Bombs Away on Sailing Governance

When Scuttlebutt HQ received a highly critical letter about World Sailing on September 25, we sought clarity on its purpose. However, with no reply we moved on, but we’ve come to learn this letter meant to highlight an earlier post making demands of the organization, and widely circulated among member nations of World Sailing.

With the 2018 World Sailing Annual Conference to be held October 27 to November 4, World Sailing President Kim Andersen addresses this onslaught of criticism and claims, directing his communication to J. Joesph Bainton who authored the earlier correspondence. Here it is below:

The comments you make in your letter are inaccurate, misleading and are an incorrect reading of our accounts and Constitution. The World Sailing Board is very surprised that a qualified lawyer has made these public statements that are damaging to the reputation of World Sailing and it is our duty to correct them:

1. There is no such entity as “World Sailing Marketing”.

2. World Sailing Limited’s financial year is 31 December. As such, the 2018 financial statements demanded by you do not exist for obvious reasons. The 2017 audited statements (including all subsidiary accounts) were approved by the Board in May 2018, provided to our Council, and published on our website.

3. The pattern of the income and deficits across an Olympic quadrennial cycle is not new. Since 1997, World Sailing has Olympic receipts received and recognised as income in the first year of the quadrennial and then has deficits in the next 2 – 3 years depending on the timing of the next receipt of income from the IOC. World Sailing finances are planned on a 4-year cycle. Accounting standards require the income from the IOC to be recognised in the year it is earned and received.

Had any research been conducted into our published financial statements, you would have seen that this is the case.

4. You appear to have failed to understand that the financial information you have based your analysis on, is the consolidated financial information and therefore the proposition that the deficits of World Sailing Event Management, as a subsidiary, should increase the number reported is fundamentally flawed.

The information provided is always on a group or consolidated basis as anything else would be misleading and not reflect the correct picture. Your assertion that there are no projected profits or losses merely confirms this lack of understanding of the basics of accounting.

As is common with group company arrangements, WSEM is funded with inter-company loans.

5. You write that World Sailing must comply with Article 94 of its Constitution. It will do so this week when the Notice of AGM is issued and the 2017 audited statutory accounts will be circulated to MNAs at that time ready for their reading at the AGM.

Finally, I can assure you the World Sailing Board takes its duties under Isle of Man law as company directors very seriously. The Board meets monthly and receives a full report on the finances and affairs of the group companies. A full financial report has also been provided to Council at an extraordinary meeting ahead of its November meeting as well.

World Sailing reserves its right to take any action that it deems necessary as a consequence of your misleading public statements.