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The Olympic Classes

The big news this weekend is the decision from the ISAF on the events to be sailed at the 2012 Olympics in England. Note that it's the EVENTS, not the exact boats. The decision as to what boats will fill the event slots will be taken at the November 2008 ISAF Conference.

Ten Events for 2012

Today in Estoril, Portugal, ISAF President Goran Petersson led the ISAF Council in over two hours of debate and discussion before the ten events were decided. The final slate of events was voted on by the members of the ISAF Council, which is formed of the ISAF Executive Committee (elected for a four-year term in November 2004), 28 appointed members (representing each of the regional groups of sailing nations), and representatives of the Offshore Committee, ISAF Classes Committee and a Women's Representative. The selection of the ten events is subject to final confirmation from the International Olympic Committee

The ten sailing events for the 2012 Olympic Games have been decided by the ISAF Council during the 2007 ISAF Annual Conference.

One person dinghy - Men
One person dinghy heavy - Men
Two person dinghy - Men
Two person dinghy high performance - Men
Windsurfer - Men
Keelboat - Men
One person dinghy - Women
Two person dinghy - Women
Keelboat match racing - Women
Windsurfer - Women

* Note that this eliminates the Open Multihull discipline, current held by the Tornado class. This also changes the current Keelboat Women to Match Racing and removes the hopes of those that wanted a women's high performance dinghy.

On the ISAF Selection...

* The RYA Statement:

(Editor: Kudos to the RYA for publicly stating their votes. I'd like to see other prominent MNAs follow suit.)

This year the main issue facing the ISAF Council was the elimination of one Olympic Event, as the International Olympic Committee had ruled that the sport could only award 10 Medals, instead of the current 11, at the 2012 Games.

In respect of the Olympic Equipment selection, the RYA supported eight Events, as outlined in its submission 103-07, and in respect of the two in which the RYA was silent, RYA expressed preference to retain at least one of the Men's "heavyweight" Events. Essentially, the RYA was seeking to broaden the appeal of the sport through the introduction of an appealing modern dinghy to attract more female sailors, while retaining the spread of Events to reflect the wider sport.

The RYA was influential in discussions and supported the Events Committee recommendation (the expert committee who recommends Events and Equipment to ISAF Council) which included the eight Events in the original RYA submission as well as the Multihull and Men's One-Person Heavyweight Dinghy Event.

However, in a one-off ballot, ISAF Council voted to eliminate the Multihull and to change the Women's keelboat from Fleet to Match Racing.

The RYA cast its votes as follows (RYA votes in CAPS):

Men (6 from 7 Events to be selected)
WINDSURFER (selected)
ONE PERSON DINGHY (selected)
TWO PERSON DINGHY (selected)
TWO PERSON DINGHY HIGH PERFORMANCE (selected)
MULTIHULL
Keelboat (selected)
ONE PERSON DINGHY HEAVY (selected)

Women (4 from 6 Events to be selected)
WINDSURFER (selected)
ONE PERSON DINGHY (selected)
TWO PERSON DINGHY (selected)
TWO PERSON DINGHY HIGH PERFORMANCE
Multihull
Keelboat Match Racing (selected)

The RYA believes that the recommendations of the Events Committee would have moved the sport forwards, and enabled more nations and sailors to take part in Olympic sailing. RYA is disappointed by this decision by the ISAF Council.

Now the focus will move onto the decisions at next year's ISAF Conference in November, which will determine the Equipment to be used in each of the Events at the 2012 Games.

* Richard Gladwell in Sail-World New Zealand:
At its meeting, the Events Committee recommended the dropping of all keelboat events - a decision which never really had the wings to fly past Council.

The process followed by the ISAF Council is that the Events Committee's recommendation is moved as an events package, and if not accepted then each of the Council members put forward their slate of 10 events (according to the gender ratio of six mens events and four female events). Such a process is governed by self-interest, and lobbying, rather than strategic direction.

On this basis, the two keelboats were restored but with the women's keelboat changing to a match racing event. To create the space for these two events, the High Performance Womens doublehander and the Multihull were dropped.

Both were in the telegenic category - meaning events/classes that added spectacle and media appeal and come across well on television - rights from which contribute the majority of ISAF's income. It has been no secret that sailing has been under pressure to significantly improve its TV and media performance by the IOC and their media rights advisers.

From this perspective the Events Committee had made a call in the right direction, and the Council decision is a huge step backwards for the sport at Olympic level.

The major failing of the selected events card is the retention of two doublehanded classes in the mens competition. The physical differences required of sailors to compete in either are not that significant, and there should only be one men's double handed dinghy event.

This move, along with the reinstatement of the multihull, would then give a ten event card which reflected the classic, the spectacular and the athletic, as well as providing the required geographic spread through the Laser and Laser Radial, and windsurfing events. The classic boats such as the Star and Finn would be retained, and the re-introduction of matchracing would be watched with interest. The addition of the multihull would round out the sailing spectrum - meaning that all major disciplines of the general sport were represented at Olympic level.

If the current slate of events remains, the Olympic side of the sport will be seen, from a media perspective, to have taken a big step backwards - and one from which it will find it difficult to recover. The risk of yachting being dropped as an Olympic sport has probably increased significantly. -- More on www.sail-world.com

Guest Editorial on the Rating Rules

From: Bruce Williams, Simon's Town, RSA

Ratings - Low-tec (Part 2)

My thanks to Brendan Foley for his comments in this regard. My thoughts relative to his comments and my earlier reply to Fietje Judel letter.

The current IRC top designs from production builders do win, but one should look further than just the boat to the process behind the IRC secret formula.

Several yachts have been designed for IRC. The top current production designs would appear to be so, such as the Archambault A35 and A40 (with their 105% jib and simple keel) appear to exploit the "known" IRC bias (read "IRC optimised) ratings, many of the J- Yachts have similar very good ratings, and are probably amongst the strongest supporters of IRC in the USA...

Some of current production yachts, while amongst the finest, such as the X-35 one design, are top performers but are only viable in lighter wind events under IRC and do not compete as well under general IRC course / higher wind ranges. The newer X-41 racer seems to have all the right numbers for IRC!

Both the First 40.7 and X-332 are very interesting cases. These yachts have the wrong features for IRC such as a 140-155% genoa (penalised off the scoresheet on more modern -post 2000 - designs under IRC). If these two very large "one-designs" were rated badly for IRC, would meaningfully deplete IRC fleet numbers and remove the credibility of the whole IRC system with its secret formula. The reader must make their own conclusion as to this paragraph.... The First 36.7 was obviously very carefully considered by IRC to make sure the rating was acceptable to market?

The Mills, Corbys and Kers are all state of the art and at this level have very similar SAD, DWL and composite constructions/carbon rigs/3DL sails, so any rating variations would be very minor at this level. Also the scrutiny by designers/owners would be at a level such as seen at America's Cup type events and any "stupid" hull/rig/overlap factors would not survive a day. As quoted, the "rarely raced club racer (rate better than) a campaigning grand prix one-off"

In the USA with a market penetration of about 3% for IRC compared to PHRF the phones are not ringing off the hook!

In general, my thoughts as to why "low-tec" ratings such as IRC don't work for club cruisers are:

1. Racers formula- does not encourage (allow?) cruisers to win, assumes state of art/efficient design via VPP.

2. No measurement of keel/hull mass ratio for stability/" stiffness" -hammers cruisers. No inclining test under IRC

3. Does not rate rudder size, area or drag. Cruisers in general have high drag rudders with low aspect ratios.

4. Need #3 fractional rigs for approx 1-2% advantage on rig rating. Rates #1 in rating beyond apparent IRC wind range without credit/relief in rating#

5. Needs a Code Zero to make up for lack of good overlapping genoa (no IRC penalty on code zero)

6. Sail cloth not rated. USA PHRF charges 6 sec/mile for kevlar/carbon main and another 6 sec/mile for kevlar jib. In effect 1% more rating for each kevlar/carbon sail.

7. IRC does not weigh sails. Racers have lightweight sails, but cruisers with heavier sails add proportionally greater to mass boat and slow yacht more than that of racer. Also heavier sails impact on a yacht's stability and mean having to reef down sooner.

8. Does not have a formula friendly to heavier mass of cruisers. The IRC "box" for boat size has an apparent maximum and minimum range for SAD, and yachts under, or closer to lower edge of range, have excessive rating #'s.

9. Adds on a very heavy crew mass to boat mass, to ensure that laden mass is proportionally heavier on racers than on cruisers ,and reduce racers speed (SA/D) factors, even if they sail with less than maximum crew mass.

10. Crew mass on rail (railbait) does not appear to be factored into stability/stiffness factor.

11. Proportionally greater crew mass on racers enable crew to add additional weight aft for bow-up bias in surfing conditions, movable for fore/aft optimum speed trim and to reduce pitching/rocking in very light winds.

12. Arbitrary secret formula, apparently bent to accommodate system when ratings #'s don't work

12.1 "Overhang factor" used to vary waterline length(and hull speed) and not consistent e.g., circa 1990 Farr 38 at 0% , Simonis 35 at 3% when both have big stern overhangs and all yacht transoms immerse under sailing conditions.

12.2 "Hull factor" also used to manupulate downwind speed e.g. same hull factors for a 34 and 40 fts club racer.

13. Ratings appear focused on windward/leeward race courses, does not match performance of random or circular courses.

14. Offwind angles, racers are proportionally faster than ratings compared to cruisers, with ability to plane or surf sooner, and also accelerate faster in gusts.

15. Most club cruiser/racers need about 15Kts to achieve hull speed, and only achieve this in small windrange of about 2 knots(14-16kts) when racers have a full speed upwind range of about 6 knots(10-16kts).

16. Ratings subject to manipulation by organisers with no appeal or debate.

17. Seems to protect bigger class fleets with low rating numbers to keep in IRC system,

18. Some yachts have "nice" IRC ratings. Should not happen with an "honest" rating system.

On The Coffee Table This Weekend....

*Something(s) old...

"A Field Guide to Sailboats", by Richard M Sherwood and
"Sailing Boats of the World", Rhonda Budd

I must confess to a hobby that some would liken to birding... Whenever I'm at an event, club or sailing area I've never been to (particularly in a county I've never visited before), I like to pull out a set of binoculars and look at the insignia on sailboat mainsails and try to figure out what types of boats they are. It helps if I'm with a person or persons who have a slight interest in the subject, and I'm in relatively familiar territory, so I can chatter and chortle about what's what and which obscure craft I know all about. It's not nearly as fun if there are any real experts about.

I discovered one important real world consequence of knowing your insignia a few years ago. At the sailing school / rental facility I owned for many years, we had a fleet of nearly 80 sailboats. We liked keeping track of them, particularly on days when southerly winds would blow novices downwind and away from our facility. Some summer days when our boats were comingled with a hundred other boats privately owned, it was difficult knowing who was who. So we decided that putting large, flourescent orange circles at the head of all our sails would help us determine which boats were ours and which were privately owned. Only the 'dotted' boats were to be herded by our chase boats.

The only problem with that is that a lawyer friend of mine a couple of miles down the lake owned a Fireball. And in the eyes of many of my staff, there wasn't a lot of difference between a big red circle and a big orange one. Which led to a number of confrontations with my chaseboaters telling Peter to get the hell back up to our sailing area. Peter was less than amused, but that at least started some interest in sail logo knowledge among myself and the staff....

"The Field Guide to Sailboats" focuses on those found primarily in North American waters, but with globalisation one can certainly see many of these boats around the world. It was published (the second edition, that is) is 1994 but is still in print and available through the usual channels. It features 255 boats.

"Sailing Boats of the World" is a huge tome, suitable for pressing leaves or as a doorstop... but should not be used for either purpose as it's a great look back into history. Relatively recent history, published in 1974. Remarkably I found a dozen used copies for sale on amazon.com last night. It runs over 1200 pages and includes more than 1300 boats. While it does include some colour plates, most boats are denoted by a bit of text, specs and a very simple line drawing (it appears that the author had her young child draw some of them with crayon...).

The appendices are the most fun, as they list manufacturers and class associations long since turned to fibreglass dust. For any sailor, no matter his or her experience, there are bound to be hundreds of boats listed here never seen or heard of before. Divided by type, there's a alphabetical index which helps you find the really obscure stuff. Great fun.

* And something new:

"Blue Water Sailing Manual"
by Barry Pickthall, published by Adlard Coles Nautical, 25 GBP as a special limited edition, signed by the author. It has deservedly won a Gold Medal in the 2007 Independent Publisher Book Awards.

This is a second edition, originally published in 1985 as Blue Water Racing, with experience gleaned from two Whitbread races over an 8 year period by Dutch skipper Cornelis van Rietschoten and his "Flyer" crews. This edition draws heavily on the experiences of the British Steel and subsequent Global Challenge races.

The list of contributing editors is a Who's Who of bluewater sailing/medicine/gear/weather: Sir Chay Blyth, Andrew Roberts, Dr Campbell Mackenzie, Mike Golding, David Houghton, Pete Goss, Tim Woodhouse, Nat Ives and Nigel Musto.

It's divided into three sections: The Boat, Preparation and Planning, Out at Sea.

The illustrations and plates are anything but crayonish... superior paper, brilliant photography and hundreds of line drawings and other illustrations.

What makes this book stand out, makes it a great read is that in addition to a wealth of practical information and advise, it's interwoven with specific examples of problems and solutions taken... and some odd bits of insider knowledge that make for very entertaining reading.

A few examples:

"To overcome the problems if 'dishing' in the bow sections, caused by the hammering these yachts receive in the Southern Ocean, two extra frames were added to the 67 ft design to reduce panel size, and the plating on the existing fleet was bent back into shape with hydraulic rams, which, in the case of mild steel, actually improves the metallurgy rather than weakens it."

"It was Dan Byrne, a crusty American single-handed sailor who struck on the idea of eaing out of a dog's bowl. A man who liked his food as much as sailing, he became increasingly frustrated at continually scraping up his food off the bulkhead or cockpit floor every time his yacht was hit by a wave. To start with, everyone laughed at the idea, but now dog bowls have become standard issue on almost every long distance yacht."

"When taking on fresh supplies from an unknown source, it is essential to check the quality of water. At the Rio de Janeiro stopover during the 1978 Whitbread race, Van Rietschoten became so alarmed at the foreign objects floating in his glass of water that he had Flyer's tanks drained, cleaned and refilled with bottled mineral water. The problem was still prevalent two decades later when the Global Challenge called there, and at least one crew decided to follow the same course."

And my favorite, as I'm not English... the second most popular evening pudding aboard one of the Global Challenge boats was "Spotted Dick and Custard." Yum.

Purchase online at southatlanticpublishing.com/bws_desc.htm

The Last Word
No matter how rich you become, how famous or powerful, when you die the size of your funeral will still pretty much depend on the weather. -- Michael Pritchard