Explained: The World Sailing Classification Master List

This list identifies all para sailors that have been classified since 2012 at international competitions, and is available here.

The list is comprised of several columns. The Eligibility column specifies if a sailor meets the criteria needed to be authorised to compete as a para sailor, and will be allocated MD which stands for Minimal Disability and includes all causes and degrees of disabilities included for sailing competition.

NE means that the athlete is not eligible to compete in para sailing, either because the cause of the disability is not recognised by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) or because the degree of impairment does not meet the World Sailing Classification Rules minimum impairment criteria. In rare cases, an athlete may be allocated CNC, which means that for reasons that have been explained to the sailor, Classification is Not Complete.

The Status column will read N, when a sailor has only a National or New classification, C if the classification has been confirmed by the classification panel, R if the sailor must present to review their classification again at the next competition, or RFD, when the sailor will need to present for review after a fixed date.

The point calculation column indicates the degree of impairment of the athlete, from 1 point for most severely impaired, to 7 points for a lesser impairment.

In the two person technical boat (presently RS Venture Connect SCS) the total points of the two crew must not exceed 8 points for an all male team, 9 points if mixed gender or 10 points for an all female team. This system encourages female participation. The next column specifies the status of the point calculation column.

And lastly the Vision or intellectual impairment column shows the IBSA (International Blind Sports Association) classes B1 to B3, followed by the corresponding status.

To summarise, sailors competing in the two person technical events must take into account their points and the corresponding status, while sailors in the other boats must simply have MD with C status, otherwise they must report for classification.