Does anyone know what this is?
GPS transponder?
Telemetry antenna?
A support for the video camera used at Sydney during the Olympic Games
Thats a plasma hyper drive modulator.
Nahh, it's the video camera..
All boats will be fitted with cameras at Athens also, hopefully we will get to enjoy some of it on the web!
I was going to reply "a Tornado" until I looked a little closer. Rolf, please make sure and post links to any footage that's available from Athens.
Al
It looks to me like it's a bouy in the water behind the Tornado - gate??? -
Other than that it's probably the nose of an I.C.B.M that has just been launched by a submarine!!!
except that its in front of, and attached to the front beam!! Ahh well an I.C.B.M would have been nice.
Could be the transporter module for "beaming up to the Enterprise"?????
Why, that the latest and greatest Cyclone 2000 , gauranteed to whistle up some wind for any boat carrying it! It's an excellent training device (especially for crews in predominately light-wind areas), but not class-legal. It seems the Voodoo Engineer stopped making them when the price of steel went up due to the Chinese building another planet 
As such, there aren't enough to outfit all the Olypic racers.
They have their downsides though, as the price of these units is $1k each, plus some hair and clothing samples from each of the crew. While it's not a lot of monetary output, you have to be prepared to burst into flames at any moment.
At first glance,
I thought for sure it was a tic-tac compass. The video camera could be cool. 
There was a thread about that picture on Sailing Anarchy a while back. I looked but can't find it. Someone there, who reported to have had good information on the subject, stated that this was a gps tracking pod.
It's for the camera, I was involved in the design of the units.. The GPS unit was attached to the stb hull just in front of the front beam, you can see the dark patch on the deck where the velcro was stuck to attach the unit to the selected boats, they were rotated on a daily basis.
Very cool! I'd like to have one of those! Video is a great way to promote the sport!
Its the new case design for the generation II flux capacitors. They weren't supposed to be released till 2005.
I think it is a 20 milligram multiplex demodulator, the way I got it figured.