It is after labor day, the unofficial end of summer, and the beginning of school, or at least it used to be. The Olympics took place this summer and the America’s Cup is heating up. There is no shortage of Olympic sailors in the America’s Cup.
If you are a sailor and an American, you were stunned to see that the US did not medal in a single class, not even in the hunt.
ISAF, the governing body of sailing is so politically charged, it is often hard to understand if the right thing happens or could happen.
If the Olympics wanted to truly limit costs and open the possibility of more good sailors; there is a solution: model the sailing after college sailing. The host country would select a boat, doesn’t matter which. They would build a fleet which could be sold at the end of the event.
The sailors would race against each other in these boats, rotating after every race. This is level racing, with little room for anything else.
The America’s Cup is a development event. It is intended to foster faster sailing boats. The Event in 1851 was conceived to showcase naval architecture.
steve c’mon,
The Schooner America was commissioned to have a go at the pomes, show ’em just what the (within living memory of some at the time) former colonies could do and ideally win some money (on wagering) for the syndicate. The fact she be the beejeezus out of them was a bonus. Superior naval architecture was an after thought.
The AC has always been about bragging rights, then money and bragging rights and the present iteration is merely a turob’d version of that.
Cheers
Coop