I'll add a couple of points.
For the Olympic Sailing for the Sydney 2000, you did not have to be perched high on a ferries. Depending on which course the boats were on the boats were very visible from the shore. All but one course was inside the harbour and were visible from the normal spectator vantage points people watch the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race start from or the 18' skiffs, Sydney Harbour is a bit of a natural amphitheater.
For example the 470's finals (mens & women's) were held between Clark Island and Nielson Park. I watched with several thousand, from Bradley Head (a low headland), the boats were coming within 10m of the shoreline, both upwind & downwind. There is quite a big advantage of almost hitting the rocks here from years of sailing on this section of the harbour, you go inside the line of the old stone wharf & new lighthouse. The Ynglings on another day I had the opportunity to watch were 100m off Cremorne Point. And for their finals, the bottom mark was 50m off the Opera House Steps. All of these were free venues.
Julian Bethwhaite is not of Performance Sailcraft Australia. He runs his own business designing and supplying boats including the 29'er and 49'er. Yes he has been heavily involved with the design of a few new rigs, but I believe this started off initially independent of Chris Caldecott and PSA. IMO. it's actually been 'modus operandi' for both Frank & Julian Bethwhaite to see a potential market in a class and move in to take a slice. The Tasar is a development of relatively open design class called the NS14 (Northbridge Senior) which Frank sailed and designed his own boats, before basically producing a mass production version of it. Ditto, Julian did the same with the 18' Skiff (B18 from memory) which lead to the B14, 29'er & 49'er classes.
[quote}The only problem with his assertion is, he promoted it in a very exclusive part of the country where there are 10 times as many Porsche’s and top of the range Audi’s than there are Kia’s or Daewoo’s. [/quote]
Let's have a look at this. Firstly, GM Daewoo's haven't been sold under the Daewoo brand for well over a decade. They were re-branded as GM Holdens (the Australian arm of GM). However GM is pulling out of Australia as they no longer intend to make right hand drive vehicles anywhere in the world. The equivalent brand is Hyundai. Last year's car sales for Hyundai (86,000) top 3 car brands for the last 4 years), Kia (61,000) (top 10 brand for the last 3 years) Audi 15,000 (16th), Porsche 4,000 (25th). Another source which didn't give the numbers for Hyundai, indicated that there were 36K Porsches on the road, 177K Audis, and 333K Kias (noting that Kia has been a relatively small brand here as they have been re-badged as Fords for two decades. Sorry but I'm not sure which very exclusive part of the country he might be referring to, but unless he's specifically talking about few suburbs in Sydney, I doubt that there would be 10 times the number of Kia's or Hyundai and it's doesn't appear that at the sailing regattas.
Construction of the Australian boats.
My understanding is the manufacturers have always been encouraged to do limited development which do not impact on performance, anyone complaining about the mast steps ripping out anymore? This development has always been discussed with the Technical Committee and other builders and if deemed a good idea, adopted by all the builders. The so called stiffness of the Australian hulls is a non issue IMO. The extra glass is not going to impact on the stiffness of a hull under 12 months old, but it will make a difference on a hull 5-10 years down the track when a heavily used hull will start to deteriorate. Is it good that someone who in 20 years time has a boat as stiff as a new boat? I think so, it keeps old boats competitive. I can see why LPE wan't to stop it, it means more sales because of inbuilt obsolesce (probably why they are keen of aluminium sections as well).
It could be claimed that the Australian boats have been optimised, possibly. Are they all built within tolerance, from my understanding, yes they are. Basically what all this is about is that the Australian boats were built on tighter tolerances. If the manual indicated +/- 2.0kg, the Australian boats were built +/- 0.5kg. It meant that there were less dogs of boats out there. Throw in half a dozen major variables (mast rake, verticalness of centreboard/rudder, throw in the warped boards we used to get from Crompton etc. Basically the boats were more consistent anyone could get a good boat and not have to go to the factory and hand pick a boat.
Someone with more time than me and more interest can waste there time arguing the points mentioned.
There are plenty of inaccuracies, misunderstandings and errors (by the original writer, that is), but that doesn't hurt most of the historical parts of the writing. I can totally identify with Mr Gluck, remembering how super-modern a Laser looked when seeing one for the first time in 1973 or '74. (And I think it still does - the design has aged remarkably well.) Many "new" pieces of information are interesting, such as the technical problems of Irish-built boats back in the day.
(And take quite some time.) If you absolutely want it, of course I can still do it.
