Future of events and offshore sailing discussed ahead of World Sailing Council meeting

World Sailing’s Council will meet on Friday 1 November in Bermuda after the Committee meetings concluded on Thursday with Events and Oceanic and Offshore sessions.

Both Committees bring together experts within their respective fields and the Olympic Games was a leading topic of conversation within the meeting rooms.  
 
Events Committee
 
World Sailing’s Events Committee review changes to World Sailing’s Olympic strategy and on the list of Olympic Events at the Games.
 
During their session they spoke about the 2021-2028 Events Strategy, calendar of events and the World Sailing Rankings. They unanimously approved the recommendation of Submissions 077-19, 078-19 and 079-19. Each submission supports the Events Strategy that was approved at the Mid-Year Meeting.
 
The Olympic Games was heavily featured on the agenda and a full report was delivered on the recent Tokyo 2020 test event, READY STEADY TOKYO – Sailing and on the Games itself.
 
Looking further ahead, the Events Committee discussed Paris 2024. Gender equity for both events and athletes by World Sailing has already been decided but quotas for each Event is to be decided. The Committee noted that universality was an important requirement for establishing the quotas and delivering quotas that are suitable for competition formats.
 
The Equipment Committee recommended to Council that the Starboard iFoil should be selected as the piece of Equipment for the Men’s and Women’s Windsurfers at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The Events Committee also discussed and supported the concept of a foiling Windsurfing event as it would open up the opportunities for multiple racing formats.
 
A number of submissions were received from the International Finn Class Association in the build-up related to the list of Olympic events. None of the submissions were proposed by any of the Events Committee members, however, the Events Committee expressed their concerns of removing the Finn from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games but stressed they did not outweigh the disadvantages and risks created by this change at this stage.
 
Further reports on the Sailing World Championships, Youth Sailing World Championships, Youth Olympic Games, Match Racing and Team Racing were also delivered.
 
Oceanic and Offshore Committee
 
Chaired by Stan Honey, world renowned offshore sailor, and Vice-Chaired by Matt Allen, a Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race Tattersall Cup winner with Ichi Ban, lead the Oceanic and Offshore Committee and are responsible for planning and proposing policies related to their areas of expertise.
 
Following the selection of a Mixed Two Person Keelboat Offshore Event at the 2018 Annual Conference, the Oceanic and Offshore Committee discussed Submission 043-19 which clarifies the process to select Equipment for the Olympic Event.
 
They unanimously approved to recommend the submission to World Sailing’s Council. If approved by the Council, criteria for suitable Equipment for the Mixed Offshore qualification events will be published no later than 31 December 2020. At the same time, an additional set of criteria will be published for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Equipment. The recommendation also stated that the Equipment for Paris 2024 should be selected no later than 31 December 2023.
 
Ahead of the session, an extensive paper was delivered on suitability of the Racing Rules of Sailing for lights for modern yachts. Click here for the paper. For several years, concern has been expressed over the utility of lights on offshore racing yachts as the boats have evolved to become bigger, faster and carry sail plans that can at times obscure the lights. The Committee discussed the paper and agreed on the list of recommendations moving forward.
 
World Sailing’s Council will meet on Friday 1 November from 09:30 local time and a feed from the primary screen and audio will be available to watch on World Sailing’s YouTube channel here – www.youtube.com/worldsailingtv.