Continuing with the list of decisions made by the ISAF equipment committee and how they will affect local sailors.
5) Introduce a high performance skiff class for women. There will be an equipment trial for this event that will possibly result in new skiff designs that can be sailed by mixed husband and wife teams. As this new boat gets exposure and becomes more popular, it may start turning up at our local club races. A new toy toy to play with can only be a good thing.
6) Introduce a new kite boarding medal event for men and women. As more people see kite boarding on TV in the Olympics, more people may want to come out and try it. There is a local windsurfing school. This school may take up teaching kite boarding as it increases in popularity.
7) Keep the 49er for the men's high performance skiff. This decision affects local sailors similarly to the 470 as the 49er has a youth development boat that leads directly to the adult version in the 29er. Keeping the 49er won't have much affect locally as there aren't many 29ers or 49ers around locally. It's still a cool boat though.
8) Keep the Laser full rig for men single handed sailors, and the Laser radial for women single handed sailors. Both of these boats have served our sport well. They are all affordable and sailed in large fleets locally. They are also an awfull lot of fun to sail. The introduction of a dinghy that filed the same niche could only be counterproductive at both a national and local level.
9) Keep the Finn for single handed heavy weight men. The Finn has served international sailing well as a more technical boat to sail than the laser that is suitable for a more average weight man. The laser requires a crew weight that is slightly below the average male. This is the one decision that I am not sure about. It seems a bit odd to have both a light weight single hander and a heavy weight dinghy. This class may be vulnerable for replacement with a boat that better meets IOC criteria.
And that brings me to the end of how high level political decisions in the sailing world governing bodies affect local sailors Did I give you some information you didn't have? Was this post useful to you? Should I continue with such long wordy posts?
