No drops dropped

There are sighs of relief going around the Olympic sailing community after ISAF's reversal on its move to get rid of discards from the Games in Athens this August. Many sailors acknowledge that there is some potential merit in having an all-races-to-count series, but that the Olympic Games was not the moment to try it for the first time. We could well see trials of this system in the future, however.

I spoke to John Forbes, the Tornado World Champion who crews for Darren Bundock, and he wasn't bothered what ISAF did with the rule. The first he heard of the proposed change to the Olympic format was when he was deluged with phone calls from the Australian media asking him for a reaction.

"My phone ran hot when that was announced," he told me. "Everyone was saying what a stupid decision ISAF had made. I said to the first person that rang: ‘I don't think it will make much difference. I'll go and work it out.' I dug out the results from the last three years of major Tornado championships, and recalculated the results based on no discards. Only in one event would the the medallists have changed, in one European Championship. The guy that was second would have won, and vice versa. Personally, I had no problem with the change because Darren and I never really have any dud scores."

John said that Athens was such a fluky venue that even if you started early and had to go back to restart, you could still win races in a 15-boat Tornado fleet. But he admitted he would probably have felt differently about the no-discards rule if he was racing in a big fleet of 40 boats or more, such as the Laser.

ISAF is to be commended for paying heed to the objectors and backtracking to the original format, but is it too much to ask that when other such major decisions come up for debate in the future, it will listen to the sailors in the first place?

President of ISAF Paul Henderson put a positive spin on the outcome. "The No Drop Debate has, in my opinion, been very productive as many issues which previously had only been ‘Boat Park Rumours' were put on the table mostly by the sailors.

"The sailors have challenged ISAF to correct the issues that concern them which made them demand that they be protected from arbitrary decisions by Officials. They believed that the Drop Race lessened the chance of their results being impacted by either a discriminatory decision or a mistake by the Race Officials. Some of the issues which were put on the table which must be corrected are (Olympics Only):
- Scoring when the Time Limit kicks in.
- Number of races allowed in each class each day.
- OCS and informing the sailors. With the small Olympic fleets this should not be difficult.
- Perception of an unbiased Rule 42 assessment.
- Measurement issues especially impounding of sails.

"One issue which was put forward which I personally did not agree with was the need to stop one sailor legally driving another sailor back in the last race as happened in Sydney in the Laser. This has always been part of sailing where you sit on your closest competitor so as to give them "Bad Air". It is a traditional part of sailing.

"I watched the last race in Sydney where Ben Ainslie match raced Robert Scheidt. These two top sailors in the world ended up over half a leg behind. Scheidt finally got through Ben, all legally, and took off after the fleet. He almost made it but Ben prevailed to win Gold with Robert the Silver. It was one of the greatest dinghy races I have ever watched.

"The major request from the sailors was that ISAF institute a program of ensuring top qualified Race Officers, who are knowledgeable about the specific classes, be initiated for all Grade 1 events. Most sailors clearly point out that qualified Race Officers are the most important aspect of ensuring good racing. ISAF must positively respond to this challenge."

This last point touches on a subject that I have heard raised a couple of times by top sailors, that there is a risk that predominantly Greek race committees at the forthcoming Olympiad will make decisions to favour the home team. One Finn Olympic medallist (not British, in case you're wondering) told me that at one of the Pre-Olympic events in Athens he has seen the top Greek Finn sailor given the all clear when everybody else believed he was over the start line by a boatlength as the gun fired.

Similar accusations of bias were leveled at the race officer on the Tornado course at last year's ISAF World Championships. It is hard to believe any race officer would dare be so foolhardy in front of the world's media next August in Athens, but it is worth making the point beforehand to discourage such behaviour.

To Russia With Love

One of the great changes that has happened to Olympic sailing over the past decade is the move away from long, interminable races that take place far out to sea. Sydney was a wonderful showcase for the sport, albeit it would have been nice if the wind had come in a little stronger.

The 49er has been one of the pioneers of this close-to-shore racing, and now it is to become the first Olympic class to hold its world championship at a lake near Moscow, in 2005. The event has a budget of $1 million, with a good chunk of that money put aside to help build up a local fleet of 49ers and 29ers. World Championship bronze medalist from the Ukraine, Rodion Luka, has been instrumental in bringing the regatta to Russia's capital along with Alexsei Fomin of the Moscow Sailing Centre. The Mayor of Moscow has also thrown his support behind the event, as part of his bid to bring the Olympic Games to the city in 2012.

The organizers have plans to fly all the competitors on charter planes from Amsterdam, and to transport the boats overland. It sounds quite an undertaking, but from a competitor's viewpoint it sounds like a dream regatta. I think I might make the effort to do that one.

Easier sheets

I've had a bit of a break from the 49er lately, taking the opportunity to sail a couple of different boats over the autumn. I raced an RS800 at Hayling Island for the first time a few weeks back, sailing with Emma White while her regular helm, boyfriend Mike Lennon, is busy setting up a new production loft for Hyde Sails out in the Philippines.

It was quite windy that day, gusting to over 20 knots in Chichester Harbour, so it was a challenging first outing. Downwind the boat was impressively fast and very easily driven, and a little more bows up in attitude than the 49er, which made a nice change. I managed to stick it in on a gybe and a tack, though, and I have to confess to feeling a bit knackered at the end of the race. It was the first time I've had to work the mainsheet in a long time, being used to giving the crew all the ropes to pull on the 49er. Despite pulling the vang on hard, the mainsheet loads were surprisingly big, particularly when you think we were easing it to keep the boat flat.

To my mind, it would make life a lot easier to have a 49er-style bridle on the transom with two tiller extensions. Apparently this is not allowed in the rules, although I hear some people have added an extra purchase to the standard 4:1 supplied. I guess you shouldn't judge a boat on one outing, but where virtually every other aspect of the boat was so user-friendly it seemed a shame to spoil it with a mainsheet system that is such hard work.

Hand to hand combat

My other sail was in a Musto Skiff at a recent demo day at Stokes Bay, and again I was greeted with winds topping 20 knots. Musto Skiff enthusiast Graham Oliver was kind enough to lend me his boat for a trial sail, and it was spectacular fun. My big question mark before going out was how on earth to hoist the kite with the simple arm-over-arm system provided with the boat. This is fine in a double-hander like a 505 where the crew can balance the boat while the helmsman stands with the tiller between his legs as he pulls up the spinnaker. The other gennaker/trapeze singlehander on the market, the RS700, has a pump-up/pump-down system which allows the helmsman to hoist the kite singlehanded while keeping a reassuring hand on the tiller extension. With the Musto Skiff, you must throw caution to the wind and devote both hands to hoisting.

So how to steer the boat at the same time? Graham assured me that you could hold the boat in a straight line by clamping the tiller between the windward rack and your thigh. It didn't sound that convincing, but I tried it and must admit it wasn't that bad. I lost my nerve during one drop when I thought the boat was going to career off course and dump me in the icy Solent, so I abandoned my post to take the tiller extension in hand again. This meant the semi-doused kite could be dragged out of the chute by the rapidly passing water, and I had to get the boat on to autopilot once more and turn both hands to the task of getting the wayward kite down once and for all.

Despite this, I was convinced the straightforward hoist/drop system was good enough for the job, and all in all this is a very well thought-out boat. In many respects the Musto Skiff behaved like a 49er, which in my book is a compliment. And although it has had a slow start in getting established, I get the impression that its time is yet to come. The class has managed to attract some top talent, including former Contender world champion Ian Renilson. Word of my trial sail must have got around quickly, as less than 24 hours later I received an email from Ian urging me to go out and buy one.

I must say if I had a spare six grand doing nothing in my bank account, I probably would get one. But seeing as that's not the case, I did the next best thing and bought an RS600 for less than £2,000. It seems that enthusiasm for the 600 has waned somewhat in recent years. Perhaps it is the arrival of the more glamorous RS700 and the Musto Skiff that has caused this, but the value of secondhand 600s has dropped to the point where you just can't go wrong. A lightweight hull with a carbon rig and a fully-battened sail that never really wears out. What more could you ask?

The other boat that is even more ridiculously valued these days is the Laser 5000. It seems they're not fetching much more than £2k in the Y&Y Classified section. That's a lot of boat for not very much money. The downside is that they are heavy and a bit hard to drag up the beach, for which they earned the not-entirely-fair nickname of 5-Tonner. Heavy or not, I have fond memories of racing them in the UK and around Europe during the days of the televised Audi-sponsored circuit in the mid-90s, and the racing was some of the best I've experienced. If you fancy a high-performance boat but can't afford a 14, 49er or RS800, then the 5000 would make an excellent alternative.