Olympic Sailing Classes
Throughout February we will have a look at sailing at the Olympic level. We’ll look at the classes, potential winners, the venue and the history of Olympic sailing. This year’s Olympic regatta is from 14 to 28 August in Athens, Greece.
In 2004 there will be 11 classes that will sail 9 different classes of boats. Three of these classes are for single handed sailors.
Most familiar is the Laser one of the most popular sailboats ever. The Laser is 13 feet and 150,000 of them exist worldwide.
The Finn is the singlehanded class for men. In the past sailors such as Paul Elvstrom and Russell Coutts have sailed this demanding boat.
The Europe is the single handed class for women. The boat is similar to the Finn, but allows women in the 100 to 175 pound range to compete successfully.
The 470 and the 49er are dinghy classes for 2 person crews. The 15 foot 470 has seperate classes for men’s and women’s team. It has been an Olympic class since 1976.
The 49er is a skiff with dobule trapeeze & hiking wings that allows both men and women to compete. It’s one of the newest classes. If you see TV coverage of Olympic sailing these fast, skittish, asymetrical spinnaker flying skiffs will likely be on screen.
The Mistral class sailorboard is used by both men and women. World class wind surfers sail in an extrmely physical manner and have been doing so at the Olympic since 1984.
Tornado’s are the catamaran raced in the Olympics. Two person crews on these cats now fly asymetrical spinnakers.
There are keelboat classes for women and men. The Star-orginally designed in 1911- is the men’s class. There’s a list of Hall of Fame sailors who have competed in this class which is becoming more physcially oriented as a new group of sailors who formerly sailed Finns move up.
Making it’s Olympic debut will be the women’s keel boat the Yngling. This boat was designed by Jan Linge who also designed the Soling.
A total of 42 sailors will win Olympic medals in these classes. Next week we’ll take a look at Athens Greece where they will sail.
Links for this article provided by Intersail
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