We've come rather a long way from the Notta notta here but...
Don't get me wrong, the Tornado is in its way a manificent boat, and the arguments for Cats in the Olympic regatta are fully valid. Multihull racing is certainly a discipline in sailing that should have been kept. As a world wide concept I suspect there are many more multihull sailors in the third world than there are sports dinghy sailors and how many countries have an established match racing circuit?
However we now know that The Olympics is a media circus. Sailing has to be sexy, with an opportunity for instant interviews with the vanquished loser in each round and opportunity for that other lotus leaf in the televisual diet, Controversy!
The coverage of a Tornado race will watch one tornado going fast.
Then there is another tornado, going fast.
And another, going...Fast.
Seen one seen 'em all. A fast moving fleet split into long legs, doing a minimal number of tacks as that is when they go slowly.
If the tornado wants to become televisual, they need to perform on a lake like Shearwater.
The people who should now be watching their backs are the Americas Cup boys. The Current AC races have perhaps one exciting event per race. In sports boats at top level there is likely to be non stop action, alot more manouvering and a great deal less predictability, and everyone will realise just how much of a rip off the america's cup is.
I personally think some good aggressive match racing in genuinely matched identical boats will be real fun to watch, especially if a good commentator with good knowledge of the rules (and a way of explaining quickly confidentally and correctly why rules and penalties are being applied) can be found. (A real challenge that one)
Furthermore the cameras will be trained continuously on just Two boats for the whole race. How much revenue will there be to be made from selling the advertising space?
Alot more than a scattered fleet of drag racers.
