PRESIDENT'S REPORTS ON OLYMPIC PROSPECTS
Frank H. Gordon, Executive President (Starlights, 1968)
Two recent developments affecting the Stars as an Olympic class have occurred which lead me to make this report to entire membership. First, at last year's World's in Denmark, at the request of be I.Y.R.U. I submitted to the Annual Meeting the proposal of the I.Y.R.U. that we not hold our World's Championship in the year of each Olympiad. After a spirited debate, the delegates voted to submit to the membership a proposal which would change our Rules and so provide. Early in the fall your Governing Committee decided that, under all the circumstances the request should also be effective in 1968 and accordingly no World's was scheduled for this year. In April I received a letter from the I.Y.R.U. reporting that the International Olympic Committee had been persuaded by the I.Y.R.U. to cancel this requirement.
Accordingly, I immediately convened a special meeting of the available members of the Governing Committee. Each member was given the I.Y.R.U. letter, and we looked for counsel and guidance to Commodore Smart and Vice Commodore De Cardenas, each of whom is concerned in the planning for Acapulco. Telephone calls were also made to San Diego to determine what they could do for us. After a great deal of effort in an attempt to rearrange schedules, it was finally determined that because of shipping and trailing times needed to get to Acapulco, a World's could not be held at San Diego prior to the Olympics.
We all wanted to hold the event if possible, for it would have proven a fine Olympic tuneup. But, not only was the timing bad for contestants, it also would not have been fair to the overwhelming majority of our sailors. Summer schedules were published, District Championship dates fixed, and too much had already been done in too many places to allow such a drastic reversal in plans. The change of policy by the I.O.C. was simply too late for us.
My second subject is less easy to discuss. Many of you have heard that early in May the Class Policy and Organization Committee of the I.Y.R.U. decided in Norway to recommend for consideration by the I.Y.R.U. Permanent Committee at its meeting in November that the Star be replaced by the Tempest and the Dragon be replaced by the Soling in the 1972 Olympic Games. The decision was far from unanimous.
To those of us who consider the Olympic Games as an opportunity to test the skill of athletes rather than their equipment this recommendation does not seem a correct one. It appears to me that the spirit of the Olympics would dictate that the yachts are merely the means by which the sailors compete, and no handicap should be imposed or favor granted because the sailors of one country have regularly sailed some class and the sailors of another have not. This handicap can also impose a severe financial hardship on some of our member nations. This means that the Olympic Yachting Classes should be selected from those regularly sailed under the aegis of a strong class organization in many countries of the world. The Tempest and the Soling do not yet fit that criterion.
I have had the opportunity of observing these two yachts in action and they perform well. The Tempest, under the right conditions for her design, is a lively yacht. I think that to refer to her as a "keel boat" is a misnomer. The Tempest is essentially a planing centerboarder (with fixed board) requiring a trapeze for stability, without the characteristics of hull or on-the-wind performance which naval architects think of as possessed by keel boats. Nevertheless, the I.Y.R.U. could recommend the Tempest to replace the Star or Dragon or 5.5, or the Flying Dutchman, for there is nothing sacrosanct about whether true keel boats are or are not in the Olympics.
I think on the other hand that it is not correct that the I.Y.R.U. should couple its competition, selection, and promotion of a "two-man keel boat" with its separate function of recommending classes for the Olympics. In short, the Olympics should not be used to promote the popularity and sales of a particular yacht; the yachts selected should be well established so that they will promote the Olympics.
Today's Star is a modern, high performance, true keel yacht. She is fast under all conditions, and will plane when properly sailed with a good breeze. She is sensitive and requires acrobatic handling for proper trim. To speak of the Star as a 1911 design is to sacrifice accuracy to sentimentality. The class organization is old; we have the oldest one-design class organization in the world. But, our boat is new and now available in fiberglass as well as wood on an equally competitive basis.
It is interesting to note that a report in the New York Times of May 19th, 1968, spoke of replacing the "Star Class" by the Tempest, 22-foot two man "boat". I do not believe that replacing a well-organized truly international class with a new boat will better international competition. It is imperative that each and every one of us convey to our national representatives by argument and persuasion the contentions I have outlined above. This is not a time for panic or frantic letters or telegrams. It is a time for a strong logical presentation. I believe we are in the right, and that when the facts are considered by the Permanent Committee its decision will be that the Star will be sailed at Kiel in 1972.
Frank H. Gordon Executive President
