World Sailing Discusses Equipment and Safety

London, England (May 13, 2018) – The Equipment Committee met today at World Sailing’s 2018 Mid-Year Meeting which is being held at Chelsea Football Club in London, Great Britain. Discussions ranged from class associations applications, safety reporting as well as Paris 2024 Events and Equipment.

Paris 2024 Olympic Events and Equipment

The Committee noted the submissions related to the Paris 2024 Events that were debated by the Events Committee the day prior. Read a recap on their meeting here. They discussed criteria that could be used where new Equipment is required.

World Sailing’s Council will vote on the Events that will be adopted for Paris 2024 when they meet on May 14 and 15. If any new Events are selected, the Equipment Committee will review the Equipment for the Events. Evaluation events will be held in 2019 ahead of a final decision by November 2019.

As part of a separate equipment re-evaluation process, World Sailing is reviewing the equipment used for the Men and Women’s One Person Dinghy Events. Should the Men’s and Women’s Windsurfer Events and Equipment be retained, World Sailing will also re-evaluate the Equipment.

The purpose of a re-evaluation is to ensure there is fair and open competition at regular intervals for the equipment for an Olympic Event. This ensures that sailors, Member National Authorities and Olympic teams are receiving a high-quality service and products from manufacturers at competitive prices.

The Equipment Committee reviewed and approved the Olympic Equipment re-evaluation procedure which can be viewed here. World Sailing’s Council will approve the procedure on Monday and Tuesday.

Safety Reporting Portal

As sailing evolves and develops, the risks in the sport are increasing and World Sailing are taking positive steps to protect the sailors and reduce the risks.

At the 2017 Annual Conference, a safety framework was presented which included the creation of a Safety Panel and an incident reporting web portal. The incident reporting web portal is available here.

The purpose of this is to ensure MNAs, Classes and Rating systems report relevant information regarding incidents occurring in training or racing, in order to share best practice and raise awareness of increasing safety concerns.

The Equipment Committee will recommend to Council that they approve Submission M01-18 which adds a new Regulation 38 to ensure MNAs, Classes and Rating Systems report any incidents they are aware, that fits a set criteria, within 30 days. Click here to view Submission M01-18.

From there, the Safety Panel will assess each reported incident. Depending on the seriousness of the incident, they will make a decision on the next steps and whether to investigate further.

The end goal is to reduce the incidents in the sport and increase awareness of best practice. The next step is for World Sailing Committees to make their recommendations by mid-January to refine the framework.

Class Associations Application

At the 2017 Annual Conference, World Sailing received Class Status applications from the Nacra 15 Class and the Diam 24 Class. These were deferred to the Mid-Year meeting.

The worldwide distribution list from both classes was presented today and the Equipment Committee approved the Nacra 15 and deferred the Diam 24 to the 2018 Annual Conference. Council will ratify the decision over the next two days.

Source: World Sailing