Opening day for 2019 World Sailing Mid-Year Meeting

London, England (May 17, 2019) – World Sailing’s Events Committee met today at the 2019 Mid-Year Meeting, discussing a wide range of topics from Paris 2024 Olympic Equipment, Events Strategy, and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

With the schedule from May 17 to 19 at Chelsea Football Club, here’s an audio and main screen feed of the today’s session to watch:

2021 – 2028 Events Strategy
Ahead of the meeting, an Events Strategy Working Party put forward a recommendation paper to the Events Committee on World Sailing’s opportunity to develop a new strategy for 2021 – 2028.

The strategy focused on the requirements for sailors and that it must add value for all of World Sailing’s stakeholders with the Olympic Games at its heart.

Three key goals were established to promote sailors progression with a clear regatta structure, ensure a stable regatta calendar with a credible ranking system and to see that Olympic level sailing is promoted to a greater audience to drive participation.

Click here for the 2021-2028 World Sailing Event Strategy recommendation paper.

A lengthy debate on the paper was held and the Events Committee endorsed the principles of the paper providing similar levels of World Sailing support were provided to class events, that a definition of, and how to become, a top-ranked regatta is established and how to make the events sustainable and cost efficient.

Competition formats were also touched on and a variety of ideas, from first past to post wins gold to the traditional Medal Race to a top four shoot-out, were presented and discussed. The Events Committee recommended that Class Associations continue to test new formats and ideas and report back.

The paper will go to World Sailing’s Council, the main decision-making body, on Sunday 19 May for further debate before a final decision is made.

Paris 2024
The Events Committee are responsible for recommending changes to World Sailing’s Council on Olympic Events. At the 2018 Mid-Year Meeting and 2018 Annual Conference, lengthy debates were held by the Committee before they made their recommendations.

At the 2018 Annual Conference, the following Events were approved:
Men’s Windsurfer – RS:X*
Women’s Windsurfer – RS:X*
Men’s One Person Dinghy – TBC
Women’s One Person Dinghy – TBC
Mixed Kiteboard – TBC
Mixed Two Person Dinghy – TBC
Women’s Skiff – 49erFX
Men’s Skiff – 49er
Mixed Two Person Multihull – Nacra 17
Mixed Two Person Offshore Keelboat – TBC

*subject to ongoing equipment re-evaluation

Dina Kowalyshyn, Chair of the Equipment Committee, gave the Events Committee an update on the progress the Committee and Evaluation Panels have made on selecting the Equipment.

The Events Committee noted the reports and stressed the importance of universality, youth appeal, media appeal, and costs. The Equipment Committee meeting tomorrow will see the Committee make their recommendations on the Paris 2024 Equipment to Council.

For a full status update, click here.

Youth Events
Cory Sertl, Chair of the Youth Events Sub-committee, presented the overall strategy of sailing in the Youth Olympic Games and the Youth Sailing World Championships.

The youth events provide a pathway to the Olympic Games and elite events as well as developing best practices for the health of the sport and long term participation.

Sertl touched on some of the challenges the youth events have faced in recent times including levels of instability with venue changes, uncertainty of Olympic Equipment and Events and new issues such as gender identification.

The Youth Events Sub-committee is researching these issues in a bid to provide more stability in the future.

Several opportunities around the Youth Sailing World Championships were also identified, notably modernisation of Equipment and boosting the participation of females in the sport.

Reports
Alastair Fox, Director of Events, gave a full update of preparations for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Sailing Competition. Fox touched on the field of play, broadcast operations, current sport issues and the upcoming test event.

Just over one year ago, The Hague, The Netherlands, was awarded the 2022 Sailing World Championships. The event will take place in August 2022 and will include World Championships for Olympic and Para World Sailing classes. In the early stages of its planning, the Events Committee will make recommendations on quotas at the 2019 Annual Conference.

Fox also gave an update on the Hempel World Cup Series, summarising the achievements of the series this season as well as identifying areas of improvement.

World Sailing’s Equipment Committee will meet on Saturday 18 May. Paris 2024 Equipment will be the major talking point of the day and the committee will produce recommendations to Council. For more information on the process, click here.

Source: World Sailing