ISAF - We have to stop meeting like this

by Gerald New on 16 Nov 2007 It was great while it lasted, the wining and dining, the fleeting alliances, the highly charged meetings with the sailing world's media hanging on their every vote and there were plenty of those.

The forty members of the ISAF Council held the future of sailing in the Olympic Games in their hands.

Who would be banished to the Vintage Olympic classes’ regatta, to join the likes of the O-Jolle, Tempest and Flying Dutchman?

Although it was stressed that just the disciplines, not the actual classes were to be decided in Portugal, nobody was fooled - how many of the grant backed hotshots would stick with a 470, Star or Tornado if their discipline were dropped - this was Custer’s Last Stand for someone.

And when the smoke of battle had cleared it was the old guard that had stood their ground. Those great war horses, the men’s Heavyweight Singlehander and Keelboat were still standing and the women's keelboat was off to the designers for this years new look.

It was the youngsters that fell - the multihull and the upstart women's high performance doublehander, all that leaping around on trapezes, Peter Scott has a lot to answer for.

As they came blinking out into the autumn sunshine the Council could congratulate themselves on another successful meeting, some great skirmishes, the usual Event committee feint, but in the end only one real casualty and someone had to go.

The ISAF President, Göran Petersson supplied the Last Post - 'I extend my thanks to the multihull which has been on the Olympic program from 1976 to 2004 – we are sorry to have to say goodbye to such an old friend.'

(Date for your diary: the Vintage Olympic class regatta is in the Netherlands in September 2008 )


The Meetings and the Results

Time to take a look at just what happened at the ISAF meeting in Portugal, as from emails we have received it seems some people are still confused. Perhaps it was the furious response from the sailing world via the Internet or just the multi-committee reports that trumped each other that has caused the confusion.

The decisions taken at the ISAF autumn meeting were in relation to the 2012 Olympic sailing events, which will take place at Weymouth on the south coast of England. At this meeting the voting was to decide the various disciplines of the sailing events, not the individual boats to be used in those disciplines. There was never any chance of a foil Moth or a Laser SB3 suddenly popping on to the agenda.

But into this seemingly simple choice there were several jokers.

1 Was an IOC requirement to reduce the number of events from 11 to 10.

2 Was the possible introduction of a new discipline for the women, a two-person skiff, for which initial trials had already been held earlier in the year. This would be a women's event to mirror the men’s - a high performance doublehander.

3. Was a move to introduce a women's match racing event.

Thus, not only was one discipline to go, but another was to be added (skiff) and possible changes made to introduce match racing, effecting the existing keelboat disciplines.

First up were the Women's Committee who recommended a slate that included women's match racing.

The next day the 19 members of the Events Committee recommended a slate that ignored the Women's committee recommendations and finished the day with:

Women - Singlehander, Doublehander, Windsurfer and High Performance doublehander (the new skiff event).

Men - Singlehander, Doublehander, Windsurfer, High Performance Doublehander, Heavyweight Singlehander and Multihull.

That is introducing a Skiff for the women and dropping the keelboat, and also dropping the keelboat for the men.

The third and final meeting and the one that really counted was the 40 member ISAF Council made up of national representatives, with a history of tactical voting and of ignoring the Events committee. First they voted down the ten Event committee slate by three votes.

This meant they had to confirm the disciplines to be voted on, and with no additions put forward, that was to be the slate to be voted on. Before that took place they voted to change the women's keelboat to a match racing format.

In the Men’s disciplines, where six from seven were to be chosen, the multihull lost out to the keelboat by two votes and was removed from the 2012 games.

In the Women's disciplines, where four from six were to be chosen, the multihull and the proposed high performance doublehander were dropped and the keelboat became a Match Racing discipline. In this case the new high performance doublehander lost the vote by one vote to the keelboat Match Racing event.

So, in the end it was very much a 'steady as you go' result. To achieve the required reduction in disciplines from 11 to 10, the Multihull event was dropped. In addition the women's keelboat discipline was changed to a Match Racing format from a fleet format.

So that is it for the ten disciplines to be sailed at Weymouth in 2012.

What now?

In 2008 at the Autumn ISAF Conference the boats to be used in the ten disciplines will be decided. This is expected to be the confirmation of the existing classes and the choice of a keelboat to be used in the women's match racing event.

Although the women's high-performance boat as a new discipline was overruled, there could be a repercharge type chance for one of the trial skiff classes to go up against the 470 in the women’s doublehanded slot. Most of the trial boats were one-offs so it would take one of the boats already in production, the 29erXX or the RS800, to mount a realistic campaign.

Such last minute tinkering is not beyond the ISAF Council, in 1999 after the Council selected - just as now - women's keelboat match racing for the 2004 games, they then later changed that to women’s keelboat fleet racing and selected the Yngling .


The agreed disciplines for 2012 Games and the boats used, subject to confirmation Nov 2008:

1. Men’s Singlehander (Laser)
2. Men’s Windsurfer (RS-X)
3. Men’s Doublehanded Dinghy (470)
4. Men’s Heavyweight Singlehander (Finn)
5. Men’s Keelboat (Star)
6. Men's high Performance doublehander (49er)

1. Women’s Singlehander (Laser Radial)
2. Women’s Windsurfer (RS-X)
3. Women’s Doublehanded Dinghy (470)
4. Women’s Keelboat match Racing (TBC)


New Women's High Performance Dinghy for 2012 - www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=31267