Olympic Travesty: Tornado Eliminated

Discussion in 'Multihulls' started by Doug Lord, Nov 10, 2007.

  1. PI Design
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    PI Design Senior Member

    Agree with all that. Sailing is just far more fun to do than watch. Unfortunately the old Olympic ideals seem to have given way to the modern commercial realities of having to compete with American Idol for advertising revenue. Sailing's never going to win that battle.
     
  2. Chris Ostlind

    Chris Ostlind Previous Member


    This is such a timely observation, Randy.

    Living here in Utah, with the world's greatest powder snow, has awakened me to the ancient sport of Naked Butt Sliding on a groomed slope of packed powder. There's minimal equipment needed (yes, you do need an anti frozen ***** device inserted to maintain proper core temps) but other than that, it's totally gear free in its beauty.

    The real trouble is, how to translate that sport to the Summer Games and maintain the same speed, pageantry and telegenic appeal....
     
  3. doug kay
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    doug kay Junior Member

    Rob, I only went on it once as a first trial, I had just left the British Army and was very fit so running up and down that aluminium frame wasn't so difficult for me. We only touched about 12-14 knots because of my incompetence the sidecar kept getting dunked then would fly 10 or so feet above the water but Crossbow did prove it's worth once a crew had been trained. It was stored for years in a shed belonging to a company which built Kelsall tri's in Brightlingsea.
     
  4. rob denney
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    rob denney Senior Member

    G'day,

    Thanks. I spent a lot of time in Brightlingsea (charter and delivery skipper for Sailcraft, and lived on my Iroquois while I fitted it out). Thought i knew everything and everyone, but never heard that Crossbow was in storage there. Any idea where it is now? Should be in a museum, but the pom museums' record on looking after famous boats (Cheers, Cutty Sark, Gypsy Moth iv, for examples) is pretty poor, so maybe not.

    I have often wondered how Crossbow would perform if built from modern materials and more importantly, a decent rig.

    regards,

    rob
     
  5. brian eiland
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    brian eiland Senior Member

    Friday 11th of November, the ISAF Council voted against any Multihull Event for the 2012 Olympic Games to be held in Britain. It decided that in future the only sailing boats to be raced should have one hull.

    In doing so, it voted against the fastest boat at the Games, the only Event Open to both Men and Women, a permanent fixture for three decades, the recommendation of its own Events Committee, the strong endorsement of the host nation, and a sport invented in Britain.

    The international catamaran community is shocked at the ISAF decision.....

    ...some interesting comments and references here;
    http://www.a-cat.org/id132.htm


    ...and courtesy of Scuttlebutt
    WHAT ISAF SHOULD KNOW ABOUT CATS
    Howie Hamlin is among the participants in the A Cat World Championship at
    Isla Morada, Florida this week. Hamlin was a nominee for the 2006 US Rolex
    Yachtsman of the Year Award, having won the I-14 Worlds, 18ft Skiff
    Europeans, and runner-up in the 505 Worlds that year. Here are some
    observations as he takes on the new challenge of mulithull sailing:

    Talk about fun, at 165 pounds with a 30-foot tall mast, the A Cat is one of
    the most amazing boats on this planet. This is the result of a very simple
    box rule that only measures four things; length, width, weight and sail area.
    They are so slippery; you fly up wind silently and can tack through 70
    degrees. Downwind they are fast, lively, and loose. Above 9 knots downwind
    you sit on centerline, fly a hull and send it. The A Cat may be easy to sail,
    but very hard to sail well. It is an apparent wind game. Being so light it
    accelerates/ decelerates quickly. The good guys are trimmed right and going;
    make one mistake and they are gone. I have a very high regard for the cat
    sailors here and foster no false illusions of how challenging this regatta
    will be. It will make me a better sailor, I know that much. This reminds me
    of learning how to sail and race 18-footers ten years ago; we thought we’d
    never learn. It is going to be fun watching all the cat legends perform: Pete
    Melvin, Glenn Ashby, Randy Smyth, Lars Guck, Scott Anderson, Mike Drummond,
    Luc du Bois, Mitch Booth, Charlie Ogletree, Jay Glaser, Pease Glaser and
    more. This is the leading edge of our sport; so why have catamarans just been
    eliminated from the Olympic Games? -- Howie Hamlin
     
  6. Alan M.
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    Alan M. Senior Member

    Hopefuly this will result in sailing being dropped from the olympics altogether. It would serve ISAF right.
     
  7. doug kay
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    doug kay Junior Member

    Rob,

    I lived in Wivenhoe and had an Express Pirate, 17 foot mono and belonged to the Brightlingsea Yacht club and Wivenhoe sailing club. Reg White was a member of Brightlingsea sailing club. Cox Marine were the firm who stored Crossbow and that company was managed by a Dutchman who had been the Captain of the Pirate radio ship in the North sea. They did their business in the old shipyard where sailcraft launched their cats.

    The rig on Crossbow was strange to say the least but Macalpine Downie could only work with the materials available at the time. A series of airfoils would have been a massive improvement.
     
  8. Doug Lord

    Doug Lord Guest

  9. masalai
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    masalai masalai

    I would sooner see the "Americas Cup" stopped as being redundant & useless (last major innovation was the wing keel, apart from the American challenge using a cat in the NZ series).

    Lies, big business & HUGE buckets of money. Give me a T any day!

    but then Mono's seem to have a thing against cats here in Oz think of the Syd-Hobart & Brisbane - Gladstone series, all the coverage, times etc to the cats (not).
     
  10. doug kay
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    doug kay Junior Member

    The Americas cup is now a farce, as you say apart from better sail material for the huge amounts of money nothing has been achieved, it's just a big show for big money. What is needed is sailing envisaged by Hassler and company with the Ostar where innovation is the aim. cat's, tri's and whatever floats being tested by the average sailor, where risks are taken but not foolish adventures.
     
  11. doug kay
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    doug kay Junior Member

    The games now are about selling and advertising long gone are the days when sport was the aim. There's so much money involved that if an event can't get the money backing it get's dropped and that is what has happened with the cat's. It's not an event where the average joe can have a comfortable seat and watch unlike the track and field events.
     
  12. masalai
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    masalai masalai

    Precisely Doug,
    Then the Monos would be out of the picture, Their advantage is that like a beautiful woman, very desirable to look at & photogenic.

    Maybe it is time to change what is felt to be attractive (boats I mean!). A generational thing which I will never see as an early boomer.

    I like the idea of
    1 24 hour challenge for sail & power (How far/fast)
    2 speed over a measured nautical mile (accurate gps ok as direction would be difficult to predict) (sail)
    3 speed gun checked absolute peak speed (no distance) (sail & power)
     
  13. Alan M.
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    Alan M. Senior Member

    Dinghies are no more attractive to look at that catamarans IMHO. Less so in fact, when you compare the speed.

    No doubt sailing doesn't get the audience other sports get. But the point isn't that one of the sailing classes had to be dropped - it is WHICH one. Why maintain several monohull classes, with boats that are seen as being all pretty much the same, and drop the only class where the boats are clearly and visibly something different?
     
  14. doug kay
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    doug kay Junior Member

    Yes it does appear to be a bit of a puzzle why the only class which has a unique feature to it is dropped, I can only think there's pressure from the sailing clubs to feature a more popular class from their point of view.
     

  15. Alan M.
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    Alan M. Senior Member

    It's no puzzle. It's just the usual anti - multihull prejudice at work.
     
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