Sailmaker’s log

Olympic sailing monopolies, part 1

Finn, Olympic sailing, Racing, Sail designBy wbsails

Six of the current eight Olympic classes are “single manufacturer one-designs”, in practice monopolies of their rightsholders. Only two classes, the Finn and the 470 are measurement controlled one-designs, open for anyone to build and sell, as long as they comply with the rules.

Olympic sailing monopolies, part 2

Finn, Olympic sailing, Racing, Sail designBy wbsails

In part 1, we looked at the two different one-design approaches, single manufacturer one-design SMOD and the measurement controlled MCOD. In this part 2 we look at how the opening of single manufacturer classes could be conducted, with benefits to the sailors in mind.