2016 Equipment Evaluations - A report from Roland Gaebler
by Roland Gaebler 26 Mar 2012 18:13 BST
17-25 March 2012
Super Sailing in Santander – the ISAF Multihull Evaluation in northern Spain was a fantastic event
The good and bad moments of the Trials
What a great place to sail! Inshore with flat water and tactical challenges. Offshore with real waves and nice surf. The Club did an amazing job. It's one of the best places for sailing we ever saw. Nice facilities, brilliant beaches and snow on the mountains - some of the nicest sailing scenery. Fantastico!
We missed the strong winds and the big waves a bit to test the material at the limit. But it was good to have all the sailors give their feedback about the Tornado. They gave us nice comments what they do and don't like.
Especially we were interested in the comments from the women; how they like the sporting challenge of the boat. At the helm no-one had any problems to hold the carbon tiller and some of the ladies won the practice races in front of ourselves. In minutes they got familiar with the boat and they brought it to max speed in a very short time. They feel the difference and the high quality of the Tornado. The stiffness of the platform which was 11 years old! As crew, some said it was easy with the kite and mainsheet, some others said it was too hard to handle the sheet loads. It was great to get this feedback and comments from the sailors because for us it’s normal and we have the muscles to handle the loads.
But we think this is exactly the point. If a boat is too easy to handle, it does not deserves to be at the top sporting event in the world. The Olympics are for the very best athletes and it should be a sporting challenge that you should train for. Nahid Gaebler (Tornado crew, 44 years old) is a normal woman with no special fitness training, and she easily handles the sheet loads of the Tornado in up to 30 knots of wind (check the final day of the 2011 World Championship).
But, we listen… we take the comments from the test sailors very seriously and we are re-thinking what we can do to face the critics. And we found the solutions after asking our technical partner Harken and Ronstan.
We may change the sheet system for the gennacker (which is actually a direct 1:1 with two automatic ratches) with an extra block and make it 2:1. Also the mainsheet (which is 8:1) we can change with only one extra block to 12:1. This way we make it 50% easier on the gennacker sheet and 33% easie on the mainsheet without having too much extra sheet length. Wait and see our solutions!
Sometimes it needs such a test event to come up with new innovations. The comments from sailors who have not sailed multihulls are also very helpful. Also the questions from the ISAF evaluation panel have made us think again what the point is and we looking for the best solutions to fulfill all the criteria ISAF wants. Sometimes we are too much in our own box. So the evaluation event brought us new friends but also creates innovations. Only as a team with the sailors and ISAF we can bring our sport into a new era.
The Tornado was the fastest boat in all winds on all courses. In the same way we came up with one of the lowest prices for the boats. So why pay more to sail slower? We present purely the best price-performance for an Olympic boat. The Tornado is a proven formula for the Olympic Games in all wind and wave conditions and has a top image for the media/spectators and the next generation is on side.
On top of it we are the only class who made the offer for supplied boats for the complete Olympic Circuit (World Cup Series, Worlds and Continentals, Olympics). With our Olympic background, we know what we need to do to bring Olympic Sailing to the next level in such hard economic times.
But we experienced also some things, we didn't like so much. Fernando Leon (Gold Medal 1996) and a Hobie Cat woman (F18 Crew) from Santander and me were not allowed to sail the day with the best wind conditions, because we were too heavy.
The crew weight limit was 140kg. Me and Nahid are far away from it. Also the Spanish legend Fernando Leon and the girl who weighed 73kg are not allowed to compete on the best day of the week against the others in a real manufacturer race. Imagine, a girl who was stopped from sailing because she is too heavy.
No wonder the Spanish were on fire after this happened. But this exactly showed the point where we are now some weeks before ISAF makes final decision.
Nahid did some analysis and tried to find every mixed team we can get in the F18 and Tornado. The facts are: 83% of the Mixed Teams in the F18 are above 140kg (average is 150.3kg). In Tornado 87% of the Mixed Teams are over 140kg (average 148.3kg). For sure it looks different in the Hobie 16 and F16… but if we count all Multihull Mixed Teams together still more than 50% are over 140kg.
We have many Women and Men from Laser Class who really like to sail mixed multihull for Rio 2016. If ISAF continue the way with the 130kg average target (middle between 120-140kg), they all can give up their Olympic Dreams.
Imagine the Olympic legends Gintarė and Robert Scheidt want to start in Brazil in Mixed Multihull. They are the perfect example for an average size/weight Olympic Athlete (women average 64-66, men average 78-82kg).
Also the Matchrace Women and Star class sailors have a great interest in Mixed Sailing after they lost their boat. They can bury their Olympic campaigns. A man above 80kg can only sail the Finn and a Women above 65kg has big problems to find a crew with the actual target from ISAF which is based on an Asian submission. But the Asians never turned up in Santander for testing the multihull. So ISAF is following a wish from Asia and the Asians were not here to test the boats. Sorry, this is a complete wrong move and need urgent correction before ISAF conference in May.
I want to say it in very clear words: If we end up in an F16, we will have ultra-lightweight teams (around 120kg) in Rio de Janeiro, where we have light wind forecast. This means most of the actual mixed teams can forget the Olympics. This way Mixed Sailing may end in a disaster for our Sport in the Olympics.
Also I'd like to point out: I am always wanting to bring the Tornado forward. Take a light F18 (like the Phantom Project or a carbon Wild Cat or any other hi-tech F18) or the new Nacra 17 (which is not far away from an F18). But please not an F16. This boats are perfect for the Youth Olympics, ISAF Youth Worlds and National Youth programs. This I said to Carolijn and Darren one year ago. I said to them we should work together; F16 for the youth, F18 for the big fleets, F20 (Tornado) for the Olympics. But they are on their own mission.
The Olympic Games are the top of sports. It is the peak for Athletes. It should be a sporting challenge for every size of women and men and deserves a boat which fits to the Olympic Spirit. Our sport does not just need a boat - we need a new race format which fits perfectly for the media, spectators and sponsors.
Thank you all for the interest and support. We had absolutely great sailing in Santander!
Roland