SailJuice Blog

The morning after the big vote in Qingdao, Athletes’ Commission representative Laura Baldwin reflects on what happened, and what she would like to see happen in the future.

“It was frustrating not being able to speak out directly in the Council Meeting as I left feeling there was more to say in the debate but a lot of the sailors’ views were voiced through certain Council Members. Some Council Members gave very good reasoning behind supporting a reopening of the vote. Others explained how policies tied their hands or expressed fears of greater upset being caused by re-voting. There where some real heroes in the room who stood up against their committees’ wishes (of self interest) to do the best for the sport as a director of ISAF.

All is not lost for Olympic Multihull sailing as there is support… Read the rest

Ben Ainslie has just won his fourth Finn European Championship after an extraordinary week of drama. Those words ‘drama’ and ‘Ben Ainslie’ just shouldn’t appear in the same sentence. This guy is so good, he should be winning these regattas at a stroll. Such is his superiority in the Finn class, it always makes me wonder if he’s really trying when he’s not winning with at least a race to spare.

A bit like his last gasp victory at the Olympic Test Regatta in Qingdao last year, Ainslie had it all to do, going into the Medal Race today. He was 8 points adrift of Guillaume Florent, the Frenchman who has been the surprise leader of this regatta for much of the week. Eight points, or four places (in the double-scoring Medal Race), in a 10-boat fleet is a… Read the rest

The vote in Qingdao brings to a close a fraught six months for members of ISAF Executive and Council. ISAF president Goran Petersson was outraged at the levels of abuse that had been levelled at him and some of his colleagues, following the controversial vote in Estoril.

As far as Petersson was concerned, justice and democracy were served last November, and that unfortunate choice of wording, the move to ‘reaffirm’, showed just how strongly he and ISAF Executive wanted the Estoril decision to stand. They must be mighty relieved at the way the vote worked out today.

Petersson said that because of the personal abuse that some members had been subjected to, the voting procedure earlier today would take place under a secret ballot. This is an unfortunate, but understandable, move. It makes individuals a good deal less accountable… Read the rest

Multihull sailors will be disappointed that after a tense meeting of ISAF Council in Qingdao today, there is no change from the decision made in Estoril last November. There was a glimmer of hope after the first vote, when a majority of the 38 Council voting members opted to reject the initial proposal by the Executive Committee. To remind you, the proposal was:

“That Council reaffirm their decision on the 2012 Olympic Events made in November
2007 by a simple majority vote.”

Of the 38 votes, 17 voted in favour, 1 abstained, and 20 voted to reject this decision to reaffirm the Estoril decision. So, on to the next stage.

2012 Olympic Events

Amendment to the Constitution

A submission from the Executive Committee

Proposal:

“Should Council vote not to reaffirm the decision, two separate votes will then follow:

1.… Read the rest

Thick fog in Qingdao. OK, this picture was from last week, so we can’t blame it entirely on the ISAF mid-year meeting. One of my Qingdao spies has filed this report at the end of a tense meeting of the Events Committee. ‘SailJuice Mole’ says Events made the following recommendations:

1. To re-open the Olympic equipment debate (this was a close vote).

2. To open up the Equipment options in November if so required.

3. To proceed with the World Cup Series, starting with Melbourne in December 08, then Miami OCR early next year. Just the Grade 1 events essentially, with Palma included – exactly as the Scott McLeod proposal – details to be confirmed by the Executive.

4. Multihulls are NOT dinghies.

5. To only have the ISAF Sailing World Championship every 4 years, in light of… Read the rest

This weekend is crunch time in Qingdao. All multihull fanatics wait to see what ISAF Council decides this weekend in China, if indeed the Olympic Events for Weymouth 2012 will come up for reconsideration.

ISAF’s decision not to publish the 15 submissions on this topic from national authorities and class associations was disappointing, another sign that the Federation would prefer this whole nasty business to go away without further debate.

Anyway, hopefully the 40-odd members of ISAF Council have informed themselves of the many issues that swirl around this complex debate. And hopefully the individual members will bear in mind their statutory duty laid down in ISAF’s own regulations. That is, to act in the best interests of the sport as a whole, rather than putting nationalistic medal hopes before any other consideration, as we saw in Estoril last November.… Read the rest

Ken Read sounds mighty proud of the boys he has lined up as the team to sail Puma Racing, the only American entry in the Volvo Ocean Race. “It’s been a long time coming,” said Read in a conference call from Newport, Rhode Island, this afternoon. “It’s been an overwhelming process to choose this team. The human element is crucial to the final outcome. We didn’t take it lightly.

“With the America’s Cup in flux right now, there is a lot of really good sailors looking for work. What I thought was going to be a difficult process became overwhelming, we had resumés from 400 sailors crazy enough to want to do this race. With that group of resumés, you could have put 10 world class crews together and not miss much.”

Read has been… Read the rest