Euthanasia

If you are a regular reader of Roll Tacks you'll probably be aware of my open dislike for the Yngling as a women's Olympic class. I have been rude about the boat on a number of occasions and yet not once have I received a complaint, which I'll take to mean that you agree with me, or don't care one way or the other. If ISAF want evidence of the Yngling's failure to encourage more women into Olympic sailing, then the Federation need look no further than the open letter written by US Olympic campaigner Carol Cronin a few days after the Miami Rolex Olympic Classes Regatta concluded.

Carol writes: "As you all know, we just finished our 2007 US Sailing Team qualifiers. Sixteen teams from around the world came to Miami, and jockeying for a front row start or an inside overlap with this elite group showed us how much the world level has climbed since last summer's Yngling Worlds. After a lot of thought and discussion, we have decided to end our Olympic campaign effective immediately. Only two US teams competed in the ranking regattas: Team Cronin and Team Seven (Sally Barkow, Carrie Howe, and Debbie Capozzi). Our retirement means Team Seven will represent the US at the 2008 Olympics in Qingdao, China.

"When I started sailing Ynglings in 2001, four US teams finished in the top eight at the Worlds - and all of us were sailing part time. Since then the world has changed, and a full time effort is now mandatory to be competitive on the Olympic stage. Kim (Couranz), Margaret (Podlich), and I have had a fantastic year together, and our recent results don't reflect how much we learned and grew as a team. But with the rest of the group sailing full time, it is simply not possible to meet our performance goals of winning the US Trials and medalling at the 2008 Games.

"In 2003 I watched Sally, Carrie, and Debbie jump into a very intimidating group of US Yngling sailors ­ and beat us all at their second regatta together. Since then they have, most amazingly, stayed together (the only Yngling team in the world to do so), and matured both as a team and as individuals. I wish them all the best and have already offered them my support as they prepare for the Games."

So let's get this straight. The wealthiest nation in the world, and arguably the home of small keelboat sailing, can't even muster two boats for a match race trial for the Olympics, let alone three or more for a fleet race. Good luck to Sally Barkow and her crew, who are a class act in the Yngling and now have a clear run through to Qingdao, but if the USA can't attract more than one team into the class, what hope for the rest of the world? The Yngling should be kept on life-support until the end of the Games in August 2008, and then it should be put into a deep slumber from which it must never be allowed to return.

Brits ride to the rescue

Of course the silver lining to this cloud over women's Olympic sailing is the forthcoming trials in the South of France for a new skiff class. I mentioned the Hyeres trial in a recent Roll Tacks and have since had the chance to find out more about the five boats entered for the event, scheduled from 16 to 19 April. It turns out I wasn't quite right with my initial list of entries, so here are the actual five confirmed by ISAF as officially entered for the trials. Aside from the better-known entries, the 29erXX and the RS800 with simplified deck layout, there are some intriguing bids coming in from the International 14 class, and two hybrids of the Cherub class, the Daemon and the GT60.

The striking thing about this bid list is that all of these entries stem entirely from British efforts, with the possible exception of the 29erXX, which has the backing of Australian designer Julian Bethwaite but which is still being driven by Dave Hall and Ovington Boats in Tynemouth. So a round of applause, please, for the massive efforts being made by all the people behind these bids because one way or another, British boatbuilding stands to benefit from whichever of these boats is chosen (provided ISAF actually select the winning boat as an Olympic class of course).

Now on paper, you would think that the strict one-designs, the 29erXX and RS800, would stand the best chance of gaining selection. ISAF's target price for the new class is 14,500 Euros ready to sail, and both the 29erXX and RS800 certainly match or beat that requirement. Your average International 14 these days certainly doesn't meet that, and in fact you'd be hard-pushed to put a new 14 on the water for £14,500 Sterling, let alone Euros.

However, one of the reasons for the cost of your average 14 is that it is custom built with none of the economies of scale involved in mass production. Long-time 14 sailor Louise Hickey, who is leading the 14 bid, is working on ways of presenting a one-design 14 that could be built cost-effectively, possibly in the Far East. The other challenge for the 14 is proving that it can be sailed by two women who fit within the ISAF-specified 120-140kg range. Last year the Americans dominated a predominantly windy and wavy 14 Worlds despite being at the lower end of the typical class weight range, but they were still weighing in around the 150kg mark.

Louise has been consulting various sailmakers and designers about possible mods to the boat, and a reduced sailplan could be one option, or increasing the righting moment by extending the relatively narrow racks of a conventional 14. Tina Bayliss skippered the runner-up boat in last year's Worlds, and Louise is one of the top 14 crews in this country, so there is evidence to suggest that the 14 is sailable by competent female sailors. But what might tell against it is the idea of the girls having a higher-tech boat than the boys in the 49er, not to mention the fact that a 14 is a fair notch quicker downwind in strong winds! And we couldn't have that, could we?

How one-design should they go?

One thing that all the development class entries, the 14 and two Cherubs, must address is how they turn themselves into one-designs. The simple answer is that they all propose freezing the best of the existing technology and making that the specification for a one-design version of the boat. In the Cherub's case this would work particularly well because after its major upgrade to twin-trapezes in 2005 the class voted for a rules freeze for a minimum of five years. So anyone who buys one of these frozen-in-time one-design Cherubs will also be able to play competitively in the existing Cherub fleet.

The Daemon project is being driven by Cherub fanatic Richard Taylor who has been working closely with designer Simon Roberts to produce a simple and cost-effective package in conjunction with Derby boatbuilders Hartley Laminates. Richard Hartley recently took over the build of the Wayfarer and Wanderer from Porter Brothers, so he is already well established in the art of building mass-production one-designs. Richard Taylor says the company is ready to ramp up to building 100 Daemons a year if it wins Olympic selection, plus they have two other builders elsewhere in the world, on stand-by to expand global production and distribution of the Daemon.

While Hartley has already constructed a fully-carbon Daemon hull, the intended boat for the trial will be built predominantly from epoxy S-glass, still reasonably hi-tech but quite a bit cheaper. Richard says the S-glass boat's all-up sailing weight - including T-foil rudder and Selden carbon spars - will come in at an impressively low 65kg. Perhaps the even more impressive figure is that the intended price for the package, including Selden carbon rig and a set of Hyde Sails will be £6995, well under the target price specified by ISAF.

Although the trials boat will be sporting a set of Hydes, Richard and his team are considering the option of having an open policy on the sails, in the mode of most non-manufacturer-led one-designs such as the Fireball or 470. I think Richard is spot on with his thinking here. Strict controls over hulls and masts are essential for controlling costs. Look at what a mess the Europe and Finn classes got themselves into when they switched to carbon masts in the 90s. Shirley Robertson's wing mast in the Europe was an awesome bit of technology but it was prohibitively expensive. There seems to be a lot of voodoo involved in building the perfect mast, so best that the builder controls that side of things.

Sails are a much more transparent (pun not really intended) part of the package, a bit more what-you-see-is-what-you-get than a composite mast. Also there is evidence of one-design manufacturers hiking up the price once they've got the class established. Once you're locked into one brand of sails as the only ones that you can legally race with, the manufacturer has you over a barrel. I could name a few manufacturers that I believe are taking their customers for a ride, but suffice it to say that people like Steve Cockerill at Rooster Sailing do a good trade in producing copy-cat training sails for a number of popular classes, and at a fraction of the price of the official products.

The Daemon option of opening up the sailmaking to all-comers instantly deals with this problem, as well as offering a bit of technical interest to sailors who want to develop something around their crew weight or sailing style. Potentially the open sailmaking policy could expand the competitive weight range of the boat compared with a strict one-design where everyone is forced to use the same sail shapes.

Now I wanted to tell you about the other Cherub heading for France, the GT60, but I've run out of time so I'll have to pick up on that one a fortnight from now, in the next edition of Roll Tacks.