SailJuice Blog

Following the SailJuice interview with the RYA’s Stephen Park a few weeks ago, some better news for women’s match racing. The International Sailing Federation has announced that the Women’s Match Racing events and new Elliott 6m equipment have been confirmed for the final events of the 2008-2009 ISAF Sailing World Cup.

Alastair Fox, ISAF Events Manager, said: “ISAF is delighted to announce Women’s Match Racing events will be going ahead at the final three events of the ISAF Sailing World Cup, along with the debut of the new Elliott 6m equipment. Thanks to great co-operation between the ISAF Sailing World Cup event organizers and ISAF’s Member National Authorities, we will be able to introduce the Elliott 6m at the earliest possible opportunity, using literally the first eight boats in production. It is a great opportunity to showcase both the new… Read the rest

I’ve done an interview with Carolijn Brouwer on SailJuice.com. Here’s an excerpt:

Carolijn Brouwer is a talented sailor who has competed in three Olympic Games in three different classes. Most recently it was steering the Tornado in Qingdao, the only woman in the fleet. The Belgian sailor is also President of the International Tornado Association (ITA), and so SailJuice contacted Brouwer to find out the latest on the possibility of a multihull getting back into the Olympics for Weymouth 2012.

SailJuice (SJ): Hi Carolijn, what do you know?

Carolijn Brouwer (CB): The IOC have a meeting around the middle of August when the 11th medal should be discussed. The ISAF mid-year meeting is coming up in May in Poland, and the ITA has put in a submission to ISAF concerning the 11th medal and the

… Read the rest

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… Read the rest

The Royal Yachting Association has welcomed the International Sailing Federation’s move to reconsider the slate of sailing events for the 2012 Olympic Games.

It’s press statement says:

A controversial decision by ISAF Council during its annual conference in November 2007 led to the decision not to include a modern high performance dinghy for women, the expulsion of the multihull event and the introduction of a match racing format for the women’s keelboat event.

The RYA lobbied ISAF and fellow Member National Authorities, believing that the decisions taken were not in the best interests of the sport of sailing throughout the world, and requested that ISAF reviewed its decision on three grounds:

• That the current list of events will not maximise media interest.
• That the decisions are likely to attract fewer nations and young sailors into the sport of sailing

… Read the rest

If you’ve just put your Tornado up for sale, then withdraw it from the market immediately!

ISAF has just published a new submission that might interest you.

Yes, it’s official. The Events for the 2012 Olympics are back on the agenda.

Here is what the new Submission says:

REPORTING COMMITTEE – EXECUTIVE

Submission: M06-08

OTHER COMMITTEE – EVENTS

2012 Olympic Events

A submission from the Executive Committee

Proposal:

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

Upon reaffirmation, the matter will be concluded and all submissions made whether
accepted as urgent or not urgent, will be considered to have been dealt with.

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

1. Should the selected events for the Men… Read the rest

No word from ISAF as to the number of submissions it has received in relation to the Olympic Events for Weymouth 2012. SailJuice emailed the Federation at the beginning of the day to request a list of national authorities who had made formal submissions, but all quiet on the western front.

I’m not surprised we haven’t heard anything yet. I’m also quite encouraged by the fact, as word on the (moderately reliable) grapevine is that there are a few more nations, other than the ones already mentioned on this blog, who have made formal submissions.

There is another encouraging element to all this, which is that it’s not just the wealthy or the big nations kicking up a fuss. We’ve already mentioned the support from some African nations for a revote, and there is also a submission from Bermuda and… Read the rest

Submission deadline is just about passed, and to date this is the known list of national authorities who SailJuice believes have made a submission to ISAF on the issue of Olympic Events 2012:

AUS

GBR

CAN

DEN

GRE

NED

NZL

SIN

HKG

SWE

FRA

AUT

oh yes, and RUS

Below is a copy of the letter sent by the Russian Federation to ISAF. If anyone knows of any other national authorities who have made a submission relating to this issue, please let us know in the comments section. Anyone surprised at some of the nations that aren’t there, by the way? USA, anyone?

A new global cat-racing organisation has been formed in the wake of the multihull community’s outrage at seeing the Tornado thrown out of the Olympic Games. The newly established International Multihull Council (IMC) intends to make sure the cat sailors have a voice that will be heard by the International Sailing Federation.

IMC president Paul Pascoe explains the reasons for setting up the organisation. “The decision of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) to exclude any Multihull Event from the 2012 Olympic Games has shown that we cannot entirely rely on others to promote our interests, so need to establish our own organisation to do so.

“As there is no representation for Multihulls within ISAF, either formally through a Multihull Committee, or informally, through the interests of individual Councillors, national multihull associations from several leading ISAF Member National Authorities (MNA)… Read the rest