Evaluating boats for Paris 2024 Olympics

Sea Trials for the selection of Equipment for the Paris 2024 Olympic Sailing Competition Men’s and Women’s One Person Dinghy Events is being held March 11 to 15 in Valencia, Spain.

Real Club Náutico de Valencia is hosting an Evaluation Panel and sailors for the sea-trials in which sailors will sail and test the four boats shortlisted during the Re-evaluation procedure. These include:

• D-Zero, presented by Devotti Sailing s.r.o.
• Laser Standard and Laser Radial sailboat, presented by ILCA.
• Melges 14, presented by Melges Boat Works Inc., NELO and Mackay Boats Ltd.
• RS Aero, presented by RS Sailing.

The Laser was chosen as the equipment when the One Person Dinghy event was introduced at the 1996 Olympics as an open competition, later shifting to a men’s event when the Laser Radial was chosen as the equipment for the women’s event when introduced at the 2008 Olympics. The Sea Trials are to help determine whether the Laser and Laser Radial will continue as the selected equipment.

Sailors from nine nations are in Valencia, testing the boats. World Sailing invited Member National Authorities to put forward male sailors with a weight range of 75kg to 90kg and female sailors in the 55kg to 70kg weight range.

Sailors at the sea-trials include:

Ash Brunning (AUS)
Guillaume Boisard (FRA)
Pavlos Kontides (CYP)
Stepan Novotny (CZE)
Christian G. Rost (DEN)
Ben Childerley (GBR)
Anna Munch (DEN)
Sarah McGovern (GBR)
Fatima Reyes (ESP)
Tania Elias Calles (MEX)
Mafalda Pires de Lima (POR)

Sailors will sail the boats on a daily basis, testing them in a variety of conditions in Valencia, providing the Evaluation Panel with feedback on items such as performance.

Representatives from each boat will also be invited to present to the Evaluation Panel on universality, measurement, quality control, and cost.

Following the Sea-trial phase, World Sailing’s Council will select the Equipment in 2019.

About the Equipment Selection Process
World Sailing launched the tender process in May 2018 which invited Class Associations and Manufacturers to tender for the Men’s and Women’s One Person Dinghy following World Sailing’s Olympic Re-evaluation Policy, detailed in Regulation 23.6 and approved by World Sailing’s Council at the 2017 Annual Conference in Mexico.

Click here to view the tender document.

World Sailing received eight compliant bids and the D-Zero, Laser Standard and Laser Radial, Melges 14 and RS Aero were shortlisted as being those who closely mirror the technical criteria for the event – easy to sail, shared hull dinghy monohull with different rig sizes for male, female and youth sailors.

Following shortlisting, in Phase 2, World Sailing undertook site visits to the manufacturers to confirm the submitted information, after which an improved bid was requested from each of them to address the supply of equipment to major events, the accessibility to the market by new builders and the standardization of equipment amongst different builders.

The Board’s Re-evaluation Working Party reviewed the bids and recommended to World Sailing’s Board of Directors that World Sailing should proceed to select new equipment with the additional recommendation that the existing equipment (Laser/ILCA) is included as a full option in the process. The recommendation was approved at World Sailing’s 2018 Annual Conference. Click here to view the Re-Evaluation Board recommendation to Council.

Source: World Sailing