WELCOME
Roland Gaebler, the ITA President, has some great and exciting news for all the Tornado sailors. It's a great and reassuring start to have the new ITA Committee continuing the work started by the previous Committee to get our Olympic status back. As Roland said "we have already started working on ideas and strategies on how we can challenge and overturn the current situation". Check the news on various fronts:
INTERNATIONAL RACE CALENDAR
First of all we want to have fun with our boats and a good international race calendar. We will be shifting and modifying some races in order to concentrate on quality rather than quantity. No more overlapping of Championships in Europe. We already have some good moves happening. But we need YOUR update regularly. We need dates, locations and website addresses from races you have in your country. You can send us the information or put it directly on the new Tornado Class Website. We would like to be informed about races which are open to the Multihulls. It would be great to see the Tornado sailors competing more in Open Cat Races like Round Texel, Heineken Aruba Race and other Races and Raids. Soon we will put all races for 2010 on the Website. In the next Newsletter you will be able to see the dates for 2010. Bring on the races!!
EUROPEAN SAILING GRAND PRIX
The plan is to have an European Race Series with the very "best of" Tornado Regattas which provides spectators and media friendly racing. We call it "European Sailing Grand Prix". Most of us remember the Volvo Champions Race. We want to create a similar concept in Europe. We have already prospective venues in Germany, Switzerland and Austria for 2010. We hope to expand the series to other countries in 2011. We will use existing races for this GP Series and do a little fine tuning on course layouts and mediawork. Earlier this year we had the German Open in Hamburg with 4 TV Stations broadcasting the action the Tornados showed in the middle of the city. We want to take this spectacular high-speed racing to other places in Europe. If you have any suggestions of good places, being it a spectator friendly race area, please let us know. In order to give the teams and the event sponsors good mileage we need to guarantee them a good media outcome. Our plan is to make deals with TV Channels. The ITA, the National Tornado Associations and the Clubs will work together to give the best media results and one of the best return on investment in the sailing business. The aim is to provide in advance to each single Tornado Team - and their sponsors - guaranteed good results in the media.
WORLD AND EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP
The World Championship 2010 is in Travemünde from the 23th to 29th of July. The European Championship is in Lake Neusiedl (SE of Vienna) in Austria from the 07th to 11th June. Before or after the Championships, you will get one or two more regattas. So if you are taking a long travel, you will get a high quality program in the timeframe around the main events.
CHARTER BOATS & BOATS FOR SALE
Please inform us what you have for sale or charter. There are teams around the world who are searching for them for the championships. We also want to know about used boat parts. The Russian Tornado fleet is looking already for used parts. Please put your offers on the website classifieds section.
ONE DESIGN SAILS
We would like to make a ballot before February 2010. There are pros and cons for One Design Sails. The Forum on www.tornado-class.org is hot on the topic. Go and have your say! It's important to hear all sides!!
Some of the mentioned Pros and Cons below:
- No more advantage for Professionals who have their own sail designs. All sailors have the same sail material to win races.
- Knowledge transfer between the sailors of all levels. The top-secrets are over.
- Tuning guide on the website for all sailors. Easy to understand and easy to use.
- No more expensive sail develop programs for Olympic sailors.
- No more extreme sails designs for light or heavy wind locations.
- No more surprises we had with Code Zero sails at the China Olympics.
- Better quality of Sails. Because we use long lasting sailcloth. No more ultra light sailcloth.
- We will use proven all round Sail Designs (from World- and Olympic Champions) which are made for medium weight teams.
- Price for a whole set will be 30% less than the price we have now.
- The quality of the Sail should allow 3-4 years of racing and additional years for cruising.
- The Sail should deliver optimum racing performance for 2 years.
The idea is to have One Set of Battens plus extra Battens for the Top 4. If the ballot is successful. The One Design Sails are made from March 2010 on. They must be used for the World- and European Championship 2011. Old Sails can be used for all other races in the future. So there is a long over lapping time to use your old sails or the new One Design Sails.
The disadvantage is that sail development will cease and there will no longer be the continual improvement with new technology. But after the first 4-year period with the One Designs Sails, we can re-design the sails, if there is any major change in material availability, costs or design.
NEW WEBSITE
Thanks to Andrew Dowley the new Tornado Website www.tornado-class.org is a hit! And in order to make it even better we need your reports, your pictures, and your stories. Don't be shy, send them!!
NATIONAL TORNADO ASSOCIATIONS
We need ALL the addresses and email from ALL Tornado sailors around the world. Let's keep our mailing list updated and all the sailors informed on what's going on. Send them to secretary@tornado-class.org along with your class association websites.
Latest News & Links
On The Wire
Octobers monthly 'On The Wire' feature was an interview with World Champion Darren Bundock
Novembers 'On The Wire' feature will be a tuning guide by Glenn Ashby, keep an eye on the website to get all of the tips and tricks!
Tornado Photos
Below are a selection of images from this years World Championships in Italy. Send your photos to info@tornado-class.org to have them featured on the website and in the newsletter.
Sent By You
1.jpg)
