Conversation and debate on uniting the sport of sailing is in full flow at World Sailing’s 2017 Annual Conference in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

More than 500 delegates are in the Mexican city to shape the future of the sport.

Throughout the week, World Sailing are reporting live from the meeting rooms on the hot topics of debate and discussion via the Annual Conference blog. Click here – www.sailing.org/media/2017-annual-conference-blog.php – to view the blog.

To get involved with the discussion head to World Sailing’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and use #UnitingOurSport.

Sunday’s sessions saw the meeting of the Classes Committee, Para World Sailing Committee, Youth Events Sub-committee, International Judges Sub-committee, International Measurers Sub-committee and Race Management Sub-committee.

Safety in sailing

As sailing evolves and develops, the risks in the sport are increasing. Safety has never been more important and it was a key point of discussion in the World Sailing Classes Committee today.

World Sailing are taking positive steps to protect the sailors and reduce the risks. The Committee received a presentation on the creation of a safety framework. This includes the creation of a Safety Panel and an incident reporting web portal.

Member National Authorities and sailors will be encouraged to report all incidents. From there, the Safety Panel will investigate 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 Committees to make their recommendations by mid-January to refine the framework.

Aiming for Paralympic Games reinstatement

One year ago, World Sailing launched the Para World Sailing Strategic Plan. The plan set out goals for 2017-2020 with the aim to gain reinstatement into the 2024 Paralympic Games Sports Programme.

The Para World Sailing Committee received an update on the plan and the steps for reinstatement.

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) will solicit interest from new sports aiming to be introduced into the programme shortly. In January 2018, the IPC confirms applicant sports and then these sports received questionnaires, asking for key data such as worldwide reach and participants.

The deadline to return the questionnaire is July 2018 and a report to the IPC Governing Body will be made in September 2018. The final decision on whether sailing is reinstated into the Paralympic Games for 2024 will be made in January 2019.

In addition to reinstatement, the formats and equipment for use at Para World Sailing events was discussed. The Para World Sailing Committee will make a recommendation to Council that includes:

Single Person Keelboat (Technical) – Open Gender 2.4 Norlin OD – fleet racing with a Medal Race
Single Person Keelboat (Non-Technical) – Women’s Hansa 303 – short course fleet racing with a Medal Race
Single Person Keelboat (Non-Technical) – Men’s Hansa 303 – short course fleet racing with a Medal Race
Two Person Keelboat – Open Gender RS Venture Connect – short course fleet racing with late stage knockouts and a winner take all final race

Furthermore, the Committee discussed integrating the Para World Sailing Championships into the Sailing World Championships. The Para World Sailing Committee voted in favour of the submission and this will be discussed at the Events Committee who will make recommendation to Council who will make the final decision.

Youth Events

The Youth Events Sub-committee has evolved from the Youth Worlds Sub-committee and now have the Youth Olympic Games under their responsibility.

After a review of the upcoming Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games, the Sub-committee looked forward to the Sanya 2017 Youth Worlds. More than 350 sailors will head to the Chinese city to race from 9-16 December.

Looking further ahead, presentations were received on the future editions of the Youth Worlds. The event will head to Corpus Christi in 2018 and the attending team showcased the wind conditions the sailors will expect and the data from 2013-2017 looks incredibly encouraging. A 12-15 knot breeze comes in by midday and picks up to 18-25 knots towards the latter part of the afternoon. In addition, the water temperature is a warm 27 °C!

The organisers are ensuring the event will be sustainable with measures such as daily recycling awards for the competitors, engagement with local conservation and sustainability groups and the addition of an electronic notice board.

Gdynia, Poland will host the 2019 Youth Worlds. Tomasz Chamera of the Polish Yachting Association was on hand in the Youth Events Sub-committee to give an update. Gdynia is the ‘sailing capital of Poland’ with a seaside boulevard. At the event they will introduce a spectator area, an athletes’ village and fan zone. The event will be held in July 2019 and the forecast for that time of the year is for variable weather conditions. Sailors can expect two types of wind conditions – offshore westerly ranging from 11-13 knots as well as a 15 knot sea breeze.

A new venue is to be built ensuring world class, brand new facilities for the sailors competing at the Youth Worlds.

Deciding the next wave of World Sailing Race Officials

The International Judges Sub-committee, International Measurers Sub-committee and the Race Management Sub-committee met to discuss the procedures that race officials use to run regattas as well as the use of technology to make key decisions and the strategy for the future.

One of the important roles for the Sub-committees is to look at the performance of the officials. They also have the role of considering applications for International Race Officials. Their recommendations will be put forward to the Race Officials Committee which will make the final decision.

The appointments will be published later this week.

Monday 6 November

The Annual Conference resumes on Monday 6 November.

The highlight of the day will be a special forum titled, Balancing the Boat: growing female participation and developing pathways in competitive sailing.

Balancing the boat will discuss solutions to ensure more women take up sailing and remain within the sport through the development of clearly defined pathways and systemic change to create more opportunities for women at the top of the sport.

The Forum will be streamed live across the World Sailing Network here – https://youtu.be/WlyX2ozjgoQ.

Monday will also see the meeting of the Match Racing Sub-committee, Olympic Classes Sub-committee, Equipment Rules Sub-committee, International Umpires Sub-committee and the Regional Games Sub-committee.

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