New Reporting System to Improve Safety

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 World Sailing’s 2018 Mid-Year Meeting in London, Great Britain, World Sailing’s Council approved the addition of Regulation 38. This new regulation requests that Member National Authorities, Classes, and Rating Systems report any safety related incident within 30 days of becoming aware of such incident or when it occurs at an event using the Racing Rules of Sailing.

An incident is defined as, “an unexpected event resulting in death or injury to a person or an unexpected event that, in the opinion of the bodies listed in Regulation 38.1, is hazardous in nature and has the potential to harm a person or property.”

The purpose of the regulation 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 mandatory reporting is in effect immediately and World Sailing now requests that MNAs, Classes, and Rating Systems cascade the information amongst their organizations in order to create a safety reporting and awareness culture within their structure.

A Safety Panel made up of World Sailing’s CEO, Director of Legal, Director of Events, Director of Technical and Offshore, and the Technical and Offshore Manager 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.

This is the last step of the process initiated in the 2017 Annual Conference which aims to share best practice amongst Classes, Rating Systems, and MNAs, as well as feeding the industry accurate information for the development of standards, future products and designs.

To see the incident reporting portal… click here.

Source: World Sailing