Yachting NZ backs cutting Tornado cats from Olympics

Yachting New Zealand has backed a contentious decision by the International Sailing Federation to drop the Tornado catamaran class from the 2012 Olympics.

The number of yachting events at the London Games will be reduced from 11 to 10, and the Isaf council has opted to cut the men's multihull category.

The council's decision at the weekend has been attacked by sailors overseas, who are also unhappy that other classes with greater spectator appeal than existing ones were not introduced.

Voting over which men's events would be sailed in 2012 boiled down to either the multihull or the keelboat (at present the Star class) being cast adrift after next year's Beijing Olympics.

New Zealand won Tornado gold in 1984 and silver in 1988, both through the crew of Rex Sellers and Chris Timms.

But New Zealand's representative voted in favour of retaining the keelboat category ahead of the multihull.

YNZ chief executive Des Brennan said New Zealand at present had greater strength in keelboats than in multihulls.

"Certainly in some countries there are some very unhappy people," he said of the Isaf decision.

"At the end of the day, the multihull classes in New Zealand are a lot less strong than many of the other classes and that's just the way things are at the moment."

Last year, New Zealanders Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams won the Star world championship.

Brennan said Isaf was faced with a number of considerations when deciding what events would be sailed at Weymouth, on the English south coast.

They included broadening the appeal of yachting, increasing participation numbers and keeping costs down.

Sellers' son Brett, himself a Tornado sailor and hoping to make it to next year's Olympics, said he was "pretty disappointed" at the Isaf decision.

"The whole Isaf philosophy is to make sailing more exciting and media friendly," he said.

"I just don't think excluding the Tornado, which is the fastest and most exciting boat, goes along with that."

On the issue of cost, he didn't believe that, once a Tornado had been purchased, it was that much more expensive to run than any other Olympic yacht.

Sellers was hoping to help New Zealand qualify for the Beijing Olympics in the Tornado class at the world championships in Auckland in February.

The last four of 16 spots are up for grabs at the regatta at Takapuna.

- NZPA