Looks like the RSX will stay for Paris Olympics

That approval would stop the aspirations of the other four options from the tender process which included Neil Pryde and the RS:X, the Glide 2990 designed by Olympic Gold medalist Bruce Kendall; the Windsurfer, and two Windfoilers.

www.sail-world.com/news/217264/Controversy-dogs-World-Sailing-Mid-Year-Meeting

It has to be voted on by council first. They could reject the board's recommendation and vote to go to sea trials for the submitted proposals. Will know by the end of the week.

Remember its World Sailing we are dealing with so any sort of decision is possible.They might even vote to reinstate the Finn Dinghy ( wishful thinking)
Given their previous decisions re dropping the Finn and installing a mega expensive 2 personkeel boat they might even vote for the return of the Winglider , soft sail and no harness

That Sail World article is a little insight into the "Byzantine" process involved in deciding which class gets the go ahead.

Interestingly it suggests that an Olympic kite set up is 12000 Euros (and you need two) . I guess that is an indication of how much more expensive a Foiling windsurfer might be compared to current and previous Olympic windsurfers.
I can't believe they would think replacing the Laser is a good idea.

The kite price is a bit of an eye opener, I assume the IKA submission is foil kites rather than the ozone which I think was inflatable strut type. Still, what's a foiling Nacra or 49er worth, gotta be lots!

The whole thing is a cluster...pretty consistent for world sailing, 2 person keelboat, wtf? Getting rid of the Finn was a good move imo but you can't get rid of the laser, anti trust issues aside, it would be crazy.

Personally I think windfoiling needs to be there, biased because I'm pretty addicted to it but it's epic for racing and surely the kids getting into the sport would have far more fun racing that than the friggen RSX. I guess the hangup is that it's still so new there is no real stable rule, worldwide rule agreement and you realistically need 8kts+ to race.

Hopefully the council will come to their senses and vote for the Windsurfer Lt

The Windsurfer LT is probably the fastest growing sailing class in Australia. It makes sense for the LT to replace the RSX which is a dying class. Put the RSX out of its misery which is a like a fish dying slowly gasping for air on the harbour wall. Its time !

As far as I understand it, the council will not be voting for one board over another (e.g windsurfer LT vs RSX vs foil). They can only vote to support the boards' proposal to keep the RSX or vote against this, which would mean that sea trials would be then undertaken between May and November, with a final decision made then.

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RichardG said..
The Windsurfer LT is probably the fastest growing sailing class in Australia. It makes sense for the LT to replace the RSX which is a dying class. Put the RSX out of its misery which is a like a fish dying slowly gasping for air on the harbour wall. Its time !

333 competitors at the RSX Europeans in April, not sure that's as a sign of a dying class. In fact Richard if you look at the stats you will see RSX class has delivered on many levels for Olympic sailing competition, equality in gender participation , engagement of less developed countries in the sport of sailing. In many ways it could be seen as one of the most successful of the Olympic classes.

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cammd said..

RichardG said..
The Windsurfer LT is probably the fastest growing sailing class in Australia. It makes sense for the LT to replace the RSX which is a dying class. Put the RSX out of its misery which is a like a fish dying slowly gasping for air on the harbour wall. Its time !

333 competitors at the RSX Europeans in April, not sure that's as a sign of a dying class. In fact Richard if you look at the stats you will see RSX class has delivered on many levels for Olympic sailing competition, equality in gender participation , engagement of less developed countries in the sport of sailing. In many ways it could be seen as one of the most successful of the Olympic classes.

LOL and Australia voted for the formula class !

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RichardG said..
The Windsurfer LT is probably the fastest growing sailing class in Australia. It makes sense for the LT to replace the RSX which is a dying class. Put the RSX out of its misery which is a like a fish dying slowly gasping for air on the harbour wall. Its time !

What's the average age of these sailors?

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CJW said..

RichardG said..
The Windsurfer LT is probably the fastest growing sailing class in Australia. It makes sense for the LT to replace the RSX which is a dying class. Put the RSX out of its misery which is a like a fish dying slowly gasping for air on the harbour wall. Its time !

What's the average age of these sailors?

Pretty young if the people in these videos are anything to go by.
www.rsxclass.org/media/videos/?album=7235

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cammd said..

RichardG said..
The Windsurfer LT is probably the fastest growing sailing class in Australia. It makes sense for the LT to replace the RSX which is a dying class. Put the RSX out of its misery which is a like a fish dying slowly gasping for air on the harbour wall. Its time !

333 competitors at the RSX Europeans in April, not sure that's as a sign of a dying class. In fact Richard if you look at the stats you will see RSX class has delivered on many levels for Olympic sailing competition, equality in gender participation , engagement of less developed countries in the sport of sailing. In many ways it could be seen as one of the most successful of the Olympic classes.

Yes but in Australia the RSX is a disaster at least in WA. Not sure how it is going in the Eastern States but I see the LT as much better over here. Just my perspective.

LT rig is way to small to be considered as an olympic class, surely a twin cam 7.8 similar to bic techno rig woud be more appealing and fun

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RichardG said..

cammd said..

RichardG said..
The Windsurfer LT is probably the fastest growing sailing class in Australia. It makes sense for the LT to replace the RSX which is a dying class. Put the RSX out of its misery which is a like a fish dying slowly gasping for air on the harbour wall. Its time !

333 competitors at the RSX Europeans in April, not sure that's as a sign of a dying class. In fact Richard if you look at the stats you will see RSX class has delivered on many levels for Olympic sailing competition, equality in gender participation , engagement of less developed countries in the sport of sailing. In many ways it could be seen as one of the most successful of the Olympic classes.

Yes but in Australia the RSX is a disaster at least in WA. Not sure how it is going in the Eastern States but I see the LT as much better over here. Just my perspective.

You are correct, be careful what you wish for.

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AUS 814 said..
LT rig is way to small to be considered as an olympic class, surely a twin cam 7.8 similar to bic techno rig woud be more appealing and fun

I don't think to many people can sail 9 course races , free style , double elimination slalom and a marathon in 4 days using a two cam 7.8 m sail .

The 5.7 m2 ( probably 6.0 m2 really as it was described in the 1980s) LT sail is powerful and can be rigged very full for power. Speed is relative and a kitefoiler will beat an RSX and most other craft but that does not make the LT not a good Olympic class. I think the LT is much much cheaper than the RSX and will be more accessible to more nations than the RSX. I expect Australia will do much better in the LT in Olympic competition as well.

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windsufering said..

AUS 814 said..
LT rig is way to small to be considered as an olympic class, surely a twin cam 7.8 similar to bic techno rig woud be more appealing and fun

I don't think to many people can sail 9 course races , free style , double elimination slalom and a marathon in 4 days using a two cam 7.8 m sail .

You can use a harness

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AUS 814 said..

windsufering said..

AUS 814 said..
LT rig is way to small to be considered as an olympic class, surely a twin cam 7.8 similar to bic techno rig woud be more appealing and fun

I don't think to many people can sail 9 course races , free style , double elimination slalom and a marathon in 4 days using a two cam 7.8 m sail .

You can use a harness

Yes and wallys don't bang corners

World sailing can make some strange decisions. Look at the laser (now changed name legally) is one of the most popular boats with so many local fleets everywhere. That's being replaced by a newer design.
The RSX isn't the perfect board but established and you can still get a result in light winds like the Chinese Olympics, ok gold for us kiwis.
Talking of kiwis, Bruce Kendall designed Glide class looks promising to cover youth and adults.
Windsurf Foiling will happen in the Olympics as the lower wind and overall range improves and think of another 4 years improvement in design.
I understand the new windsurfer is a better board and becoming more popular in Oz but the sail! I think it needed to take a clue from Kona one has different sized sails for weight groups.

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515 said..
World sailing can make some strange decisions. Look at the laser (now changed name legally) is one of the most popular boats with so many local fleets everywhere. That's being replaced by a newer design.
The RSX isn't the perfect board but established and you can still get a result in light winds like the Chinese Olympics, ok gold for us kiwis.
Talking of kiwis, Bruce Kendall designed Glide class looks promising to cover youth and adults.
Windsurf Foiling will happen in the Olympics as the lower wind and overall range improves and think of another 4 years improvement in design.
I understand the new windsurfer is a better board and becoming more popular in Oz but the sail! I think it needed to take a clue from Kona one has different sized sails for weight groups.

There are no Kona here in WA. Kona does not appear popular here in Australia unless there are fleets in the East. The Kona worlds gets nothing like the number of entrants and boards at the LT worlds. One sail with weight divisions sorts it out. Foiling needs some time to mature before it makes the Olympics.

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515 said..
World sailing can make some strange decisions. Look at the laser (now changed name legally) is one of the most popular boats with so many local fleets everywhere. That's being replaced by a newer design.
The RSX isn't the perfect board but established and you can still get a result in light winds like the Chinese Olympics, ok gold for us kiwis.
Talking of kiwis, Bruce Kendall designed Glide class looks promising to cover youth and adults.
Windsurf Foiling will happen in the Olympics as the lower wind and overall range improves and think of another 4 years improvement in design.
I understand the new windsurfer is a better board and becoming more popular in Oz but the sail! I think it needed to take a clue from Kona one has different sized sails for weight groups.

Not just in Aust, world wide . With over 100 entrants in the Aust Lt Nationals i I don't think they need to change !
The Lt has bigger fleet sizes than the Kona, I think Kona should take a clue from the Lt !
The Glide is not a international class.

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windsufering said..
Hopefully the council will come to their senses and vote for the Windsurfer Lt

When you convince Froome to race on this:


and Usain Bolt to run 100m on sand track
Ill vote for Windsurfer Lt (not that RSX is much more exciting but still...)

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Rob11 said..

windsufering said..
Hopefully the council will come to their senses and vote for the Windsurfer Lt

When you convince Froome to race on this:


and Usain Bolt to run 100m on sand track
Ill vote for Windsurfer Lt (not that RSX is much more exciting but still...)

If that what gets more people on the start line , why not !
interesting track hasn't changed much over the years.

I understand the strong support for windsurfer LT on seabreeze
There have been a few changes to the original Original windsurfer from teak booms, dacron sails and dagger boards.
I bumped into a dude that we completed in raceboard years ago. He was into Kona one and had been to the worlds and done ok overall but awesome in age group. One of the comments was how the top racers were all different weight divisions as they had different sized sails which took away weight advantage or disadvantages depending on wind.
Peace out

Windsurfer LT is just a Hugh step backwards. If you want to use 80's kit there's plenty of it laying unwanted in sheds why start making more.

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cammd said..

RichardG said..
The Windsurfer LT is probably the fastest growing sailing class in Australia. It makes sense for the LT to replace the RSX which is a dying class. Put the RSX out of its misery which is a like a fish dying slowly gasping for air on the harbour wall. Its time !

333 competitors at the RSX Europeans in April, not sure that's as a sign of a dying class. In fact Richard if you look at the stats you will see RSX class has delivered on many levels for Olympic sailing competition, equality in gender participation , engagement of less developed countries in the sport of sailing. In many ways it could be seen as one of the most successful of the Olympic classes.

Yep, well said. I've never been a huge fan of the RSX concept but it's still getting pretty damn good numbers. The LT and SA would cop an absolute wall of abuse from various quarters if the LT was selected. Having been in classes that have been selected for the Games and classes that have been dumped, I'm quite happy with the LT being well out of the Five Ring Circus.

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CJW said..

RichardG said..
The Windsurfer LT is probably the fastest growing sailing class in Australia. It makes sense for the LT to replace the RSX which is a dying class. Put the RSX out of its misery which is a like a fish dying slowly gasping for air on the harbour wall. Its time !

What's the average age of these sailors?

Last time I checked I think it was 38 years, which is low for windsurfing. 25% of the fleet was under 18 that year.

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AUS 814 said..
LT rig is way to small to be considered as an olympic class, surely a twin cam 7.8 similar to bic techno rig woud be more appealing and fun

I wouldn't want to see the LT in the Games but the Laser Radial has the same size rig and it's the third most popular Olympic class (in terms of people in the ranking list) and I think the most popular in terms of overall class size. So there may be a lesson to be learned there!

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Rob11 said..

windsufering said..
Hopefully the council will come to their senses and vote for the Windsurfer Lt

When you convince Froome to race on this:


and Usain Bolt to run 100m on sand track
Ill vote for Windsurfer Lt (not that RSX is much more exciting but still...)

Actually, the LT is actually probably closer in performance to the fastest windsurfer than Froome's bike is to the fastest bicycles. Froome's bike is about half the speed, or a bit less, of the fastest bicycle. The Olympic track bikes are slower still. The cycling historian and multiple British champion Michael Henderson actually rode the actual bike that set the hour record in 1893 and said it actually felt eerily like his own high-tech machine on the track.

I don't want the LT in the Games but the fact is that much Olympic kit is heavily restricted. And track hasn't changed too much in its basics yet it's the top-rated sport in the Olympics. If new stuff was better in the Olympics then MTB would probably be the top sport in the Games, and it's certainly not.

PS - there's lots of young adults out there who love simple old steel bikes and have no interest in windsurfing. Maybe we should learn the lessons from that?

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Ben1973 said..
Windsurfer LT is just a Hugh step backwards. If you want to use 80's kit there's plenty of it laying unwanted in sheds why start making more.

Step backwards in what way? Sure, it hasn't got a great top speed but the LT will be sailing around when most modern kit is sitting on a rack, so you can't compare the two. It's like comparing a downhill MTB to a road bike or CX bike; they are different things for different uses.

It's funny to see the way sports that are doing badly often insult old gear. Computer games are doing really well, and their designers revere old games and try to work out what made them so good. Maybe we should dump the old '80s way of putting **** on old gear, and adopt the modern way of respecting it. It works for computer games!