make the financing of fleets any easier. With boats likely to cost around 200,000 euros, a fleet of 10 or more boats would cost over two million euros – way beyond the means of even the wealthiest sail- ing clubs or governing bodies. Yes, manufac- turers may come to the party, finance is cur- rently cheap, boats may hold their resale value and they can be chartered to help cover costs, but this is still an awful lot of money to find if you want to host a regatta or run a training camp. It is ironic that on the face of it Offshore
SEAHORSE 49
PHOTOS ALAMY
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