(Editor: Kudos to the RYA for publicly stating their votes. I'd like to see other prominent MNAs follow suit.)
This year the main issue facing the ISAF Council was the elimination of one Olympic Event, as the International Olympic Committee had ruled that the sport could only award 10 Medals, instead of the current 11, at the 2012 Games.
In respect of the Olympic Equipment selection, the RYA supported eight Events, as outlined in its submission 103-07, and in respect of the two in which the RYA was silent, RYA expressed preference to retain at least one of the Men's "heavyweight" Events. Essentially, the RYA was seeking to broaden the appeal of the sport through the introduction of an appealing modern dinghy to attract more female sailors, while retaining the spread of Events to reflect the wider sport.
The RYA was influential in discussions and supported the Events Committee recommendation (the expert committee who recommends Events and Equipment to ISAF Council) which included the eight Events in the original RYA submission as well as the Multihull and Men's One-Person Heavyweight Dinghy Event.
However, in a one-off ballot, ISAF Council voted to eliminate the Multihull and to change the Women's keelboat from Fleet to Match Racing.
The RYA cast its votes as follows (RYA votes in CAPS):
Men (6 from 7 Events to be selected) WINDSURFER (selected) ONE PERSON DINGHY (selected) TWO PERSON DINGHY (selected) TWO PERSON DINGHY HIGH PERFORMANCE (selected) MULTIHULL Keelboat (selected) ONE PERSON DINGHY HEAVY (selected)
Women (4 from 6 Events to be selected) WINDSURFER (selected) ONE PERSON DINGHY (selected) TWO PERSON DINGHY (selected) TWO PERSON DINGHY HIGH PERFORMANCE Multihull Keelboat Match Racing (selected)
The RYA believes that the recommendations of the Events Committee would have moved the sport forwards, and enabled more nations and sailors to take part in Olympic sailing. RYA is disappointed by this decision by the ISAF Council.
Now the focus will move onto the decisions at next year's ISAF Conference in November, which will determine the Equipment to be used in each of the Events at the 2012 Games.
* Richard Gladwell in Sail-World New Zealand: At its meeting, the Events Committee recommended the dropping of all keelboat events - a decision which never really had the wings to fly past Council.
The process followed by the ISAF Council is that the Events Committee's recommendation is moved as an events package, and if not accepted then each of the Council members put forward their slate of 10 events (according to the gender ratio of six mens events and four female events). Such a process is governed by self-interest, and lobbying, rather than strategic direction.
On this basis, the two keelboats were restored but with the women's keelboat changing to a match racing event. To create the space for these two events, the High Performance Womens doublehander and the Multihull were dropped.
Both were in the telegenic category - meaning events/classes that added spectacle and media appeal and come across well on television - rights from which contribute the majority of ISAF's income. It has been no secret that sailing has been under pressure to significantly improve its TV and media performance by the IOC and their media rights advisers.
From this perspective the Events Committee had made a call in the right direction, and the Council decision is a huge step backwards for the sport at Olympic level.
The major failing of the selected events card is the retention of two doublehanded classes in the mens competition. The physical differences required of sailors to compete in either are not that significant, and there should only be one men's double handed dinghy event.
This move, along with the reinstatement of the multihull, would then give a ten event card which reflected the classic, the spectacular and the athletic, as well as providing the required geographic spread through the Laser and Laser Radial, and windsurfing events. The classic boats such as the Star and Finn would be retained, and the re-introduction of matchracing would be watched with interest. The addition of the multihull would round out the sailing spectrum - meaning that all major disciplines of the general sport were represented at Olympic level.
If the current slate of events remains, the Olympic side of the sport will be seen, from a media perspective, to have taken a big step backwards - and one from which it will find it difficult to recover. The risk of yachting being dropped as an Olympic sport has probably increased significantly. -- More on www.sail-world.com
