Nacra 17 selected for 2020 Olympics in Japan

Originally Posted by JeffS

That's a great result for a boat that's only been on the water for a short time, were the boats out of the box or did they have to do some alteration to the boats before the race?

Originally Posted by jollyrodgers

link to 2013 texel vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSFGm7XY9m4
looks like at least 20knts. Only 1 F18 beat the first N17. Nacra has a very strong presence at that regatta, being a Dutch company at the worlds largest cat race held in Holland.

I think these were stock, at least foils, hulls, mast, rig.

http://www.nacra17class.com/roundtexel-2013-three-nacra-17s-within-first-5-boats-overall/

There are no in-house engineers (there weren't at the time the Infusion came about, anyway). However, I was at the factory while they were laying up hull number 5 or so and Gino Morrelli was there helping them sort out the bagging material placement and the infusion process....so the engineering on that end was pretty solid. The Infusion MKI is a Melvin and Morrelli design as are a lot of Nacra's products.

One of the problems with the Infusion is the lack of consistency.
Like with wine, some years are better than others (and give you less of a headache!).

Should have gone with the H16. Boats in place, mixed crews are normal.

Popcorn, anyone? <img src="<>/wink.gif" alt="wink" title="wink" height="15" width="15" />

Mike

On a more sailing based note. It is interesting to see how fast the cream is rising to the top at sail Melbourne. Bundock and Curtis, both Olympic medalists, in their second week of sailing the N17 are leading regatta despite a huge range of conditions and giving the young upstarts 12 months head start.

The best cat sailors tend to adopt quickly to new cat designs.

If we're talking about switching between two designs within the same discipline (e.g. spin boats), it's not too much of a shock to me for someone at Bundock's level to make an easy transition. Leading in their first regatta on the boat certainly is impressive, and undoubtedly frustrating to those with more time on the design.

Now, if a 420 team were able to pull this off, that would certainly get some attention. The brain trust at US Sailing was considering this as a pathway option...

Mike

Bundock was second only to Franck Cammas at Catacup (with numerous Olympic hopefuls in the top 10). This result is of very little surprise to me.

Seriously Mike, 420's? US Sailing has heard of the F16 right? Regardless, the serious big fleet competition is still in F18's right now, if I was seriously gunning for an Olympic campaign slot I would move to France for the next 18 months, race the crap out of the F18 and Nacra 17 there, then return to the U.S for the qualifying races.

Yes, Sam, seriously. They are looking to grow Olympic sailors from youth, and don't see an active youth cat. 420s have two-person teams, spins and big fleets. At least, that was the logic.

They're learning that transitioning from sailing slow boats to cats doesn't work for the vast majority of sailors (although there are notable exceptions). Since there are very few cat sailors making these decisions, they don't understand why it doesn't work.

They have asked for our input. I did mention that the F16 is the most logical choice (yes, they are familiar with the boat), but the fleets are small and available boats are few (and expensive, although that seems to be less of a concern). The H16 is another good choice, but has other issues (non-spin in large fleets, few youth-only teams).

I agree with you that the F18 is a great training platform. It looks like the FL groups have it dialed in: get the kids crewing or steering on F18s with adults, and then team them up with other kids for F18/F16/N17 racing when they get their feet wet.

Mike

Just saw this morning that Ravi (4th at F18 Americas, 1st at F16 Nats) was 5th at the Jensen Beach JOs over the weekend sailing in the 30 boat 420 fleet. The horror! Someone should probably talk to him about running away from big competitive fleets as fast as possible so he doesn't become less of a catsailor...

(ok, maybe a bit sarcastic)

Hmm.... this is the huge depressing problem right.... how to replenish the ranks..

We can either hope and pray that the events like the mixed olympic class on N17s or the AC will send us new blood.. (how's that working out?)

We can breed our own and pray that they are chips off the old blocks and want to race against dad and mom...
That hobie way of life SHOULD have generated a huge wave of 20 and 30 something sailors.... How is THAT working out?)

OR... we can try and recruit RACING SAILORS from the ranks of juniors who go racing...

Seems to me... this is the ONLY choice we have... and sadly... I don't see a pathway that current catamaran fleets support going forward.

Who out there has an idea... or program to replenish the fleet?

Well, the way to build fleets is to work with your local sailors. Last year, we took four Youth Teams to the Hobie Cat National Youth event in Lake Huntington, CA. Like all sailing, only a small percent of the sailors that take classes at Sail Sand Point, in Seattle, move on to racing. While we have six H-16's and next year, twelve Waves in our program, just a few sailors move on to racing. Still working on ways to improve the numbers. Hobie 101, Wed night racing, and increasing Hobie Cat Div 4 events to include Points Regattas and Fun events help.

No magic solution, just work with what you have, and increase the number of volunteers working on the problem.

May not results in Olympic sailors, which is a huge commitment, but will increase the number of racers. BTW, Seattle does have a long list of past Olympic Sailors, and one of our SSP Youth was on the Red Bull Youth America's Cup Team.
Caleb Tarleton
www.sailsandpoint.org