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Rant That Cat USSA's 2012 Olympic proposal that excludes any multihull class has caused quite a stir, and rightly so. There have been over 500 complaints to the USOC about this and there are a number of people working hard to change this decision. Bob Hodges, president of the A-Class Association shares his thoughts below. I note that you mentioned the controversy created by US SAILING’s proposal of six dinghy and 2 keelboat classes but no mulithull or boardsailing classes for the 2012 Olympics. I’d like to offer my perspective as president of the United States A-Class Catamaran Association which I hope you will post on the SA site. Despite a history of medals in both the multihull and boardsailing disciplines, US SAILING has made a decision to anger and alienate what is estimated to be 25% of the active racing sailors in the United States and the world. Industry figures also show that US multihull boat sales increased in popularity in the last sales year in contrast to the rest of the US small sailboat retail market. US Sailing cites their main reason for exclusion is multihulls no longer offer a reasonable chance to medal for the US and US SAILING wants to focus its efforts on developing the classes that it thinks have the best chance (with funding and youth development programs). That is a strange position to take in light of the US Tornado silver medal in 2004 and no medals yet in the Laser, Yngling, or Laser Radial classes. US Sailing has also to date not shown any interest in developing a US youth multihull development team as it does for doublehanded and singlehanded dinghies again despite the fact that the US has a medal history in the multihull discipline (and for that matter two medals by Mike Gebhardt in the boardsailing discipline). As far as most of us in the multihull community are concerned, this is a simple display of arrogance and bigotry by the very northeast based US Sailing establishment, The attitude has been there and remains embedded in the organization. As president of the United State A-Class Catamaran Association, we have seen steady growth in our class with 57 boats racing at our midwinter race week in Islamorada this past January. We look forward to hosting the world championship of this class in November again in Islamorada. The fleet will be deep with sailors like Glenn Ashby, Pete Melvin, Lars Guck, Ben Moon, Pease and Jay Glaser, Ben Hall, Goran Marstrom, and other outstanding sailors competing. Many sailors now racing A-Class catamarans (including myself) came out of the dinghy and keelboat ranks and are at best confused and perplexed as to why US SAILING would evenly remotely consider the proposal they have made. Another aspect to consider in this issue is the potential damage US SAILING can create in its position with the ISAF leadership. US SAILING’s ability to lobby on behalf of US sailors in ISAF issues could be substantially weakened since their proposal is based upon self-serving interests. This is bad for ALL US sailors. Please keep track of this issue and keep all sailors informed. A formal complaint is being put together to the US Olympic Committee that US SAILING is not representing its membership by law and its actions are illegal. Over 500 sailors have signed on to the complaint and we have news that it is the largest complaint ever submitted to the USOC regarding a governing body. Any sailor can join the complaint and it is in everyone’s best interest that ALL sailors are represented equally and with no prejudice by the US SAILING. Please visit www.usmultihull.org for more details. Sincerely Yours, Bob Hodges President Olympics (Unverified) ISAF constitution apparently indicates that the class submissions are to be indicative of the state of sailing in those countries. To have an openly politicized agenda (as laid out publicly by Chairman, Jim Capron, explanation of “…to submit eight events in which we believe U.S. sailors will have the best chance to excel in 2012…” response), may be an ISAF constitutional issue. Multihull council will be lobbying with US Sailing board members and preparing a statement to be presented to US Sailing (and on the US Sailing Multihull Council website) by next Tuesday. Our intent is to have open discussion with the US Sailing board on how to rectify the situation and hope that they recognize the significance of this omission. Lastly, as of this evening, 640 complaints have been registered with the USOC and they’ve asked the creator of the site for help them address the complaints ‘en mass without having to address each individual person. Note: the site www.multihull.org was not created by the Multihull council. Best Regards, Jake Kohl |