GUEST COMMENTARY – OLYMPIC CLASS SELECTION

by Garry Hoyt

For sailing to preserve its place in the Olympics, the governing solons of the sport must accommodate new realities and discard the burden of persistent delusions. For example:

1. Reliable wind over 10 knots is the single most important element in conveying the grace and excitement of sailing. Light, fickle breezes introduce undesirable factors of luck and doom any coverage to acute visual boredom. So, future competition should insist on areas that provide good winds.

2. The essence of Olympic competition is individual achievement. This is confirmed by the leading popularity of events in track, swimming, gymnastics, skiing and skating, where the public can follow the action and identify with the individual skills. Sailing should follow those successful examples.

It follows that it is neither necessary nor desirable for Olympic Class selection to attempt to represent all the varied aspects of sailing skill.

Like it or not, action that is friendly to TV will be increasingly important to permanent status as an Olympic event. The tactical elements of sailing that are so fascinating and challenging to the participants are largely invisible or incomprehensible to the TV audience. So, while tactical sailing skill—and the many classes that primarily reward that skill—will deservedly remain the best choices for the general sailing public, those are not the best choices for any hopes of Olympic survival. Recognizing this is not pandering to TV, but rather simply adjusting to the new realities of Olympic coverage.

For example, to insist on the inclusion of female match racing in Ynglings amounts to a foolish fixation on an arcane and visually unexciting aspect of the sport. Likewise, the venerable Star Class is inappropriate because the cost and complexity of the equipment—like the weight of its crew—is too heavy. And given the Olympic goal of “higher, faster, farther”, why should we exclude multi-hulls, which are demonstrably one of sailing’s fastest forms? With all these thoughts in mind, here are my recommendations for future Olympic Classes:

· The foiling Moth - Surely these are the most exciting new boats on the sailing scene—requiring an entirely new mix of strength, balance and steering skill, and delivering an entirely new look to sailing.

· The A Cat - Simple, but very sophisticated, these lively trapeze single handers are faster than any of the current Olympic classes.

· The Windsurfer - Still the world’s fastest sailboats—how can they not be included? But make their minimum starting breeze be 12 knots to reduce the pumping factor.

· Kite Sailing - This is destined to be the fastest sailing of the future—as physically exacting as it is visually spectacular. But forget the traditional Olympic Course—give them a straight Ocean Triangle that begins and ends on the beach—going out and in through waves.

· New concept - A new 15 ft. all carbon, sit down, single sail, planning dinghy to replace the Finn and the Laser—admirable classes that have earned their retirement in favor of new technology.

These recommendations would reduce Olympic Sailing line up (and expenses) to a more manageable 5 classes, each with male and female divisions. Youth and athleticism would be highly favored, as they should be in the Olympics. All of the traditional forms of sailing would benefit from the emphasis on individual sailing skill, which automatically creates new avenues of accessibility that provide needed balance to sailing’s confining image of complexity.

Given the ossified thinking that prevails in the upper ranks of sailing regulators, ideas like this are likely to be resisted. But the dogmatic replication of conventional sailing competition will predictably result in the elimination of sailing from the Olympics. New action has its risks, but inaction is the biggest risk of all. -- Garry Hoyt