Class Politics Canada top Laser nation!!

RobKoci

New Member
Well, maybe. Not exactly, but I looked at the current ISAF rankings and Canada has more sailors ranking 100 or better than any other country. It leads with 11, USA has 10, Great Britian counts eight and Australia have five.

Not bad for a country with 10 months of ice, and 2 months of slush.
 
RobKoci said:
Not bad for a country with 10 months of ice, and 2 months of slush.

Yeah, but don't all the sailing Canadians live in Florida (the 14th province) during the Winter?

:D

I think putting two sailors in the top ten is pretty remarkable too!

And don't forget about the Radial side where North America is really dominating.
 
Amen, no offense to snow birds you guys are a real pain in the butt. And it isnt personal its more to the whole group.
 
RobKoci said:
Well, maybe. Not exactly, but I looked at the current ISAF rankings and Canada has more sailors ranking 100 or better than any other country. It leads with 11, USA has 10, Great Britian counts eight and Australia have five.

Not bad for a country with 10 months of ice, and 2 months of slush.

Congrats to Canada with its great Lasering performance!

From,
A Snow Bird
 
Ummm, exactly how accurate is a ranking scheme where the world champion is ranked 45th?

In terms of placings in the worlds, let's see who's on top.

Open Big rigs - Australia 1st. Australia 2nd. Canada 4th and 11th. GBR's best 8th. USA's best 44th. It seems hard to put Canada, UK and USA ahead on those results.

Women's Radials - 1st China, 2nd Germany, 3rd Mexico, 4th USA, 5th BElgium, 6th France, 7th Sweden, 8th France, 9 Poland, 10 Australia, top Brit 12th, top Canadian 26th. It seems hard to put Canada, UK and USA ahead on those results.

Men's Radials - 1st Brazil, 2nd Netherlands, 3rd Netherlands, 4th GBR, then IRL, NZL, SIngapore, Australia, Canada, USA top 18th. So Canada did well there, but USA?

Masters - Big rig apprentice - 1st Australia

Open Radials -
 
Ummmm, since when did a country that has zero world champs (Canada) achieve top country status?

Big rig worlds - Australia 1 and 2. Canada 4, GBR 7 and 8, USA 44.

Radial Women's Worlds - 1st China, 2nd Germany, 3rd Mexico, 4th USA, 10th Australia, 12th GBR, 26h Canada.

Radial Men- 1 BRazil, 2 and 3 Netherlands, 4 UK, 8 Australia, 9 Canada, 18 USA.

Youth Worlds - Boys Laser - Canada 1, USA 5, GBR 11, Australia 19

Girls Radial - 5 Australia, 8 Canada, 9 GBR, 24 USA.

Big Rig Apprentice - Australia 1
Big Rig Masters - USA 1
Big Rig Grand Masters - USA 1 (good year for the USA)

Radial Apprentice - GBR 1
Radial Masters - Australia 1
Radial Female - Australia 1
Radial Grand Masters - GBR 1
Radial Great Grand Masters - USA 1

4.7 Boys - Aust 32nd; UK 69th; No USA or Canada.

4.7 Girls - GBR 12th and 16th; no Aussies, Canadians or Americans.

So Aust gets 4 world titles (including 1 and 2 in the Open men, and cleans up CAN and GBR in the WOmens Radial); USA gets 3 (all Masters); and Canada gets one.

Canada has done well for a cold country, but since the top Canadians only beat the top Aussies in a single one of the 15 world titles in Lasers, AND Australia took four world crowns to Canada's one, it seems hard to see how Canada is actually number one.

Last time I looked, you didn't get to be top of the world by being beaten 13 out of 14 times. :)

(Ex Canadian resident HECS)
 
It could be said that the top Aussies beat the top Canadians in 12 out of 15 Laser world titles (including the Olympic classes) while the top Canadian beat the top Aussie in just one world title.

Australia got 4 worlds, USA 1, Canada 1. You could say that any ranking system that puts the open world champ in 44th spot is a bit suspect.

Still, the Canadian effort is a good one for a place that I know all too well is damn cold!
 
It could be said that the top Aussies beat the top Canadians in 12 out of 15 Laser world titles (including the Olympic classes) while the top Canadian beat the top Aussie in just one world title.

Australia got 4 worlds, USA 3, Canada 1. You could say that any ranking system that puts the open world champ in 44th spot is a bit suspect.

Still, the Canadian effort is a good one for a place that I know all too well is damn cold!
 
Ahh. My joy is shortlived. I knew it was just a matter of time before someone did this!!

There are lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics. Viva Australia!

RK
 
Whoops, sorry for all the repeated posts - the forum was acting strangely.

And congrats again to Canada
 
Dear HECKS
It is very easy to see how Canada is the top laser sailing country. I shall compare it to a regatta. You see in a regatta, if you come 1st in 4 out of 6 races and get a midfleet finsish you will loose to someone who is consitant and gets a couple 2nds and 3rds. That is why Canada is ranked he highest on the list.
 
Look at it another way - Australia beat Canada in 12 out of 15 events, Canada beat Australia in 1 out of 15 events (in the remainder one or neither competed).

If you can show me a regatta where you will beat someone 12 times and get beaten once, and then finish up behind, I'll be amazed.

Most of the top-ranked events are in the northern hemisphere, just a few hours from Canada, so it's much easier for Canadian sailors to do well in the rankings. The fact is that we are a small country a long way away from most of the world, and the rankings reward people who do a lot of regattas. We tend to concentrate on trying to win the big ones.

If the rankings were an accurate indicator of the performance of a sailor, then the world champion would not be ranked 44th. Do you really think that the current world champion (who also has a 2nd and a couple of 3rds to his name) is only the 44th best Laser sailor? Obviously that is not the case, so obviously the rankings are not an accurate measure of performance. Michael only did 5 ranking regattas in the last year, that's the reason he ranks below the people he beat in the worlds.

It's similar in the 470s - our top crew have gone 1st, 1st, 2nd in the last three worlds, yet are barely in the top 20 in the rankings. In the women's RSX, the world champ is ranked 47th.
 
Heckie Poo...
Laser sailing is a singlehanded sport. What matters is NOT what other guys can do. We can all read about the accomplishments of other sailors.

Nobody gives a rats hiney about your worship of all the other sailors who you are not. In fact we don't really care don't care about the accomplishments of all the other Canada sailors or other US sailors who we are not.

The real question dear Heckie Poo is whether you can figure out which end of your craft is the pointy end and having surmised that, where to aim it.

The other competitors cannot accomplish earning of respect for Heckie Poo. You must do that yourself.
Step away from the keyboard and try the game yourself.

You will not be beating any Canadians any time soon.


Fact is...I am 100% certain with no doubt period that any Canadian who still breathes regular breaths can kick your ass any day of the week on a Laser!...

Me too, and I am not even in the top five in my home club.

But if you want to get your jollies by bragging about everybody else ...Keep up the postings. You can read them over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over....
 
And a quick reminder - I reckon the Canadian effort was damn fine, and hey, without Canada we wouldn't even have the Laser!

And I'm sorry for saying Canada didn't win a worlds when they won the Youth worlds which is a very significant regatta.
 
Onya HECS! Great posting mate. Thanks for pointing out the facts. Don't listen to that finger pointing, rasberry blowing Poovernail.

If more people celebrated their national sailing champions we would all enjoy a rise in the status and profile of our sport. I would personally like to see Michael Blackburn get front page of the Sydney Morning Herald, alas he didn't even make the cover of Australian Sailing.

One thing I love about sailing is that it is a truly international sport, so there should be more of these kind of threads.
 
Just yanking the HECKS chain.

yanking...get it

Yanking

On a per person basis...You must give the Aussies credit.
On the other hand, in Canada there are 362 days per year when it is too cold to sail. On the other three days is it almost too cold on the first day the ice melts but the fanatics sail anyway. Then there is the one sailable day and then thre is one more day before the lakes freeze back over.

On a per sailable day basis and per person basis, the Canadians rock.

http://www.statcan.ca/english/edu/clock/population.htm

http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/[email protected]/0/1647509ef7e25faaca2568a900154b63?OpenDocument
 
i would like to point out that michael blackburn from austrailia is ranked 44th because he did take a break from laser sailing. after the 04 olympics he said he was done but it turns out he changed his mind. he won a bronze in athens so its no surpise he is able to win the worlds. the world ranking system makes more sence to look at because it shows a sence of conistancy. people are ranked high if they often rank high in a event. the worlds is a very major event but just because certain people or if you must contries do well it does not mean that overall they are ranked that way. people do have good events and people do have bad events. the isaf ranking is the only real system you can look at to determin success.

on another note the canadian sailors have been doing lots of training in florida and over in europe when its not possible to train in canada.
 
gouvernail said:
Heckie Poo...
Laser sailing is a singlehanded sport. What matters is NOT what other guys can do. We can all read about the accomplishments of other sailors.

Nobody gives a rats hiney about your worship of all the other sailors who you are not. In fact we don't really care don't care about the accomplishments of all the other Canada sailors or other US sailors who we are not.

The real question dear Heckie Poo is whether you can figure out which end of your craft is the pointy end and having surmised that, where to aim it.

The other competitors cannot accomplish earning of respect for Heckie Poo. You must do that yourself.
Step away from the keyboard and try the game yourself.

You will not be beating any Canadians any time soon.


Fact is...I am 100% certain with no doubt period that any Canadian who still breathes regular breaths can kick your ass any day of the week on a Laser!...

Me too, and I am not even in the top five in my home club.

But if you want to get your jollies by bragging about everybody else ...Keep up the postings. You can read them over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over....

Errr Gouvernail, why are you slinging crap at me for bragging about others, when the whole thread was started by someone else saying how good their own country was? I've already apologised for the repeated posts and I have repeatedly said that Canada's effort is excellent.

As for whether I know which end of a Laser is pointy - winning the district champs Open (ahead of the guy who was 4th in the world) and Masters (ahead of the 3 time world champ) and placing top 10 nationally with the first six months in the class wasn't too bad.
 
didn't realize what I was starting. I started this thread to herald an accomplishment I was proud of, and mud-slinging ensues! I for one agree with Rock Steady. We need to be nationally minded and proud of our sailors to raise awareness of this sport. I was around when you could read about the Canada's Cup and the America's Cup in the sports pages in Toronto. You would even get the occasional mention of a sailing medal at the Olympics! Now, even though we have world class sailing athletes here, there is no public expression of support or interest. The fleets are WAY smaller than when I first raced Lasers in 1970, and the number of good dingy fleets (Fireballs, Fins, Wayfarers) is down to two; Lasers and Albacores. I don't know why we have lost so much ground, but what a shame for such a beautiful sport to be loosing its way here.
 
speakin of olympics does anyone know what the qualifiers for the us trials will be- id imagine it be something like top 15 in us champs, na's, pcc's, and then a last chance event???
 

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