Seppos tanked!*
Mitch Booth, the master of mind games, has produced the master stroke in his Tornado campaign and probably destroyed the chances of the United States sailors who were his training partners. Booth, who was the progenitor of the Code Zero movement in the class, made the last minute decision to use the conventional gennaker instead.
'Dutch training partners USA trialling their upwind gennaker.'
Troels Lykke
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The Australian who became a Dutch citizen after a disagreement with fellow Tornado sailors in Sydney, measured in both his controversial upwind Code Zero sail and a normal downwind gennaker. He had to make his final decision as to which of them to use by 1800 local time on Thursday. 
'It has always been a weather dependent call,' said Booth shortly after informing the authorities that he would be using the normal downwind sail. He based his decision on the predicted weather for the forthcoming three days in which there should be six races for the Tornado class. He believes that it will blow in excess of 12 knots, which is above the optimum upper limit for the smaller, upwind sail.
His move has probably destroyed the campaign of the United States pair, John Lovell and Charlie Ogletree, with whom he had shared his development plans. The Americans measured in two of the smaller, upwind sails and are thus trapped into using one of them. It was a brave call by Lovell and Ogletree, but one they might well regret.
Others who experimented with the upwind gennaker included the Australian pairing of Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby, the current world champions, who were the last to face the measurers. 'We decided its too high a risk strategy,' declared Bundock, 'we have other methods of dealing with light weather.'
The Australian skipper then revealed that since the Tornado world championship was held at Auckland in February, crewman Ashby, who worked on the controversial sail design, has lost 10kg. Ashby observed: 'The American team had a better, faster gennaker than the Dutch, anyway.'
Be that as it may, the unlikely and accidental alliance by two former Australian rivals, who have a few Olympic medals between them, has effectively torpedoed the American campaign this time. Yanks tanked!
*The Australians have adopted the Cockney rhyming slang and use it for humorous abuse. In this case 'Seppos' is derived from Yanks rhyming with Septic Tanks.
by Bob Fisher 
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NORTH CURL CURL, NSW
