Saturday, November 10, 2007

The Cat is Dead


The cat is dead.

The ISAF Council has decided that the 10 sailing events for the 2012 Olympics will not include a catamaran. I'm sure there will be a huge outcry from the catamaran sailing community.

Some dude called Nick who apparently is a big wheel in UK cat sailing said
, "You can sail in the Games standing up, with a lump of metal to slow you down, in something slow or unpopular and with one, two or three men in a boat, but you can’t do what the sailing public wants, which is to sail the fastest and most exciting kind of boat with a member of the opposite sex, because it has two hulls. You can’t race in either the third most popular boat in the world (Hobie Cat) or the fastest one (Tornado), so if the Sailing Regatta is not about diversity, popularity or excitement, what does ISAF think it is about?"

I really don't care.

The cat is dead.

9 comments:

Tim Coleman said...

One comment that I thought was interesting and maybe deserves some thought and that is that sailing is seen by some countries as 'white, expensive and exclusive'

There is some truth in it and maybe there beeds to be some thought about developing a class of boat that is inexpensive and yet high performance and good as the Laser is in this regard, it is not 'high performance'.

Then again if the olympic sailing regatta is kicked on that basis then I can hink of a few other sports that would be open to the same accusation.

Mondale said...

I have always loathed cats. I think they are stupid and odd. One hull is enough for anybody. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Right. In a world where millions of people are hull-less, it's selfish and greedy for rich people to have second and even third hulls.

Pat said...

And I was thinking that the ISAF would maybe vote to get rid of one-person boats for fatsos.

Mal Kiely [Lancelots Pram] said...

At the small local regatta I just participated in, there was about an equal umber of cats to monos... the utter LOATHING the cat sailors displayed to us poor mono sailors was simply mind-numbing bigotry!

Hey, I personally don't give two hoots what kind of boat you sail, just so long as you enjoy it, and promote the sport. I personally prefer monos, but whatever rocks your boat.

But there's no need for people to start going all mentall unbalanced just because the ISAF has made a certain decision. Wait until they start throwing around paranoid conspiracy theories about it! Tis certain madness!

Anyways...

The Cat is dead.
Long live the Laser! [giggles happily]

Cyalayta
Mal :)

Anonymous said...

I recall a book from maybe 20 years ago called "101 Uses for a Dead Cat". Anyone got a copy handy?

Seriously, I read a treatise from the cat folks saying that the USA delegation cut a back room deal with the 470 Class. Anyone have more on that story?

Anonymous said...

101 Uses for a Dead Cat.

Anonymous said...

Somewhere I read that the 3 US delegates realized that it would come down to a choice between tossing the keelboat or the multihull and they decided to keep the keelboat because they thought the US had a better chance of a medal in that discipline in 2012. Not sure of the logic there.

I also notice that one of the US delegates on the council is Charlie Cook who is somewhat familiar to New England Laser sailors. He was the PRO at the New England Masters this year unless I'm very mistaken.

Tillerman said...

The other theory, at least according to the gossip on SA, is that the guy lobbying for cats at the meeting was so abrasive and annoying that he antagonized the delegates and some voted to kill the cat just because of that.

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