World Sailing's Virtual Mid-Year Meeting

by Daniel Smith, World Sailing 14 May 2021 10:25 BST 10-14 May 2021

World Sailing 2021 Mid-Year Meeting - Equipment Committee © World Sailing

World Sailing's Virtual Mid-Year Meeting commenced on Monday 10 May with the Equipment Committee and Events Committee both meeting.

The Equipment Committee, Chaired by Jurgen Cluytmans (BEL) met from 1000 - 1200 UTC before the Events Committee, Chaired by John Derbyshire (GBR), convened from 2000 - 2200 UTC. The meetings were the first of two the Committees will hold this week, with the next sessions scheduled for the same times on Tuesday 11 May.

The Equipment Committee moved through the early part of their agenda, available HERE, and did not discuss the submissions put forward for the 2021 Mid-Year Meeting.

The Events Committee moved straight into discussing the submissions on the table and made their recommendations. Their agenda is available here.

Chaired by John Derbyshire (GBR) with Sofia Tedin (ARG) as Vice Chair, the Committee is comprised of a number of experienced event organisers and experienced sailors, including Olympians and coaches.

Following an introduction by Derbyshire, Tedin presented the Combined Events and Equipment Committee Working Party assessment of Alternative Events for 2024 Olympic Games. The Working Party conducted an extensive assessment on all of the submissions put forward for alternative events.

The Working Party tested the submissions against objective criteria including:

Keep full gender equality on both number of events and athlete quotas
Alternative mixed-gender events or split of currently approved mixed events into men's and women's events
Should have been previously tested at the respective World Championships organised by World Sailing
Use of existing venues / fields of play

The Working Party established that Submission M01-21, Individual Men's and Women's Kiteboarding Events and Submission M02-21, Individual Men's and Women's Two Person Dinghy Events, satisfied all of that criteria. From there, they assessed the Submissions against the subjective IOC criteria which was broken down into seven areas of review: align with Olympic Agenda 2020+5, Prioritise universality, Minimise cost and complexity, Format, Youth appeal, Equipment and Media. The Working Party scored each submission subjectively on a five-point scale; they scored Submission M01-21 26 out of 35 and Submission M02-21 18 out of 35.

Having taken this assessment on board, the Events Committee moved to the Submissions and out of the 15, only Submission M01-21 and Submission M02-21 received a proposer and a seconder.

The Events Committee moved to a vote.

Submission M02-21 received seven votes and Submission M01-21 received six. This means that the Events Committee propose the Individual Men's and Women's Two Person Dinghy as the first alternative event and the Individual Men's and Women's Kiteboarding as the second alternative event.

This recommendation will now go to World Sailing's Council who will meet on Friday 14 May. They will discuss and vote on the submissions. The outcome of the process will be a decision of two alternative event proposals, ranked in order of preference, ahead of the IOC deadline, which is 26 May 2021.

The Events Committee resumed on Tuesday 11 May at 2000 UTC.

The Equipment Committee features a large number of experienced boat builders, Olympic sailors, International Measurers and experienced sailors with a wide-ranging variety of skillsets.

As part of a broad agenda, the Committee heard from various Equipment Committee Working Parties to open the session. Brief updates were given on Class Status reviews, the class application process and the One Design Quality Control Strategy.

The importance of safety in sailing was raised and members discussed the World Sailing Incident Reporting Portal. Available here, World Sailing requires that an incident be reported if it involves a World Sailing organised or recognised event, any training at or prior to World Sailing recognised events, and any training or racing at events run by a World Sailing MNA.

The purpose of the reporting portal is to ensure MNAs, Classes and Rating systems report relevant information regarding incidents occurring in training or racing, in order to share best practice and raise awareness of increasing safety concerns.

To conclude the session, the Equipment Committee discussed the deferred applications for World Sailing Class Association Status from RS21, IKA Snowkite and iQFOil. The Committee noted the deferral of Snowkite and IQFOil and put forward a recommendation to Council to approve the RS21 as a World Sailing Class Association.

The Equipment Committee will meet again on Tuesday 11 May from 1000 - 1200 UTC to continue their agenda and discuss the submissions.

World Sailing's Virtual Mid-Year Meeting continued on Tuesday 11 May with the Equipment Committee and Events Committee both holding their second and final meetings of the week.

World Sailing 2021 Mid-Year Meeting - Events Committee - photo © World Sailing

The Equipment Committee, Chaired by Jurgen Cluytmans (BEL) met from 1000 - 1200 UTC before the Events Committee, Chaired by John Derbyshire (GBR), convened from 2000 - 2200 UTC.

The Equipment Committee reviewed the submissions put forward for the 2021 Mid-Year Meeting, as per their agenda, available here.

Having already discussed the submissions yesterday, the Events Committee continued with the remainder of the items on their agenda, available here.

Equipment Committee

Having received numerous reports and put forward a recommendation for the RS21 to receive World Sailing Class Association status on Monday, the Equipment Committee resumed their session.

Matt Allen (AUS), Chair of the Oceanic & Offshore Committee, made a recommendation regarding the Mixed Two Person Keelboat Offshore Event for Paris 2024. He presented a paper which outlined potential amendments to the Event to address the concerns from the IOC. The Equipment Committee noted their support for the paper.

At the Events Committee meeting on Monday a Combined Events and Equipment Committee Working Party assessment of Alternative Events for 2024 Olympic Games was presented by Sofia Tedin.

Cédric Fraboulet (FRA), Vice-Chair, presented the paper on behalf of the Equipment Committee after the Working Party conducted an assessment on all of the submissions put forward for alternative events.

The Working Party tested the submissions against objective criteria including:

Keep full gender equality on both number of events and athlete quotas
Alternative mixed-gender events or split of currently approved mixed events into men's and women's events
Should have been previously tested at the respective World Championships organised by World Sailing
Use of existing venues / fields of play

Following Cedric's presentation, the Equipment Committee reviewed the yellow paper on the Submissions recommended by the Events Committee on Monday - they had proposed Submission M02-21 as the first alternative event, and Submission M01-21 as the second alternative event.

During the Equipment Committee meeting, an update from the Constitution Committee was relayed, which ruled that Submissions M12-21, M13-21, M14-21 and M15-21 were invalid.

Out of the 11 remaining, only Submission M01-21 and Submission M02-21 received a proposer and a seconder.

The Equipment Committee then moved to a vote.

Submission M01-21 received ten votes and Submission M02-21 received seven. This means that the Equipment Committee propose the Individual Men's and Women's Kiteboarding Events as the first alternative event and the Individual Men's and Women's Two Person Dinghy Events as the second alternative event.

Events Committee

Having discussed submissions on Monday 10 May, the Events Committee moved into the latter part of their agenda by hearing various reports.

The Quota and Qualifications Working Party presented their report on the athlete quota implications for Paris 2024, in relation to the submissions regarding the alternative Events submissions. Daniel Belcher, Chair of the Working Party, also discussed the qualification system for the 2023 Sailing World Championships.

Sofia Tedin, Chair of the Format Working Party, then presented their Working Party Report which focused on a proposal to change the names of the Sailing Events for Paris 2024, to align with the IOC's New Norm and appeal to a wider or non-sailing audience.

A brief update followed from Graham Biehl of the Rankings Working Party, who informed the Committee that the new rankings system should be up and running after Tokyo 2020.

The Committee then heard from World Sailing's Director of Events, Alastair Fox, regarding the 2021-2028 Events Strategy, and discussed the future of the Sailing World Championships.

Youth Events Sub-committee Chair Charles Glover and Fox gave an update on the Youth Sailing World Championships. Al Mussanah, Oman will be officially announced as the 2021 venue shortly but the venue is preparing to welcome sailors in December. The Hague, The Netherlands was scheduled to host the event in 2021 but was rearranged to 2022. The venue will host sailors from 9-15 July 2022.

Fiona Kidd, Chair of the Team Racing Sub-committee, spoke about the future of Team Racing and the possibilities of the discipline. The Sub-committee had put in a submission for the alternative event process for Paris 2024, and provided a short update on how the discipline works.

Match Racing Sub-committee Chair, Michael Röllich, updated the committee on match racing events. In 2021, World Sailing will host the Youth Match Racing World Championship in August and nine nations have indicated their interest to attend. Auckland, New Zealand is unable to host the 2021 Women's Match Racing World Championship due to the COVID-19 travel restrictions so the committee are talking to other venues to rearrange the event.

The next session at the 2021 Mid-Year Meeting will be World Sailing's Council on Friday 14 May 2021. The Council will hear various reports and discuss and vote on the submissions.