In out, in out, shake it all about - Olympic classes

[st599]

And every country's daily broadcast could start with "and here's what's happened in the offshore sailing overnight".

Only if the country has bought the sailing feed.

 

[flaming]

Not at all, you can join a sailing club for little money and get cracking in a club laser. Likewise for shooting and rowing. Not sure about horses. Of course to do it competitively will take some money but you work your way up and still within the realms of being paid for out of a modest income.
There is no mechanism to go double handed offshore racing unless you are wealthy or have a wealthy friend.

There's plenty of mechanisms to go offshore sailing for very little money. Not doublehanded, sure, but offshore sailing. You don't even need to join a club. I have plenty of friends who have done multiple fastnet races. Most of them could just about afford their oilskins. Even if you go full pay to sail a full Fastnet campaign including all the qualifiers is not all that expensive, about the cost of a new Laser...

Ironically of course, once you get to Olympic or professional level, the cost swings back in favour of doublehanded rather than crewed racing.

 

[TernVI]

There's plenty of opportunity to bucket list a Fastnet or sit on the rail in a crew of ten.
I think my latest Laser cost less than a fashionable set of offshore oilies.
Most offshore crew probably spen more driving to the coast than many people spend on their sport.
Offshore sailing is even less accessible in most countries where people don't live near enough the coast and there's not the concentration of yachting which UK/France/Ned etc have.

But then the idea of this is clearly something for the French to win is it not?

 

[flaming]

There's plenty of opportunity to bucket list a Fastnet or sit on the rail in a crew of ten.
I think my latest Laser cost less than a fashionable set of offshore oilies.
Most offshore crew probably spen more driving to the coast than many people spend on their sport.
Offshore sailing is even less accessible in most countries where people don't live near enough the coast and there's not the concentration of yachting which UK/France/Ned etc have.

But then the idea of this is clearly something for the French to win is it not?

If every Olympic sport needs to be accessible to the average citizen of every nation then we need to cancel the winter olympics entirely.

 

[TernVI]

If every Olympic sport needs to be accessible to the average citizen of every nation then we need to cancel the winter olympics entirely.

I wouldn't notice if you did.
Am I right in saying Ice Yachting is not in the Winter Olympics?

Any sport at olympic level, or even olympic-wannabe level is comically expensive in terms of time and travel.
But 2 handed offshore is fishing in a small pool of nations, even by olympic standards.

 

[flaming]

But 2 handed offshore is fishing in a small pool of nations, even by olympic standards.

Not so sure about that. There are a surprising number of nations that have fairly rich offshore heritage. Obviously all of the coastal European nations, US, Canada, Aus, NZ, SA. But then plenty of Asian nations have some pretty big events. And the South American nations do a lot of racing too.

Certainly more than the horse dancing.... Which to be honest is my metric for this. If dressage is still an Olympic sport then I see no reason at all that offshore sailing shouldn't be.

 

[Ingwe]

Assuming that the boats are supplied I actually think that the two handed offshore might be cheaper from a governing body perspective than say a 470 or other two handed dinghy.

All of the competitors from the major countries who are in with a chance in any sport at the Olympics are effectively professionals. For the dinghy sailors most of their funding comes directly from the governing bodies ie RYA who are effectively having to pay them for the full four year cycle because they don't have another job so to speak. The competitors for the offshore 2 handed if they are in with a chance are already going to be professional offshore sailors whether that be from a Figaro / Class 40 / Imoca background or Volvo Ocean race / AC side of things - and they will want to keep doing what they are doing now for most of the four year Olympic cycle so the governing bodies only have to pay them for a few months - if at all as I could see a lot of these sailors using this to raise their profiles to get more sponsorship for their next project.

On the equipment side of things again if all of the equipment is going to be supplied and be one design at the Olympics there is no great expenditure for the governing bodies, if it's allowed you might want to charter two boats for a week a few weeks before the Olympics to work out how to sail whichever boat they choose optimally in various conditions, but I wouldn't envisage needing lots of training camps etc as all the sailors will be sailing and training full time anyway as part of their "day job". I would liken it to the situation with Tennis where the players just step into an Olympic role for a couple of weeks every four years.

 

[TernVI]

Assuming that the boats are supplied I actually think that the two handed offshore might be cheaper from a governing body perspective than say a 470 or other two handed dinghy.

All of the competitors from the major countries who are in with a chance in any sport at the Olympics are effectively professionals. For the dinghy sailors most of their funding comes directly from the governing bodies ie RYA who are effectively having to pay them for the full four year cycle because they don't have another job so to speak. The competitors for the offshore 2 handed if they are in with a chance are already going to be professional offshore sailors whether that be from a Figaro / Class 40 / Imoca background or Volvo Ocean race / AC side of things - and they will want to keep doing what they are doing now for most of the four year Olympic cycle so the governing bodies only have to pay them for a few months - if at all as I could see a lot of these sailors using this to raise their profiles to get more sponsorship for their next project.

On the equipment side of things again if all of the equipment is going to be supplied and be one design at the Olympics there is no great expenditure for the governing bodies, if it's allowed you might want to charter two boats for a week a few weeks before the Olympics to work out how to sail whichever boat they choose optimally in various conditions, but I wouldn't envisage needing lots of training camps etc as all the sailors will be sailing and training full time anyway as part of their "day job". I would liken it to the situation with Tennis where the players just step into an Olympic role for a couple of weeks every four years.

Disagree with most of that!
Most professional offshore sailors are either long distance single handers or sail with full crews.
You'd need a pretty serious selection process to find the RYA's best team.
It's not like tennis at all, different equipment, different length of game, different skills needed between running a winning offshore singlehander and getting the best out of a supplied two-hander.
To have any chance of winning, you'd have to get a significant number of the UK's best sailors into 2 handed races of similar duration, in similar size boats to the olympic OD and select the best pairing.

20 years ago, we could have just sent Lawrie Smith to shake them up a bit.

 

[flaming]

To have any chance of winning, you'd have to get a significant number of the UK's best sailors into 2 handed races of similar duration, in similar size boats to the olympic OD and select the best pairing.

You only have to look at the entry list in last weekend’s RORC double handed race, specifically in those sailing the Sunfast 3300s, to realise that this is exactly what is happening!

 

[Daydream believer]

Match racing? Mix the boats around. 2-3 laps of a short course. Advance winners & have a route for best losers to go through as well.
Sell the boats on completion of event. Pick a standard cruiser/racer as for swedish match series etc. Large boat builder would be able to sell them easily enough once people saw how well they sailed & if offered at discount with race package etc.