Radial changes
One of the most significant changes to come out of the recent ISAF Conference in Copenhagen is the replacement of the Europe with the Laser Radial as the women's Olympic singlehander. This has brought mixed reactions from sailors and administrators, but on balance is probably a positive move. Steve Cockerill has won numerous national championships, and a few international ones, in both the Europe and the Laser Radial, so he is well placed to comment on both boats. He feels the adaptability of the Europe, with the different sail and rig combinations available, was both its advantage and its disadvantage as an Olympic class. It means the Europe was capable of accommodating a wide range of competitive weights, with the smaller sailors around 60kg opting for a softer while the heavier 70kg sailors went for a stiffer section.
The trouble with the Europe was also in finding a rig that was competitive for the individual. Off-the-shelf solutions have not always been easy to come by, and Steve feels the Europe class didn't respond well to the switch from aluminium to carbon rigs in the mid-90s. This is the era where Shirley Robertson and Tropical Engineering on the Isle of Wight went to great time and expense in developing a wing mast, technology that was very costly to develop and far out of proportion to the overall value of the boat. This isn't a dig at Shirley or Tropical, if the rules are there to be exploited then it is not the fault of the sailors but the rule makers who should have ensured that rigs never became so expensive in the first place.
Then again, our most recent Europe Olympic representative, Laura Baldwin, was lobbying heavily to keep the boat in the Games for 2008. She, like Steve, has experience of both boats and there is no doubt which she prefers. "The Europe is such a lovely boat to sail. It's responsive and it's a joy to go training in. The Laser Radial you have to force upwind. You don't have much feel because the traveller rope at the back is pulled tight across the tiller." She admits the mast situation may not have been healthy in the past, but she also felt in recent years it had become much simpler and cheaper to acquire a rapid mast. But it seems any changes for the Europe have come too little and too late.
Laura is not relishing the idea of having to put on weight for the Radial, and it has to be said that there are now very few places left in Olympic sailing for women under 68kg. The Yngling, the Radial and the crew's job on a 470 all require a weight around 70kg. No wonder the reigning Europe Olympic Champion, the diminutive Siren Sundby, is to helm a 470 for her 2008 campaign. However, there is talk of the Radial adopting a carbon top section in a bid to find more gust response and possibly to lower the competitive weight range of the boat. Not only that, but it might make the mast more durable, as the aluminium top sections are known to fatigue quite quickly and need regular replacement for top performance. If this is the case I hope the Radial class makes the sensible choice and opts for the carbon alternative. Has anyone looked back since the Laser was allowed to use proper control line systems with moving blocks, as opposed to the rope tricks that were required before? Small, incremental improvements to the Laser would do it no harm whatsoever.
Paul Henderson, the outgoing ISAF President, believes the Laser manufacturers should go one further by adopting Mylar sails to replace the current Dacron sails. "People have seen great benefits in other classes, and the 49er has led the way with this," he said. "The overall life of Mylar may not be as long as Dacron, but its competitive life is much longer. We've got to get away from Dacron sails, because competitive life of these sails is only two races." The Finn adopted Mylar a few years back, and Henderson would like to see it taken up by other traditional Olympic classes, although he suspects it won't happen. "The Star could benefit, but that is a class that is driven by sailmakers, so it's in their interests to promote throwaway sails."
With a Dacron sail for a Laser standard rig costing a not inconsiderable £376, the same argument could be made for the Laser, in all its forms from Standard through Radial to the 4.7. Many ISAF conference delegates were taken with the new C2 rig for the Byte, which now boasts a fully-battened Mylar sail and which has reportedly enhanced the boat's performance and improved its gust response. The Byte was another dinghy that put itself up for selection for the women's singlehander in the Olympics, but it was the Laser Radial's global manufacturing and distribution network that earned it the vote, and rightly so. For all its faults, the Radial should make women's sailing more accessible than ever before. Henderson commented: "The Radial is a better option for the smaller countries, and there is a case to be made for the women's singlehander to be an out-of-the-box class."
Meanwhile, Laura Baldwin is disappointed to be the owner of two unwanted secondhand Europes and the somewhat reluctant owner of a new Laser Radial. But she is knuckling down to her new Olympic campaign and is packing in a training session in Palma before Christmas. And if she proves fast in the Radial I'm sure she'll learn to love it a little more.
Farewell to the Pope
Copenhagen marked the end of Paul Henderson's 10-year tenure of the ISAF Presidency, and I caught his comments on the Radial a week after the conference when he was back in Canada, the day after his 70th birthday. While "The Pope" is relieved to have completed his term at ISAF, it sounds like he has a number of interesting administrative job offers to consider, not least joining an America's Cup syndicate. It's probably fair to say that many will be glad to see the back of Henderson, as he was definitely a love-him-or-hate-him character. But there was certainly no sitting on the fence with Henderson, and in the conversations I have had with him I have always been impressed with his passion for the sport, and his inherent dislike for bureaucracy - quite a rare quality for a bureaucrat. I would like to have seen him drive through more radical change with the Olympics, as I mentioned in a recent Rolltacks, but I suspect he achieved as much as he could within the restrictions of the ISAF conference set-up. Good luck to him, and to ISAF's new boy from Sweden, Göran Petersson.
Rolex winners
One of the pleasures of visiting the ISAF Conference was being able to interview the winners of the Rolex ISAF Sailor of the Year Awards. The story of the Greek 470 Olympic Champions was very inspiring. Sofia Bekatorou and Emilia Tsoulfa won four consecutive World Championships and probably would have won a fifth earlier this year had it not been for the helm, Sofia, being struck down with severe back pain to the point where she couldn't even walk. Their sponsors hired a private jet to get her back to Greece for immediate treatment, and she spent the next two months undergoing back surgery followed by intense rehabilitation. That left just a month for the team to get back on the water before the Games began. But when the Games began, it was almost as if they had never been away, and they went on to win gold with a race to spare.
There was some doubt as to whether the hot favourites would ‘choke' under the pressure of the big moment, especially with all the added expectation of a host nation that wins few medals. But Emilia said that the whole back injury saga might have even helped them. It didn't allow them to get bogged down in all the minutiae of final preparations, and allowed them no time to experiment with last-minute changes to equipment or tactical ideas, so often the downfall of sailors as they get wound up by all the pressure of the Games. Instead, they only had time to get their heads down and get on with the stuff that mattered.
Robert Scheidt won from 10 very strong men's nominations, not only for winning his third Olympic medal and second gold, but also for notching up his seventh Laser World Championship. Another strong nominee was fellow Brazilian Torben Grael, the only man ever to win five Olympic medals after taking Star Gold in Athens with a race to spare. It will be interesting to see who grabs the men's keelboat berth for Brazil in 2008 now that Robert has bought a Star. I'm sure I remember him saying that after the Athens Games, he would begin campaigning another Olympic class, but in Copenhagen he was not ruling out another go in the Laser. He is certainly competing in next year's Worlds as they are being held in his home waters, but we could yet see him go on to defend his Laser crown in Qingdao 2008. By then he would be 35, which would qualify him as an Apprentice Master in the Laser. "Provided you have the motivation and the fitness, I don't think age is a problem," he said, citing 35-year-old Aussie representative Michael Blackburn as a case in point. Blackburn, like the rest of the Aussie team, had a shocker in Athens but he did run the Brazilian very close a number of times on the Laser circuit earlier in the season.
As sailing becomes more competitive you might have thought that ages would be coming down but the opposite appears to be the case. I bumped into another Rolex nominee Kevin Burnham, the 470 Gold Medal-winning crew, who said he is talking to a couple of helmsmen that he has in mind for a 2008 campaign. He will be 51 next time, although you wouldn't know it if you met him. He can still party with the best of them. Fellow Y&Y contributor Andi Robertson says he is sailing's answer to Alice Cooper, but then you'd have to be Kevin's age to know who Alice Cooper is.
Comeback trail
Someone who I hope has many more Olympic campaigns left in him is Mark Asquith, who crewed for Paul Brotherton in the 49er leading up to Athens. Unfortunately, Mark has been seriously injured after coming off his motorbike on a damp and drizzly autumn evening, and he broke both legs and both collarbones, amongst other things. So far, doctors have been delighted with his progress in hospital and he is expected to make a full recovery, although walking - let alone trapezing - could be some months away yet. If anyone has the strength and the humour to get through something like this it will be Mark, but I'm sure it would help speed his recovery to get the odd social visit from sailing friends at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth. Good luck to you Mark, and we expect to see you back on the campaign trail next year.
