Final results - Gold ESP, Silver AUS, Bronze ARG.
You have to wonder about the line/course or whatever, when 9 out of 10 boats in the medal race start on port ....
Well done ESP. If you win 4 races from 11, you deserve to come away with Gold.
That footage was Gold also. If that does not work in the Multihulls favour to return to the Games, then nothing will.
Bundy / Ashby, well done. It is sad to see arguably the greatest Tornado helmsman there ever was.... Never win a Gold. Bring the T back for London so he can have another crack at it.
You have to wonder about the line/course or whatever, when 9 out of 10 boats in the medal race start on port ....
I would have to agree. That possibly spoiled the last race.
Pretty nasty conditions though (washing machine).
Gold-ESP
Silver-AUS
Bronze-ARG
Nasty conditions
???? Looks like what we sail in every weekend, with waves bouncing off marina walls, shipping going by etc, etc. I really need to get out of town more often to go sailing.
Tornado conditions..... Perhaps needed another 5 knots.
Well done! Paz & Echevarri. Campeones!
It's curious, Spain has a superb Tornado history these recent years. Yet we see at national level:
* the cat scene in decline
* (almost) no Tornados racing
* No relevant international participation (with a couple of exceptions)
The effect of this gold medal is ZERO for spanish cat sailing.
We are proud, of course. But this year nats (in 20 days now for all cats together) we will struggle to achive last year numbers.
aestela.
That footage was Gold also. If that does not work in the Multihulls favour to return to the Games, then nothing will.
Bundy / Ashby, well done. It is sad to see arguably the greatest Tornado helmsman there ever was.... Never win a Gold. Bring the T back for London so he can have another crack at it.
And Maybe Leigh and Will can put a better (consistant) set of results together.
Good Job Boys and lets have it back for 2012........
Ok, so here we are at the very formal, very emotional medal ceremony for the Tornado at the Olympic Games. The person presenting the flowers is the ISAF Vice President from Australia, Mr David Kellet. It's pouring with rain, so the medal presenters are wearing very fetching cheap plastic ponchos.
Mr Kellet offers his congratulations to Glenn Ashby, the Silver Medallist from Australia and presents the flowers. The crew then thanks Mr Kellet with the comment
You look like a condom
. Lucky the music is loud and the effects mike doesn't pick it up .....
Well gone Glenn.
ha! that's funny. love the Australians
Here is PU's last message regarding the race. It explains why everybody started on port.
We did the Tornados first then the Stars.
Set the start line close to the breakwater so that if they started on starboard they could go about 4 tenths before they had to tack. That put them at the media tower at the east end of the breakwater.
The winds were around 15 knots so we set the weather mark at 125 degrees and 1.4 nautical miles. W2 (two laps) with a target time of 30 minutes.
All the tornados except Greece started on Port tack to go out for just one tack to the weather mark. Also there was more presure there. The Greek on Starboard went about 300 meters and ripped his mainsail so had to retire.
We misssed the target time by 20 seconds. (30 minutes and 20 seconds)
Spain won the gold.
Have the same been done for other classes?
Messing with the starting line in the medal race.. This is not the first time PU oversees a Tornado event, so he knows it is a golden rule to not tack more than you have to. One tack is worth a lot.
From Andy Rice
It was a dramatic finale for the Tornado class as it made its exit out of the Olympics after 32 years. With a heavily pin-end-biased line, the fleet would have struggled to start on starboard. So all but one of the 10 boats elected to start on port.
The rest of the great report can found here http://sailjuice.squarespace.com/
Messing with the starting line in the medal race.. This is not the first time PU oversees a Tornado event, so he knows it is a golden rule to not tack more than you have to. One tack is worth a lot.
The short answer is yes. They want the race as close as possible to the spectators on the breakwall - which when the wind is coming from the south east, takes away a big chunk of the course's left side.
You could almost say that the media considerations spoiled Bundy & Ashby's chance to get a gold, rather than the Greeks.
Also, did you notice how the signal and pin boats were oriented? Instead of pointing into the wind (at 125°), the current was making them point at 215°. That would make port the longest tack to the mark, thus the one you want to sail first. Another reason 9 of 10 boats started on port.
When I saw all the boats lining up for a port start, I was going,
Postpone! C'mon, PU, postpone!
. But he let them go.
I guess all you could really do is make the committee boat favored, but then you'd have a huge pileup at that end and the first ones to tack to the right would win.
Somebody has got to help me find that link where I proclaimed it was going to blow at this Olympics...
It's not normally like this!
Not according to the Sailjuice quote from AUS:
The mast rotator broke and so we couldn't set the mainsail properly so we were a bit slow up that leg.
The Spanish pulled away again and finished ahead of Australia, bagging the gold medal.
So, even if GRE hadn't done the Starboard start, it's not a given the outcome would have been any different.
Epic race to watch - loved the camera work. The commentary was L*A*M*E!!!! Seriously -
I just had a Hershey bar
????? W*T*F???? I had to turn it off and provide my own commentary, which was quite colorful. <img src=
alt=
/>
Love an enthusiastic ground crew!
![[Linked Image]](http://webpages.charter.net/johnericwilliams/esp%202.jpg)
![[Linked Image]](http://webpages.charter.net/johnericwilliams/esp%201.jpg)
![[Linked Image]](http://webpages.charter.net/johnericwilliams/esp%203.jpg)
Well done, ESP. <img src=
alt=
/>
Yes, Jobson was in
fine
form last night:
Wonder if any of those guys will be sailing 49'ers next time
!?!?
He's got no clue...just because the T & 49'er share an excitement/speed level that his beloved mono's can only dream about doesn't equate them to being the same skill sets to sail competitively.
Comparing the comments made during the Star medal race was a treat....he actually got into the tactics and focused on the teams experience levels during the Star race...didn't seem to know what was going on with the T's or team histories.
Gotta love him for
Don't Stars just look beautiful
comment! All I could think of was don't they look like outdated tubs plowing along.
Here you go: http:/
Anybody discover why GER could not right their boat and keep going? It was on its side for quite a long time...they never did re-join the race.
The carbon mast is easy to right from that position. maybe they got separated for the boat?
Comparing the comments made during the Star medal race was a treat....he actually got into the tactics and focused on the teams experience levels during the Star race...didn't seem to know what was going on with the T's or team histories.
Gotta love him for
Don't Stars just look beautiful
comment! All I could think of was don't they look like outdated tubs plowing along.
I was at a Sailing Youth Clinic in the early 90’s with roughly 20 other sailors (under 20 yrs) who were sailing in Olympic classes or just sponsored into the classes by the national class authority. Gary was the key speaker.
He went around the room and the sailors indicated which Olympic Class they participated in, he then indicated possible coaches, contacts to reach out to, and top equipment manufacturers in the US.
When I indicated that I sailed tornados his response was “Oh – they had some big crashes at the last games (1988)”. Really – that was all he had.
Not trying to bash Gary but it appeared that little has changed from the 1990’s in his eyes. Sad when he is considered the expert to comment on the video - he could have at least put the effort forward to know who was who and who was on form for ALL the classes - That is not to much to ask in exchange for a paycheck from NBC. Hell all he had to do was open any of the UK sailing mags or read the Daily Sail...
That was a great race! What a day for sailing, perfect for the gold medal. A highlight package should be sent to everyone who voted against the multihull, especially the Canadians, since fourth is the best finish ever in the class for Canada.
Canadian commentary was ok; perhaps a little lacklustre. At least they knew port from starboard.
I guess the video is now a collector's item.
Al
Here you go: http:/
You are Da man!
F
boats are out and if they go that way then they will simply keep the
T
which I wouldn't mind one bit.
Hobie 16 w/ spin in a breeze sailed by the best in the world... come on, you wouldn't watch that? Anything at Qingdao or a venue like Qingdao is going to be a yawn.
Hmmm... watch the races at Qingdao or watch my grass grow... tough call.
August 1, 2008 - Jake :
I'm still saying that with the number of people betting on light air...it's going to crank. That's how it works.
Not trying to bash Gary but it appeared that little has changed from the 1990’s in his eyes. Sad when he is considered the expert to comment on the video -
That is not to much to ask in exchange for a paycheck from NBC.
Why not bash him? He deserves it...and so does NBC.
And...he can't even spell or perhaps type very well.
Didn't he say on the first day that his mother was a typing teacher so he learned to type at an early age?
And what about the Maritime Academy? Did they realize what a wanker he was?
They did. My first real job was at a shipyard and one of my co-worker/friends went to school w/ Gary.
They had a special nickname for him that played off his name and included the word
blow
. <img src=
alt=
/>
My friend did pretty well for himself - left Bath Iron Works and joined the family business Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding.
Don't Stars just look beautiful
comment! All I could think of was don't they look like outdated tubs plowing along.
In defense of
BJ
...I agree that Stars are very cool boats, just as I love the Big T.
I have sailed both and each has its place.
...including the scenes that also showed boat speed (from a GPS, I guess). I remember having spotted up to 13 knots upwind and up to 18 knots downwind. A reaching leg over 20 would have been quite convincing.
I got an e-mail from PU that explained the port start:
We did the same thing the two previous years for the test events for both the boards and the catamarans on the medal course.
Had they started on starboard they would have hit the breakwater in 300 meters which at the speed they were going would have been very quick. Add to that that like any catamaran, Tornados like to hit the corners. The wind at the start was 17 - 18 knots.
The idea was to get the course as close to the breakwater as we could for the thousands of spectators. This meant elimiating the left lay line, an acceptable procedure under the policy for the event.
We set the weather mark at 1.4 knotical miles Target time was 30 minutes. We missed the target time by 12 seconds. (30 min 12 sec)
The next start was the Stars. Stars dont go to corners so this class was able to start on starboard and short tack up the breakwater which was very special for the spectators and a concideration in laying the start line for both classes.
Many observers (Matt) may not have been aware of what we were trying to accomplish hence his comments regarding a postponement.
The angle that the signal boat and pin boat were laying was fairly normal for this venue.Seldom did the signal boat and pin boat ever lay in the same direction, and even more seldom bow to the wind.
Matt's observation regarding this is somewhat correct they went out, however not because of the position of the starting line. Rather because the current was pushing towards the weather mark, there was more pressure on the outside, there was stronger current outside and at this venue on the inside there are toilet bowl eddies due to shoals that disturb the current flow and finally there was a restriction on the inside.
On a finishing note, television pays 8 million dollars for the rights to this event. If they want the course next to the spectators, ISAF agrees even if it elimiates a left layline. Team leaders, Coaches and Athletes are well aware of this policy and accept it. We as race management follow policy.