Olympic equipment

The current system in selecting the Olympic equipment (ie, the boats used for each Olympic event) is that the issue gets revisited every four years, which translates to the equipment potentially getting changed after every Olympics. While it might be nice for ISAF to have this kind of flexibility, it also puts a great strain on the sailors and countries in terms of long term planning. For the sailor putting together a two quad program, there is no promise that what is gained during the first quad will be applicable for the second campaign. Not a good situation.

A new feature for Olympic athletes for this quad will be the ISAF Sailing World Cup, which is a seven race series that will be used to heighten the focus of Olympic sailing. However, a problem that the early World Cup events are faced with is in how to deal with the newest event: Women’s Match Racing. The first event is Sail Melbourne in Australia (December 16-21, 2008) and it has not included the match racing event in their Notice of Race. The next event is the Rolex Miami OCR (January 25-31, 2009), with US SAILING choosing to supply the boats for the women’s match racing, wherein 12 Laser SB3 boats will be used.

There are 1392 days until the 2012 Summer Olympics, athletes around the world are plotting their future campaigns, and nobody knows what equipment will be used. The equipment decision will be made next week at the ISAF Annual Meeting… I for one can’t wait, but remain wondering why the current system requires that I do.