Five entries for women's Olympic skiff trials

Five boats will line up for the Women's High Performance Dinghy Evaluation Event this April in the south of France, to determine which boat will go forwards for selection as a new Olympic class. The 29erXX, RS800, Cherub Daemon, Carbonology GT60 and International 14 have all submitted their entries to the Evaluation Event, which will be held in Hyères, France from 16-19 April 2007.

This looks like a strong field of potential Olympic skiffs, and couldn’t come at a better time, as the Yngling shows serious signs of failure as a viable Olympic women’s keelboat. Only last week, top Yngling sailor Carol Cronin announced her retirement from Olympic campaigning after the Miami Rolex Olympic Classes Regatta. She wrote, “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.” So, the Olympic trials for the USA are over before they have even begun because there aren’t two teams with the sufficient resources or interest to go to the Games in China. This is not a developing nation we are talking about, it’s the USA, probably the biggest keelboat sailing nation in the world! If they can’t muster more than one team for the Olympics, what hope for the rest of us?

While disappointing in one sense, the Yngling’s fall from grace (if indeed it ever ascended to grace) should make life easier for ISAF this November at the Federation’s Annual Conference in Athens. The International Olympic Committee has decreed that sailing must reduce the Olympic disciplines from 11 in China to 10 for the London 2012 Games.
The Yngling’s departure should be a no-brainer, with its place being taken by the new women’s skiff. Then it is a matter of deciding which of the remaining classes is to get the chop, and that is where the debate becomes a whole lot more difficult. That’s a discussion we’ll save for another day!