Committees Wrap at World Sailing Conference

Sarasota, FL (November 1, 2018) – Today’s agenda at the 2018 Annual Conference in Sarasota, Florida, USA saw the conclusion of the series of committee meetings held this week.

The Events Committee, Oceanic and Offshore Committee, Constitution Committee and Para World Sailing Committee all met and put the final batch of recommendations forward to World Sailing’s Council who will meet on November 2 -3, The Annual General Meeting will follow on Sunday, November 4.

Events Committee

Following the Equipment Committee’s meeting on Paris 2024 Equipment the day prior, it was the turn of the Events Committee to talk about the Events.

Events and Equipment for Paris 2024 has been a major talking point following the Mid-Year meeting where the following slate of Events was approved by World Sailing’s Council:

Men’s Windsurfer
Women’s Windsurfer
New Event, Mixed One-Person Dinghy
New Event, Mixed Two Person Dinghy
New Event, Mixed Kiteboard

They joined the following Events and their Equipment on the Paris 2024 slate:

Men’s One Person Dinghy – Laser*
Women’s One Person Dinghy – Laser Radial*
Women’s Skiff – 49erFX
Men’s Skiff – 49er
Mixed Two Person Multihull – Nacra 17
*subject to separate equipment re-evaluation

Although the decision was made, World Sailing’s Regulations allow both the Events and Equipment to be amended at the 2018 Annual Conference by World Sailing’s Council before ratification at the Annual General Meeting.

The Committee discussed the decision making process around selection of Events and Equipment for the Olympic Games and reiterated the Working Parties findings from the May 2018 report.

Discussions around Submission 037-18 and selecting either the Mixed One Person Dinghy Event or the Mixed Two Person Keelboat Offshore were held before a vote was held. Seven of the committee members were in favour with six against and two abstentions meaning the submission is recommended to World Sailing’s Council for approval.

Event formats were also a topic spoken about and further debates on them will follow at future meetings.

It was a busy 12-months for World Sailing events and headline reports were delivered on the Hempel Sailing World Championships, the Youth Olympic Games and Youth Sailing World Championships. Further detailed reports will follow at the meeting of World Sailing’s Council on Friday and Saturday.

A paper was presented by the Event Strategy Working Party, looking into addressing the 2021-2028 event strategy. In addition the Committee reviewed submission 038-18 from US Sailing dealing with the calendar of events and event strategy.

The discussion was wide ranging and positive and the Events Committee agreed that the Working Party should report back in May with final recommendations at the 2019 Mid-Year Meeting.

Oceanic and Offshore Committee

Stan Honey, Chairman of the Oceanic and Offshore Committee, was unable to attend the session as he sustained an injury on Comanche in the Newcastle Bass Race. A silver lining for Honey was that Comanche set a new record in the race.

In Honey’s absence, Matt Allen (AUS), Tattersall Cup winner at the 2017 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and previous Newcastle Bass Race record holder on Ichi Ban, chaired the session that included discussions on rating systems, sailing speed records, events and submissions.

The committee enthusiastically and unanimously supported submission 037-18 and noted that should the submission be approved they’ll look forward to developing an exciting offshore event that will be universal, sustainable and financially accessible to all MNAs.

International and recognized rating systems and their activities were reported on and they looked ahead to the next combined IRC / ORC World Championships which will be run by the New York Yacht Club in Newport, Rhode Island, USA.

Para World Sailing

Sailing was not included in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games Sports Programme by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) which left World Sailing shocked and disappointed. Read World Sailing’s statement here.

The committee received the summary of the IPC report and noted the ongoing dialogue between World Sailing and the IPC to obtain clarification on the decision. A meeting between World Sailing and the IPC is planned early in 2019 with further details to be announced thereafter.

Throughout the session, the committee considered the findings and discussed the feedback the IPC presented World Sailing. The IPC specify the core and secondary criteria that sports have to fulfil to be included within the Paralympic Sports Programme and the IPC determined that sailing did not satisfy enough IPC criteria to move forward to the next stage.

The committee noted World Sailing’s request for a meeting with the IPC´s leadership to help both World Sailing and the Para World Sailing Committee to further understand the details of the decision taken and the analysis by the IPC management team.

Sailing was removed from the sports programme for Tokyo 2020 in January 2015 for failing to meet the worldwide reach criteria.

Following the sports removal, the discipline has had accelerated growth and the committee spoke about the Paralympic Development Programme, assessing the work done.

At the 2017 World Championships in Kiel, Germany more than 80 sailors from 37 nations raced and at the most recent edition in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, USA over 90 sailors from 39 nations competed across four classes.

World Sailing’s Board confirmed continued support of the discipline and committed to the development of Para World Sailing in 2019 and beyond.

The Committee also spoke about new opportunities for the discipline including introducing development classes in the World Championship, increasing work in anti-doping, creating more sailor friendly long term events and including Para World Sailing in more events.

Looking ahead to 2019, Puerto Sherry, Spain will host the next Para World Sailing Championships in July and the Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions will be released by the end of December.

Governance Workshop

World Sailing appointed a Governance Commission in May this year with Maria Clarke (NZL) appointed as the Independent Chair of the Commission. Click here for more on the announcement.

The Commission, which is also comprised of World Sailing Vice President Jan Dawson (NZL), Philip Baum (RSA), Malav Shroff (IND), Sarah Treseder (GBR) and Luis Velasco (ARG), commenced their programme of work following the announcement and after a series of meetings and stakeholder engagement, Clarke led a Governance Workshop in Sarasota.

Following the Governance Commission’s work, Clarke presented their findings and ideas for possible reform. The findings will be presented to World Sailing’s Council and at the Annual General Meeting over the coming days.

Based on feedback received, the Commission expects to further develop detailed proposals on which it intends to consult widely in April/May 2019, with a view to proposing any changes to the Constitution and Regulations at the Annual General Meeting in November 2019.

World Sailing Website – Twitter – Facebook – Youtube

Source: World Sailing