Lack of plan
An ISAF press release distributed today provided details on the 2008 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship, where over 250 young sailors from more than 60 nations are expected to come to Denmark for the event on July 10-19. Scrolling through the release, they comment on how the event has the support of the Royal Danish Court, and that HRH Crown Prince Frederik will be the Royal Patron of the Championship (not sure what that means, though we suspect there is some financial benefit for the event, which is extremely expensive to host). But what we were really looking for was the equipment to be used in the event, which we found at the very end.
Maybe we are ignorant, naive, or simply won’t ever understand. However, we thought the purpose of the ISAF Youth Worlds was to provide top young sailors with an international event of the highest prominence, and to be a building block toward future excellence. Those that gain entrance to this event are the best from each country, so what other events would the Youth Worlds build toward? How about the Olympics? The Olympics makes sense, except that the Youth Worlds equipment is not in synch with the next Olympics. For the astute Scuttlebutt reader, you likely have guessed where this is headed. Among the events in the 2008 Youth Worlds is a multihull class, an event that is NOT among the classes to be used at the 2012 Olympics. Here is the list of events for the 2008 ISAF Youth Worlds:
Boy’s One Person Dinghy - Laser
Girl’s One Person Dinghy - Laser Radial
Boy’s Two Person Dinghy - 29er
Girl’s Two Person Dinghy - 29er
Boy’s Windsurfer - Neil Pryde RS:X with 8.5m2 sail & 60cm fin
Girl’s Windsurfer - Neil Pryde RS:X with 8.5m2 sail & 60cm fin
Open Multihull - SL 16
Interestingly, the multihull was not included for the 2007 ISAF Youth Worlds, which makes it even more odd as to why it was not included for the 2012 Games. (Correction... the Hobie 16 was a class in the 2007 Youth Worlds). Again, is it too much to ask that all these events are part of a plan that leads toward the Olympics?
Link for the 2008 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship press release: http://www.sailing.org/21886.php
posted by Blogger @ 9:46 AM
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The multihull was in fact part of the 2007 VOLVO Youth Sailing ISAF World Championsip held in Kingston Canada. See results at http://www.youthworlds2007.org/Results/hobie.html
Launching negative attacks like this without getting your facts straight makes you look foolish.
I don't really see the problem. Why can't there be different classes in a youth world's than in the olympics? And, if I'm not completely uninformed, the multihulls are still an olympic class and won't be dropped until 2012.
I see it as a non-problem.
It must be a really slow news day when you lead off with a story like this. Your facts are wrong -there was a multihull in the 2007 ISAF Youth Worlds - and your comments are inflamatory to the mulithull commuity. One has to ask what your purpose was in publishing this? Effect change in ISAF? Or tick off a significant constituency of multihull sailors?This article is something I would expect to see on Sailing Anarchy, not Scuttlebutt.
I'll agree that ISAF lacks a plan, but this is a extraordinary poor example of that. Eliminating multihulls from the Olympics in the first place would be more indicative of their lack of foresight.
Our regrets for the mistake regarding the 2007 Youth Worlds and the multihull class. We found the misinformation on a third party website, and now see the Hobie 16 was included.
The point remains, however, as to why we are encouraging multihull sailing at the youth level while pulling it from the Olympics. The introduction of multihulls in these events is relatively new, such that it would be a tool for future growth.
Pulling the multihull from the Olympics is kind of like promising your kid $20 for good grades, and then after the kid comes home with straight A's, you say you were just kidding. Just doesn't make sense.
Being as there is also no women's high performance dinghy class in the 2012 games, I find it odd that you did not also question the presence of the girls' 29er in the Youth Worlds. At least you could be consistent...
Had you been paying attention to the state of high performance sailing and editorializing from a position of knowledge you would have been aware of:
The ISAF youth worlds in Canada with builder provided Hobie 16’s with spinnakers.
The recent CISA clinic using the builder provided SL16 catamaran.
The upcoming US Sailing Multihull Youth Championship on the SL16.
The pot shots that you fire off at the catamaran community are poorly aimed.
You SHOULD editorialize about the recent decision by the ISAF women’s committee which resulted in votes that excluded not only the Multihull class, But also the High Performance Dinghy class (29ner) and then traded gender balance along with these two classes for a keel boat match race! ??? Mind you, the ISAF Youth Championships were just conducted for women using the 29ner high performance dinghy.
Do you really think that women’s match racing on keel boats is the proper pinnacle of the sport for the legions of women who start sailing?
This might have beeen the most CRAVEN decision coming out of the ISAF meeting!
Tcatman
Royal patronage is common in countries with monarchies or princedoms. It's a holdover from ancient times when Kings and Queens "authorized" or granted their patronage to an organization or event, thus giving it permission to exist. Kings were wary of anyone organizing anything they didn't control. Today, it's a old-world courtesy or convention that connects clubs, associations, organizations to the social structures of their countries and frankly, elevates their status. If your yacht club has royal patronage, it has more status than one that doesn't. It's part of the establishment. The Royal Danish Court may have donated funds to support the youth sailing event; but the Prince's "patronage" doesn't mean that money is involved.
Point well taken regarding the lack of women's high performance dinghy class in the 2012 games, while the event is included in the Youth Worlds.
My point is that if you are going to construct a building, you start with the foundation and then work upwards. The Youth events are the foundation, and the Olympics is the penthouse.
By including multihulls in youth events and then removing the multihull from the Olympics, it's like pouring the cement for the building, and then deciding to go no further.
To add a women's high performance dinghy class to the youth events, as has been done recently, it would seem that this is doing things in the proper order, with their Olympic inclusion soon coming. The real question is if the Youth arm and the Olympic arm of ISAF are connected.
I am totally confused by those that think the story was taking potshots at the multihull community. Just the opposite is true. I believe the multihull should be in the Olympics and using the multihull in youth events is brilliant.
Build the interest and growth amoung the youth, and also build their dreams. Kids are the best at dreaming. But to then pull it from the Olympics, after creating this system to build their dreams. Well, that just seem unfair.
Good message has been posted here and nice replies.Thanks.
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john
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