Olympic Sailing to get a Strategy?

24 03 2009

Good news today with ISAF’s announcement of an Olympic Commission. This will new group will be tasked with developing and promoting long-term strategy for the sport of sailing at the Olympic Games, something that has been sadly lacking in recent years.

The ISAF Council approved the creation of a new Olympic Commission at the ISAF Annual Conference held in Madrid, Spain last November. The new Commission replaces the Olympic Advisory Board and will be tasked with assisting the Executive in ‘developing, agreeing and promoting a comprehensive vision and strategy of the sport of sailing in the Olympic Games’.

Phil Jones (AUS), Technical Delegate for sailing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and CEO of Yachting Australia since 1997, has been appointed as chairman of the Commission. Jones was critical of the lack of vision or strategy guiding Olympic sailing, so now he has been given the best role possible to take Olympic sailing forward with a much greater sense of vision and purpose – provided that the new Commission is given proper powers to do so.

The Commission also includes representatives from both the Events Committee, who are tasked with making recommendations to the ISAF Council on Olympic issues, and the Athletes’ Commission, which is both formed of and elected by sailors campaigning for the Olympic Games.

Göran Petersson (SWE), President of ISAF, said: “Sailing has a very proud Olympic history having featured on the Olympic programme for over 100 hundreds years. We should respect this tradition, but we must also continue to innovate and take the long-term view. ISAF has made major progress in developing the sport of sailing at the Olympic Games, with the successful introduction of the Medal Race format at Beijing 2008 the most recent example. I am greatly looking forward to the input from the new Olympic Commission to help guide our future decision-making and ensure the continued success and growth of sailing as an Olympic sport.”

The full list of Commission members, confirmed during the February meeting of the ISAF Executive Committee in Los Angeles, is:

Phil Jones (AUS) – Chairman
The Chairman of the Athletes’ Commission – currently Marcelien De Koning (NED), although note Athletes’ Commission elections for the next four-year term are scheduled to take place this year
The Chairman of the Events Committee – currently Chris Atkins (GBR)
Cory Sertl (USA)
Georg Fundak (AUT)
Scott Perry (URU)

The Olympic Commission will meet for the first time during the ISAF Mid-Year Meetings, held in Warsaw, Poland this May.


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Categories : ISAF, ISAF Conference, Olympic Classes, Olympic Events, Phil Jones, Uncategorized

Star shines exactly when it needs to

15 04 2008

According to readers of US website Scuttlebutt whose Olympic Events 2012 poll concluded recently, the keelboats shouldn’t make the cut for Weymouth. Below are the results.

Ironically, this result comes in a week when 104 Stars are competing at their World Championships in Miami. That is a phenomenal turn-out and speaks volumes for the health of the class, although of course Miami is the spiritual home of the Star fleet. Turnouts here are always going to be good.

The strength in depth of the competition is impressive too. Former Finn Olympic Champion Mateusz Kusnierewicz and his Polish team mate Dominik Zycki (shown below in Fried Elliott’s photo) turned in an outstanding performance to win the first two heats, only to drop to 8th overall after scoring 44th in the third heat. There are some very good sailors finding themselves very deep in the results.

Americans John McCausland and Kevin Murphy hold the lead, tied for points with Australians Iain Murray and Andrew Palfrey. Now in his early 50s, Murray is showing he is as sharp as he was when he made his name winning a clutch of 18-foot skiff titles on Sydney Harbour in the 70s. Good on him.

So who’s right? The pollsters who voted the keelboats out, or the 208 keelboat sailors going about their business in Miami? Such a strong show from the ancient Star couldn’t come at a better time for the class, as its Olympic future hangs in the balance.

If the revote does take place this November, and it came down to a battle between multihull and keelboat, who deserves to win? Regular SailJuice readers know where my preferences lie, although of course I’d love to see both stay in.

I just can’t see ISAF going back to the IOC, cap in hand, begging for that 11th medal back. Remember, it wasn’t so long ago when the Star crept in through the back door to be reinstated for the Sydney Games. What’s a responsible parent to do when his prodigal son keeps overspending on his pocket money? We’ve already been bailed out once. I can’t see ISAF having the cheek to go back with the begging bowl for a second time. Yes, Jacques Rogge is a former Olympic sailor and it’s useful to have friends in high places. But he’s so keen to be seen as whiter than white and break the old accusations of corruption in the IOC, that his association with our sport could even work against us in situations like this. Never mind the fact that, with all the controversy around China and Tibet, Rogge has rather bigger fish to fry this side of August.

Nevertheless, former ISAF President Paul Henderson says this is what ISAF should seek to do, and he knows the politics much better than me. So I hope the ex-Pope is right to be so optimistic. Getting that 11th medal back would solve all the in-fighting about whose boat is better than whose – for the time being anyway. At some point we’re going to have to cut down to 10 Events. If not this November, it will be four years hence.

So who’s going to go? The Stars have thrown down the gauntlet with their 100+ entry list. That’s a strong statement by any measure. How will other Events under threat respond?

QUESTION: Someone once said: “The Olympics needs the Star boat more than the Star boat needs the Olympics.” What say you?

For overall results from the Star Worlds, click here…

For some ‘my boat’s better than yours’ arguments about the Finn, click here…


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‘Urgent’ Battle between RYA & ISAF

27 02 2008

Good news, but also a lot of bad news, for sailors who want to see a re-vote of the slate of 10 sailing Events being lined up for the Olympic Regatta in Weymouth 2012.

If you’ve been following this blog since last October, you’ll be familiar with the whole Estoril saga, where the Men’s Keelboat won a narrow victory over the Multihull, and the Women’s Match Racing just edged out the Women’s Skiff. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, dig back through the SailJuice archives for October and November 2007.)

SailJuice was not a fan of either of these outcomes, and reported on the eleventh-hour change in voting procedure, a cunning move that was led by Charley Cook from US Sailing, whose agenda was to see the keelboats remain in the Games. (Fair play to you, by the way, Charley. I don’t agree with what you did, but you were there to do a job for your country.)

The Royal Yachting Association has since led a campaign to get the voting re-opened, and made a submission to ISAF to have a revote take place at the mid-year meeting. Last week the ISAF Executive Committee sat down in Switzerland to discuss what ‘urgent’ matters should be discussed at the mid-year meeting which takes place in Qingdao this May.

Most of the urgent matters were over relatively trivial issues, but the one that engaged them a bit more was the RYA’s submission. The Exec referred the matter to ISAF Constitution Committee (chaired by David Lees and vice-chaired by a certain Charley Cook) to get a definition of ‘urgent’. The Constitution Committee debated, did not come to a unanimous conclusion, but ultimately deemed the RYA’s submission as non-urgent.

When SailJuice spoke to Rod Carr at the end of last week – before he had had a chance to speak to ISAF – he was perplexed, to put it mildly. “We’re non-plussed by the decision not to consider these matters urgent. By November we believe it will be too late to change, so how could you consider it not urgent? I’m not a lawyer, this is just common sense.”

The reason for Rod being non-plussed was that he was under the impression that the International Olympic Committee was expecting ISAF to send in the final list of 2012 Event for IOC approval and rubber-stamping within the next few weeks. So for ISAF to pronounce this issue as non-urgent and shoving the submission back to November would mean the 10 Events were already set in stone. It was a two-fingered salute by ISAF to the RYA, and anyone else who felt short-changed by the voting in Estoril.

So you can understand why Rod was a little vexed by this state of affairs.

Things improved the following week however, when Rod had a chance to speak to Jerome Pels, the newly installed ISAF Secretary General. Apparently there is still room and time for discussion after all, as Rod explained: “Everyone was assuming that both the details of Events and Equipment had to be submitted to the IOC by this year. ISAF has clarified this with the IOC and apparently this is not the case.”

So, it is still possible for the Events slate to be debated and even revoted at this November’s AGM.

A sigh of relief from Rod Carr then? Er, no, not really. “We think it [the vote last November] is a bad decision and that the proposal to reconsider these matters should still be considered urgent.”

Rod’s concern is that by the next AGM, any momentum for turning over the Estoril decision will be long gone. “By this November, many people will have kicked this issue into the long grass. They will have got over their shock and anger that they had when the decision was first announced, and increasingly people will say, ‘Oh well, never mind, let’s get on with what we’ve got.’”

To give you an example of what will happen before then, Rod believes that the RYA will have been forced to close down any funding for its younger sailors on the Olympic Development Programme. “We can’t justify paying out money for sailors on the off-chance that we might get a change of Olympic Events,” says Rod.

The RYA has stuck its neck out on this issue, but not before doing a lot of consulting with other national sailing authorities behind the scenes, to gauge the mood. Sufficiently buoyed by the offers of support, the RYA fired off its salvo against this decision at the end of last year. Yachting Australia has been another vocal opponent to the Estoril decision, and to a lesser extent the French federation, the FFV (although they seem to want to keep the multihull AND the keelboat, without seeming to offer much solution to the 11-into-10-doesn’t-go problem).

But Rod is wondering where the rest of the rebel uprising has gone. “We’ve done our bit, where are the rest? They’re saying things in private, and being very supportive behind the scenes. But talk is cheap. We’ve had our say, the Australians, the French and a few others have had their say about things. Now, if other people want something to change, then they need to speak out and make their case to ISAF.”

With November, rather than May, now being the last opportunity to debate the Olympic slate, ISAF is open to submissions until 1 August. But Rod says that is too late. He wants to see other nations nail their colours to the mast now.

“We’ve got a stretching target to get two-thirds – that’s 26 people – of the delegates to vote, to change last November’s decisions. The Austrians, Danes, UK, Australia, France, New Zealand are all on the record as wanting a vote.” Now it’s time for others to step up, he says.

Rod wants some of the smaller nations to follow their lead. “Let’s say you were one of the smaller nations, and you’re thinking, ‘do I need to put in a submission?’. You’re worried about the slate as it stands, so you say to yourself, ‘One of the big nations will put in a submission, and I’ll vote for that.’”

That won’t be good enough, says Rod. “You could say the Executive are well within their rights to leave things as they are. If only four or five nations put in a submission, it’s easy for them to tell themselves that ISAF represents more than a hundred nations, so there’s no big furore here.”

Indeed, when I spoke to Jerome Pels about this issue a couple of days ago, he made that very point, that from the ISAF perspective they see a lot of complaint at grass roots level but not much complaint from national authorities other than the RYA and Yachting Australia.

There is more to this, and I’ll come back to you with more detail from my conversation with Jerome in the next few days, but that should be enough for you to chew on for the time being.

A few months have passed since we discussed this issue. But it seems like a good time to reassess things again, particularly as the Tornado Worlds are going on in New Zealand right now.

What’s your view? Do you think the RYA should quit yapping and let bygones be bygones? Or should Rod and his band of rebels continue to battle all the way through to this November?


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Pressure building for an ISAF Revote

20 12 2007

A letter from outgoing ISAF president Arve Sundheim to members of ISAF Council suggests there is unlikely to be a reconsideration of the Olympic events vote taken in Estoril back in early November.

Click here to download a pdf of the letter: isaf-sundheimresponse11dec07.pdf

Sundheim defends the voting procedure and claims that ISAF paid due consideration to the IOC’s requirements.

But pressure is building from national authorities to get a revote next May at the ISAF mid-year meeting in Qingdao. Following Yachting Australia’s and the Royal Yachting Association’s open requests for a revote, Yachting New Zealand is now also looking to do the same, according to a report on Sail World.

The YNZ statement says: “The Board of Yachting New Zealand has resolved to make a submission to the ISAF mid-year meeting requesting that the Events slate for the 2012 Olympic Games be revisited.

“The Board consulted with the Olympic Committee and the High Performance Committee on the matter and made the decision to make such a submission based on the longer term view of the future of sailing at the Olympics rather than the specific medal opportunities at the 2012 Games.”

Hallelujah! Sense prevails after all. Well done to the YNZ board members for being big enough to shift their stance to a more strategic vision rather than the self-serving approach of a few months ago.

Talking of strategy, that is the point that Rod Carr wanted to get across when I spoke to the RYA chief exec earlier today. “We want to see ISAF getting away from ‘sticking plaster’ politics and taking a more strategic approach to the future of the sport,” he said.

“That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing. Even if ISAF said ‘match racing is part of our strategy’, we might not agree with it but we would at least go along with it, if that was part of a strategy that had been properly thought through.”

Carr has had a number of conversations with other national authorities behind the scenes, and is confident that sufficient momentum is building towards a revote next May. Among other nations that are believed to have written to ISAF are Canada, Spain, Austria and Singapore. A few others, like France, have yet to decide whether or not to follow suit.

Meanwhile, the members of the ISAF Athletes Commission are weighing up the possibility of running a questionnaire of all the competitors in the 2008 Olympic class World Championships, most of which are taking place in Australia or New Zealand in the next two months.

If they go ahead with this, it will be interesting to see how Olympic sailors themselves would choose the classes for 2012. We had some indication of that in the SailJuice survey a few weeks ago, although the sample of Olympic sailors was perhaps not sufficient to draw any hard conclusions.

By the way, I’m running an interview with the chairwoman of the Athletes Commission in my newsletter which I’ll be publishing later today. As winner of the past three 470 World Championships, Dutch sailor Marcelien de Koning is arguably the most talented female Olympic sailor currently competing. She has some fascinating insights into teamwork, and believes that sometimes it’s better for a woman to think like a man.

Wow! She could say that, I couldn’t possibly comment!

If you want to find out what Marcelien means, sign up to my SailingTalk Xpress newsletter here, or via the ‘Newsletter’ menu tab at the top of this page.


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Dear Goran…

6 12 2007

rya-letter-sailjuice.jpg

The RYA has stuck its head above the parapet, and fired off a letter of protest to Goran Petersson, President of ISAF.

Battle has commenced.

It’s now a matter of how many other National Authorities the RYA can take with it. Presumably Rod Carr and his troops have not done this without a good deal of consultation behind the scenes.

We can expect Yachting Australia to throw its full support behind this letter, and then it’s a matter of watching how many more will follow. Remember the Just Five to Get a Revote article in SailJuice a few days ago. That’s all that’s needed – in theory – but the RYA will be hoping and expecting that good deal more than five follow them over the top and into battle.

Here’s the letter in full, from RYA representative Chris Atkins to the President:


Dear Goran,

2012 Olympic Sailing Competition – Decision on Events

I write on behalf of the RYA, and many other organisations, commentators and sailors, who believe that the decisions made by ISAF last month on the 2012 Olympic Events are not in the best interests of the sport of sailing throughout the world and should be reviewed. We believe the decisions could prejudice our future as an Olympic sport, and restrict the global growth of sailing, for the reasons highlighted below.

However, if ISAF takes the opportunity to review the decisions in May 2008, the Executive and Council members will then be able to take into account all the comments and feedback that November’s decision has generated, and as a result sailing will be stronger and our future more secure.

1. The decisions weaken sailing as an Olympic sport, and do not comply with IOC guidelines

The IOC has specified that the inclusion of sports within the Olympic Programme should be supported through analysis of each sport against identified criteria, and that to be considered for admission to the Olympic Programme, a sport must show a direct emphasis on youth and development.

IOC’s current evaluation is that sailing has a low number of nations taking part, very low hours of television and number of viewers, high television production costs, and that ISAF has a very high reliance on Olympic revenues.

In its 2002 report, the IOC Commission stated that sailing has a high number of events in comparison to its media appeal, and that its cost and complexity presented challenges to the development of the sport. As a result, in addition to recommending a reduction in the number of events, the Commission noted that keelboat Events are expensive both in Equipment and infrastructure, and recommended the reduction in Events be made through the exclusion of keelboat events.

The 2005 IOC report states that in order to improve the presentation of its sport, ISAF has introduced ‘Equipment innovation introducing faster and more spectacular boats’.

However, the decisions now made by ISAF in November 2007 run counter to both the wishes of the IOC, and ISAF’s earlier response to IOC. These decisions mean that ISAF is:

• removing the highest performance boat (multihull) and choosing not to include a women’s high performance dinghy,

• preserving the more expensive keelboat Equipment and infrastructure, and introducing additional match racing infrastructure cost, and

• preserving those Events that suit the resources and physiques of established Olympic sailing nations and are hardest for new nations to break into.

Given that ISAF has to reduce the number of Events from 11 to 10 in 2012, priority should be given to Events that are lower cost, more globally inclusive, and more spectacular.

2. The current decisions will bring fewer new nations and young sailors into the sport of Sailing

Our Council members are required, when exercising their vote, to ‘have regard to the interest of the sport of yachting throughout the world as a whole’. Sailing federations can only attract public funds and support when there is suitable Equipment available, and there is some prospect of Youth Championship and Olympic competition. Only if we maximise the appeal of Olympic Events among young people, and in emerging sailing countries, will we grow our sport.

ISAF should ensure its Olympic Events, taken as a whole, support a range of athlete physiques and weights to suit all countries, test as wide a range of sailing skills as possible, and appeal to the youth of the world to attract them into sailing, or retain them in the sport. To minimise overheads in-country, ISAF should be maximising commonality between Men and Women events.

Against this background, ISAF’s November decision runs counter to the direction ISAF needs to take because:

• Women have been denied a high performance Event, despite the Men’s high performance Event receiving 34 out of 36 votes. Events Committee recommended increasing the number of high-performance Events by 1, Council decided to reduce it by 1.

• The women’s high performance dinghy would have helped to reduce the loss from our sport of youth women sailors looking to sail a modern 2-person dinghy at the highest level.

• Multihull sailing is common throughout the world, from inexpensive off-the-beach holiday sailing to long distance racing, and could therefore grow nation participation. However ISAF has removed this option and potentially alienated this group of sailors.

• The keelboat is normally the most expensive Equipment for MNAs to support and does not suit typical Asian physique. And now Men’s keelboat racing is fleet racing, Women’s is match. This further increases costs, and makes our sport even harder to explain to the media.

• Match racing events typically support far fewer entrants than fleet racing, and will be the most expensive Olympic event (in terms of officials, number of coaches, and supplied Equipment),

• The skills demanded by Men’s keelboat are very similar to those demanded by both Men’s 1-person dinghies today – for instance many Star competitors have previously competed in the 1-person dinghy Events. Whereas multihull and high performance dinghies typically test different skills, and would therefore enable additional sailors and nations to experience Olympic competition.

3. Voting Procedure

We also believe the amendment to the voting procedure agreed by Council was hasty, and has subsequently been shown to be unwise. The Working Party’s May 2007 report to Executive and Events Committee had identified that no Event should be excluded unless it received less than 50% of votes, either in the first ballot or in a subsequent run-off ballot.

The consequence of Council using a different procedure was that Council never actually made a choice between specific alternatives, and both the Multihull and Women’s High Performance Events have been excluded even though they both received over 50% of votes. In addition the changed procedure opened the door to tactical voting. These are the two main reasons why, we believe, the ISAF Council decision to overturn the recommendation of Events Committee has been greeted with so much disbelief and loss of respect.

We therefore request that ISAF does not nominate to IOC the list of Events for the 2012 Olympic Regatta on 18th March. We request that instead ISAF defers this nomination, and reconsiders the voting procedure and Events decision at its May 2008 Council meeting.

Yours sincerely

Chris Atkins, GBR
ISAF Councillor, Group A

Download the RYA letter to Goran in pdf format


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US Sailing defends its Tactical Voting strategy

26 11 2007

I’ve been trying to find out US Sailing’s reasons for directing their three representatives on ISAF Council to vote the way they did. Sail Magazine editor in the US, Kimball Livingston, beat me to it. Here’s an excerpt of what Kimball managed to elicit from US Sailing’s top brass, Jim Capron and Dean Brenner, respectively the president and chairman of the organisation.

“The Events Committee put up a slate, but the Council typically does not vote the slate,” Capron says. “That was true in 2007, and once that happens each event is back on the table. Our proposal for 5-5 gender equity was voted down, and soon it was apparent that five of seven events were a shoe-in, no matter how US Sailing voted.

“The windsurfer was in, because the rest of the world wants it. That left keelboats and multihulls in question. If we had voted exactly in line with our submission – no to the windsurfer, yes to the rest – it would have been a non-vote because the windsurfer was going to be in. So we had a choice, and the only way we could express that choice was to vote for one and not the other, the keelboat and not the multihull.”

Now we’re switching back to our conversation with Dean Brenner . . .

“We believed that if we voted for both the keelboat and the multihull,” Brenner says, “we were wasting our vote and leaving the final decision to somebody else. It was a close vote. It could have come to a tie, and that means you’ve taken a chance. My dream scenario would have multihulls racing and not boards, but somebody was going to be left out, and the boards were definitely in.”

So US Sailing felt compelled to make a tactical vote. What more evidence does ISAF need that the voting system needs a massive rethink? As I’ve said before, it’s hard to blame US Sailing opting for the keelboat ahead of the multihull when you look at the strength in depth of the Star fleet, and keelboat sailing in the US generally.

US Sailing relies on winning medals to ensure ongoing funding. Over the years the US has had a much stronger track record in the Star than the Tornado (although in Athens the US won a silver in the Tornado and none in the Star). But self-serving decisions such as we’ve seen by US Sailing do not necessarily allow the sport to go in the right direction.

For the global health of the sport, it is exactly this kind of vested interest that ISAF should be seeking to avoid when ISAF Council sits down to vote.

You can read the rest of Kimball Livingston’s interview with US Sailing here…


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The Dutch Angle

22 11 2007

Much of the criticism for the way the ISAF vote went has fallen on the shoulders of the US and RYA members of ISAF Council. For those who haven’t caught up yet, the RYA had control over just one vote, that of Chris Atkins, who in the two contentious votes opted for Multihull rather than Keelboat for the Men, and High Performance Dinghy rather than Match Racing for the Women.

As for US Sailing, if you read through recent comments to SailJuice (including from multiple Olympic medallist in the Star, Mark Reynolds) then you will see some statistics which point to just how much more popular the Star is in the USA, compared with the Tornado. So people can have little complaint with the individual members on Council. My problem, as I said yesterday, is with the constitution of ISAF Council – 39 members, none of whom are actively campaigning an Olympic class.

However, I was surprised to see that Henri Van Der Aat from the Netherlands voted in favour of Men’s Keelboat rather than Multihull. After all, if there’s one sailing nation that is absolutely cat crazy, it’s the Dutch. I have been forwarded a copy of an email that Van Der Aat sent in reply to a request for justification of his vote.

This has been translated from the original Dutch, but hopefully it still gets across the gist of Van Der Aat’s reply.

“You must know who decides how I vote: The ISAF Council Benelux. They determine my vote, it is not a matter of personal taste. One event had to be dropped, that means a lot of lobbying is created. The fact that you approach me AFTER the vote is typical for this process. The wish of remaining Olympic classes should have been brought to the attention of the Dutch authorities earlier and in stronger terms.

“Furthermore it is noted that not very many countries participate in Tornado sailing (in the ISAF Worlds not all slots were filled and the number of countries was disappointing). Our choice was between Star and Tornado, I regret the Tornado lost it. What the catamaran world should do is show how popular they are and see to it that they are in again in 2016.”

Van der Aat also makes a number of other points in his email:

  • Statistics show that Tornado attracts less TV viewers then other disciplines
  • To keep Finn AND Laser makes sense because of the 90+KG and less then 90KG argument
  • A Star campaign does not cost much more then a dinghy or cat campaign
  • Tornado is good to watch but not for 25 minutes, then viewers tend to prefer close battles
  • There is not much Tornado talent in Holland

A few of those bullet points raised my eyebrows, but the one in particular caught my attention. Not much Tornado talent in Holland. Hmmm… Not the way I would have described it. Never mind that other Tornado talent from Belgium which finished runner-up in this year’s Worlds.

Nor would I have thought that the onus of responsibility lies with catamaran fans to lobby their national authority of their desire to see the Multihull stay in the Olympics. Seems that if a national authority is doing its job, it already has a good idea of what its represented members feel strongly about, and if it doesn’t, it goes out and asks them. Not just make assumptions based on where the strongest lobbying noise has come from.

That said, once again we see the comment about the Tornado not being particularly well supported worldwide. This was born out in the Bums On Seats analysis I did weeks ago. If the multihull community is serious about getting reinstated into the Olympics, it needs to address the perceptions of elitism and inaccessibility.


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What the IOC would like to have seen?

15 11 2007

An interesting document arrived in my inbox this evening. I’ve included an excerpt below. It’s from the Olympic Programme Commission Review of the Olympic Programme and the Recommendations on the Programme of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, Beijing 2008.

Catchy title, isn’t it! It was published in August 2002.

Here’s the bit that might interest you….

3.1.4 Recommendations on the events/athlete quotas of sports currently in the Olympic Programme

While noting that a full review of the event programme and athlete quotas for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad would be conducted following the decisions on sports and disciplines, the Commission developed certain recommendations on the events or athletes quotas in the following sports on the programme of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad:

Sailing (ISAF) – Reduction in athlete quota and number of events

In comparison with other individual sports, the Commission noted the high quota and number of events in sailing, in comparison to the low broadcast and spectator appeal. In addition, the cost and complexity of the operations of the sailing competition were discussed, with the resulting challenges for general practice and development of the sport.

The Commission therefore recommends the reduction of the athlete quota and number of events in the sport of sailing for the Programme of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad.

It was noted that the Keelboat class are very expensive boats and demand costly infrastructure for Olympic competition, and for general practice and development in comparison to other classes. Therefore, if the Executive Board recommends the reduction in the number of athletes and events, the Commission believes these reductions could be made through the exclusion of keelboat sailing events from the Programme of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, which would also reduce the construction and operational costs and complexity.

There, I thought you’d find that interesting…

The ISAF Council members who voted for a keelboat at the expense of a multihull or women’s skiff are playing fast and loose with sailing’s Olympic status. Considering what a large proportion of ISAF’s income stems from sailing’s inclusion in the Olympics, this is a dangerous game to be playing.

Bear in mind that these recommendations were for 2008. Last week’s decision means ISAF has ignored these recommendations for yet another Olympic cycle.

If you want to see this excerpt in its full context, you can find the document here on the Olympic.org website


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Women’s Match Racing: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

14 11 2007
Carol Cronin is one of the best female keelboat sailors in the USA. A regular podium finisher at international Yngling regattas and match race events, she was US Olympic representative in the Yngling for Athens 2004. Here she offers her view on last week’s decision by ISAF to introduce Women’s Match Racing to the Olympic roster.


As usual with ISAF meetings, it wasn’t over until the Council finally sang. And recent history tells us it’s still not really over, not until next year when the equipment is chosen.

Remember 1999? Only two Olympic quads ago, Council selected keelboat match racing as the new women’s medal for 2004. One year later, they backpedaled to women’s keelboat fleet racing and selected the Yngling as the newest member of the Olympic family. Yes that was then, and this is 2007/8. But has anything really changed?

The answer, fortunately, is yes. Equipment options are better now, and the equipment is a very, very big issue for match racing since boats will be supplied. Over the past eight years the Yngling has been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, but droop hiking is considered too dangerous for match racing’s signature tight maneuverings so it is unlikely to be reselected.

In 2000, other classes considered included the J/22, a well respected class sailed around the world – usually by four women, rather than three. The Sonar has a similar crew weight issue, and the Lightning is not quite a keelboat. That’s how we ended up with the Yngling.

For 2012, two designs just granted ISAF recognized class status can be added to the list of possibilities: the Laser SB3 and the Ultimate 20. The SB3 has a very solid builder behind it, but it is a young class with little support as of yet outside of Europe. The U20 has a similar continental issue: little support as of yet outside the US. Politics and marketing savvy will, as usual, play a pivotal role in the equipment decision. (Note: I’m not a big Sonar fan, but they are already used in the Paralympics, which are held a month or so after the Games. Surely it would make sense to use the same basic equipment for two keelboat classes?)

Assuming ISAF doesn’t reverse itself and match racing equipment is decided next November as scheduled, locations around the world (we can only hope) will order a fleet of boats, and any serious team will buy at least one. Since builders can’t afford to stockpile boats hoping to get the ISAF nod, the chosen one had better be able to gear up production in a hurry.

Leadership in women’s match racing has also improved dramatically since 1999, but they have some big hurdles to overcome if the match racing medal is going to hang tough through next year’s meetings. One of the biggest issues to address is who pays the logistics bill. Match racing requires a fleet of equally matched boats and sails, umpire boats and umpires, a very qualified race committee and extra mark boats, a “fixit” boat, and someone to keep track of all the equipment between events.

Successful venues around the world have managed to attract sponsors to cover these costs, and a well-presented Olympic circuit could be a very desirable product. Match racing will not, contrary to some theories, reduce competitor expenses. The only savings I can see is boat shipping, which is a very small piece of an annual Olympic budget and covered by many national federations. Sailors will still have to own at least one boat and cover travel and coaching expenses.

Another issue is forming a regatta circuit. Because of the specialized logistical requirements of match racing, many of the Grade 1’s that makes up the current Olympic circuit (Miami, Palma, Hyeres, Medemblik, Kiel) will not be able to incorporate it into their events. If solutions are not found before next year’s meetings, Council may run back to the relative safety and ease of fleet racing – just as they did in 2000.

The greatest thing about having women’s match racing selected is also the saddest thing: the level will climb even faster. By incorporating a successful standalone, separate category of high-level sailing into the Olympic family, women’s match racing will lose many of the part-time sailors that have up until now been able to participate in top quality sailing at a minimal cost. Olympic sailing is a full time job, and there are already few enough events on the women’s match racing calendar open to anyone outside the top 20 in the rankings. With dreams of Olympic glory now on the field of play, invitations to the top events will become even more selective.

Women’s match racing gained a very important piece of recognition at the 2007 ISAF meetings, but now comes the hard part: building that momentum into a viable member of the Olympic sailing family that can withstand the intense lobbying to come. My bet is that the current leaders of women’s match racing are up to the task. But I will wait to see what Council decides next year, after 12 more months of politics and with the likely memory of a light and lumpy Olympics still a bad taste in the backs of most mouths.

For now, I have to agree with the wise words of one Olympic hopeful: just get on with it and tell us what to rig.

Carol Newman Cronin, LiveWireSailing.com


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One (moderately) happy customer for the new Olympics

13 11 2007
Last week we profiled Silja Lehtinen, a top Finnish sailor who races at the highest levels of skiff sailing, match racing and Yngling fleet racing. Now the decision has been made, we asked Lehtinen to give her assessment of the future for Olympic sailing.


“I liked Gary Jobson’s idea of a singlehanded dinghy, high performance dinghy and team racing for both men and women. With a few media attractive classes and smaller number of participating people, sailing would become more interesting for the public.

The best of the best would be even closer than now and it would be easier for outsiders to get to know the boats and people. Olympic classes have to be either affordable or media attractive so that more people can afford an Olympic campaign or find sponsors.

Now, no one else than other sailors cares about the almost 20 Olympic gold medallists in sailing, not to mention the 40 silver and bronze medallists, and variety of different boats just makes it all way too complicated for the media. But that is another story.

It is easy to comment and throw interesting and extreme suggestions when you don’t have to make the final decision… but here are my thoughts on ‘The Case’.

This decision by ISAF to take match racing for girls instead of high performance dinghy and leave Tornado out was very interesting.

No High Performance Dinghy (HPD) for girls

It is really too bad for skiff sailors, as I think a women’s HPD would have made both 29er and 49er fleets stronger. And actually it is a shame for all sailors in general.

Skiffs can compete with the interest in snowboarding and surfing and attract more kids into sailing, which is at least as important for the future of sailing as media appeal, although these two things often go hand in hand.

To get kids’ interest it is also very important how sailing is organised locally. But it is still a lot to do with the path, from youth class to an Olympic class.

Match Racing for girls

For me personally, either the HPD or match racing is fine and I am excited about either. Match racing has many good aspects and I don’t think it was a bad decision to bring women’s match racing to the Games. I would have taken both!

Good things about match racing are that you can do very high level sailing with low costs as you don’t have to own a boat. You don’t need brand new sails or the fastest possible boats either. The main thing is that the boats are equal. It comes to the skill of the sailors, not the ability to find or afford the best possible equipment. You can be part of a match racing centre and boats are provided at regattas.

The problem is that there are not yet match racing centres everywhere. But hopefully there will be. Besides, to train for match racing you only need to find two similar boats of pretty much any kind, so you don’t necessarily need a match racing centre to train or compete.

Another good thing about women’s match racing is that there is already a strong and big group of people doing it. Match racing has potential to raise the number of girls (and boys!) in sailing because of its low cost. And with good commentators and even competitors it can be even exciting to watch.

It will be interesting to see what boats will get selected for the match racing and how it really works in practice. I hope they will provide the boats at the Games which would keep the focus in match racing on boat handling, sail trimming and tactics. Keep equipment tuning out of it.


Tornado gone

I don’t have any experience of that boat. It is spectacular but also immensely expensive. So people looking at it and thinking, “Wow! How can I get to do that?” might soon think, “Never mind, I will never be able to afford that.” But cost is not only a problem in Tornado, there are many other classes that are just way too expensive, and of those classes Tornado is maybe the most spectacular one… not easy
decisions.


The Future

In the future I hope to see both a high performance dinghy and match racing in the Olympics for both men and women. Affordable, spectacular and fun! The expensive and dull classes of the Olympics should be left for Friday night billionaire club racing.”


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