Hi Folks -

For those in the US who are still interested, I'd like to give a preview of one of the topics we're discussing at the US SAILING meeting next month in Phoenix. First, a brief summary:

• The Council voted and passed a motion in March of 2007 that multihull sailing needed to be re-introduced to the Olympic Games, and that the Council's representatives should pursue that goal. This has been included as "old business" on all subsequent meeting agendas, and will remain so until resolution.
• Volunteers on the Council have been working on this ever since, with emphasis on creating new relationships with US SAILING committees and councils that are stakeholders in the Games.
• Like the tide, international support for various submissions from classes and MNAs to ISAF regarding equipment and events has ebbed and flowed.
• The ISAF Olympic Commission published its report and recommendations for the Games in May. Many portions of the report support the inclusion of fast, exciting and athletic sailing like that found in multihull racing.
• The submissions for the November ISAF Conference have been published. Of note, it has been proposed that action on Events and Equipment be moved up, such that a decision to include a multihull Event in the 2016 Games in Rio could come this year.

So what does it all mean, and where do we stand?

I know that many Catsailor readers feel passionately about this topic. Since 2007, interest in participating in US SAILING has (very understandably) waned among our community. The result has been an overall contraction among our population to concern ourselves with smaller, class-level issues, growth and management. The national issues have suffered somewhat during this period, and the burden was shouldered by a shrinking pool of volunteers. This is simply an observation - while I'm grateful for those that have continued to put time and effort into representing multihulls to US SAILING, I absolutely and completely empathize with anyone who either has no interest, time or ability to volunteer, or consciously chose to not volunteer in protest. If I had not been Chair of the Council when we lost the Olympic multihull, I'm pretty sure I would have quit, too. Regardless, the net result has been that our position is hopeful but precarious, and the outlook is good but vulnerable.

In the past, I have arranged for conference call access to US SAILING meetings. This is expensive ($100), and only a handful of representatives have participated. I did not reserve the conference call equipment or line for the meeting in Phoenix - even with a call arranged last year, we didn't have a quorum and couldn't conduct business for want of representatives. As word spreads about the multihull's prospects for Rio, I expect interest in what US SAILING is doing will again peak. I would encourage anyone who has an interest to peruse the submissions to ISAF, and contact your Area or Class Representative if you have something to say. You can also contact me directly, but I'd prefer that you work with your rep - they try hard to distill and represent class and regional positions to the Council.

The Council meetings are never closed - anyone who would like is encouraged to join us in Phoenix. I posted the meeting details in another thread.