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Tornadosegeln 2012 - Roland Gäbler-News
www.tornado-class.org/ - www.teamgaebler.de - Übersicht
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26.03.2012
*Super Sailing in Santander
ISAF Multihull Evaluation in northern Spain was a fantastic event.
*The Good and Bad moments of the Trials. A report from Roland Gaebler.*
What a great place to sail! Inshore with flat water and tactical
challenges. Offshore with real waves and nice surf. The Club made an
amazing job. Its one of the best places for sailing we ever saw. Nice
facilities, brilliant beaches and snow on the mountains. Purely one of the
nicest sailing scenery. Fantastico!
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Foto: www.teamgaebler.de/tornado-sailing-downloads/
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We missed a bit the strong winds and the big waves to test the material at
the limit. But it was good to have all the sailors their feedback about the
Tornado. They gave us nice comments what they like or not.
Especially we were interested in the comments from the women, how they like
the sportive challenge of the boat. At the helm no one has any problems to
hold the carbon tiller and some of the Ladies won the practice races in
front of our self.
In minutes they got familiar with the boat and brought it to max speed in a
very short time. They feel the difference and the high quality of the
Tornado. The stiffness of the platform which was 11 years old! As crew some
said it was easy with the kite and indexsheet, some others said it was too
hard to handle the sheet loads. It was great to get this feedback and
comments from the sailors. Because for us it’s normal and we have the
muscles to handle the loads.
But we think this is exactly the point. If a boat is too easy to handle,
it’s not deserves to be at the top sport event of the World. The Olympics
are for the very best Athletes and it should be sportive challenges were
you should train for. Nahid Gaebler (Tornado crew, 44 years old) is a
normal woman with no special fitness training, and she easily handles the
sheet loads of the Tornado up to 30knots of wind (check final day
Worldchampionship 2011).
But…..we listen….. we take the comments from the test sailors very serious
and we are re-thinking what we can do to face the critics. And we found the
solutions after asking our technical partner Harken and Ronstan:
We may change the sheetsystem from the gennacker (which is actually direct
1:1 with two automatic ratches) with an extra block and make it 1:2. Also
the indexsheet (which is actually 1:8) we can change with only one extra
block to 1:12. This way we make it 50% easier on the gennacker sheet and
33% more easy on the indexsheet without having too much extra sheet length.
Wait and see our solutions!
Sometime it needs such a test event to come to new innovations. The
comments from sailors who not sail Multihull are also very helpful. Also
the questions from the ISAF evaluation panel makes us thinking again what
the point is and we looking for the best solutions to fulfill all the
criteria ISAF wants. Sometimes we are too much in our own box. So the
evaluation event brought us new friends but also creates innovations. Only
as a team with the sailors and ISAF we can bring our sport into a new era.
The Tornado was the fastest boat in all winds on all courses. Same way we
came up with one of the lowest prices for the boats. So why pay more to
sail slower? We present purely the best price-performance for an Olympic
boat. The Tornado is a proven formula for the Olympic Games in all wind and
wave conditions and has a top image, the media/spectators and the next
generation on his side.
On top of it we are the only class who made the offer for supplied boats
for the complete Olympic Circuit (World Cup Series, Worlds- and
Continentals, Olympics). With our Olympic background, we know what we need
to do to bring Olympic Sailing to the next level in such hard economic
times.
But we experienced also some things, we not like so much. Fernando Leon
(Gold Medal 1996) and a Hobie Cat women (F18 Crew) from Santander and me
were not allowed to sail the day with the best wind conditions, because we
were too heavy.
The crew weight limit was 140kg. Me and Nahid are far away from it. Also
the Spanish legend Fernando Leon and the Girl who weight 73kg we not
allowed competing at the best day of the week against the others in a real
manufacturer race. Imagine, a girl was stopped to sail because she is too
heavy.
No wonder the Spanish were on fire after this happen. But exactly this
showed the point where we are now. Some weeks before ISAF makes final
decision.
Nahid made an analytics and try to find every mixed team we can get in F18
and Tornado. The Facts are: 83% of the Mixed Teams in the F18 are above
140kg (average is 150.3kg). In Tornado 87% of the Mixed Teams are over
140kg (average 148.3kg). For sure it looks different in the Hobie 16 and
F16…… but if we count all Multihull Mixed Teams together still more than
50% are over 140kg.
We have many Women and Men from Laser Class who really like to sail mixed
multihull for Rio 2016. If ISAF continue the way with the 130kg average
target (middle between 120-140kg), they all can give up their Olympic
Dreams.
Imagine the Olympic legends Gintare and Robert Scheidt want to start in
Brazil in Mixed Multihull. They are the perfect example for an average
size/weight Olympic Athlete (women average 64-66, men average 78-82kg)
Also the Matchrace Women and Starclass Sailors have great interest in Mixed
Sailing after they lost their boat. They can bury their Olympic Campaigns.
A man above 80kg can only sail Finn-Dinghy and a Women above 65kg has big
problems to find a crew with the actual target from the ISAF which is based
on an Asian Submission. But the Asians never turned up in Santander for
testing the multihull. So ISAF following a wish from Asia and the Asians
were not here to test the boats. Sorry, this is a complete wrong move and
need urgent correction before ISAF conference in May.
I want to say it in very clear words: If we end up in an F16, we will have
ultra lightweight teams (around 120kg) in Rio de Janeiro, where we have
light wind forecast. This means most of the actual mixed teams can forget
the Olympics. This way Mixed Sailing may end in a disaster for our Sport in
the Olympics.
Also this I like to point out: I am not want bring the Tornado always
forward. Take a light F18 (like the Phantom Project or a carbon Wild Cat or
any other hitec F18) or the new Nacra 17 (which is not far away from an
F18).
But please not an F16. This boats are perfect for the Youth Olympics, ISAF
Youth Worlds and National Youth programs. This I said to Carolijn + Darren
one year ago. I said to them we should work together. F16 for the youth.
F18 for the big fleets. F20 (Tornado) for the Olympics. But they are on
their own mission.
The Olympic Games are the top of Sports. It is the peak for Athletes. It
should be a sportive Challenge for every size of women and men and deserves
a boat which fits to the Olympic Spirit. Our sport not just need a boat. We
need a new race format which fits perfect for the media, spectators and
sponsors.
Thank you all for the interest and support. We had absolute great sailing
in Santander!
Roland Gaebler
P.S. Photos for free download are here:
http://www.teamgaebler.de/tornado-sailing-downloads/
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