10 November - 2016 Annual Conference Recap

Thursday’s session at the 2016 Annual Conference saw the Committee meetings of Events, Constitution and Oceanic & Offshore as the debate and discussion in advance of World Sailing Council’s meeting on 11 and 12 November concluded.

The day opened with a statement from President Carlo Croce and the Board of World Sailing. Click here for the statement.
 
An announcement of Santander, Spain and Kiel, Germany as host venues of the 2017 and 2018 Sailing World Cup Final followed, generating conversation around the Renaissance Fira Hotel.
 
Events Committee
 
As a Committee, Events features several experienced and well decorated sailors and team leaders. Names such as Alejandro Abascal, Spain’s first Olympic sailing gold medallist, Sari Multala (FIN), three-time World Champion and Olympian, 2008 Olympian and Chairman of the Athletes’ Commission Yann Rocherieux and a number of Olympic sailing team leaders sit on the Committee.
 
A Rio 2016 Olympic review opened the meeting with a number of records presented. Sixty-six nations sailed at Rio 2016 and 17 nations won medals, both numbers were records for sailing. A full overview of the Olympic Games including sports presentation, broadcasting, qualification and the competition itself was given.
 
Tokyo, Japan will host the next edition of the Olympic Games in 2020 and Enoshima, the 1964 venue, will hold the sailing competition. Preparation for Tokyo 2020 is full on and teams have already started to train and compete on the waters.
 
The International Olympic Committees Agenda 2020 was a leading topic with gender equity, innovation, format and the possibility of showcase events all discussed.
 
Looking further afield, a presentation on the 2024 Olympic Games was received. A decision on who will host the 2024 Olympic Games will be made in September 2017 during the IOC Session in Lima, Peru. The following cities / nations are bidding to host the 2024 Games with their sailing venue recommendations below:

• Budapest, Hungary – Lake Balaton
• Los Angeles, USA – Long Beach
• Paris, France – Marseilles

 
To get to the Olympic Games sailors often go through the youth pathway, sailing at the Youth Olympic Games and the Youth Sailing World Championships.
 
Buenos Aires, Argentina will host the next edition of YOG in 2018 and the committee received a report on how YOG is a laboratory for sporting innovation, aiming to reach and engage the youth of the world.  Coming up next though will be the Auckland 2016 Youth Sailing World Championships in New Zealand from 14-20 December. A progress report was received from the Youth Worlds Sub-committee and the Auckland 2016 organisers are set to host a memorable championship.
 
A number of submissions placed on the table were discussed and the committee made their relevant recommendations to World Sailing’s Council.
 
#OurSustainableFuture
 
We caught up with Spain’s Alejandro Abascal, 1980 Flying Dutchman gold medallist and Events Committee to hear his thoughts on #OurSustainableFuture.
 
#OurSustainableFuture is so important for Alejandro Abascal, the first gold medallist in the history of Spanish sailing and he commented, “I would kindly ask the sailors to be more careful with garbage and waste in the boat parks, and the event organisers around the world to have separate waste collection systems for recycling, as we did at the World Sailing Championships in 2014 in Santander.”

We’ve been catching up with some sailors and delegates at the conference, finding out about their thoughts on #OurSustainableFuture, using the hashtag that followers of the conference are engaging in. Stay tuned on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for more this week.
 
Oceanic and Offshore Committee
 
The Oceanic and Offshore Committee meeting began with updates from the working parties to the Committee and observers. The working party presentations included the universal measurement system regarding unified boat passports for rating systems, the World Sailing incident reporting scheme which would investigate offshore incidents to learn about safety in the discipline and structural integrity to investigate a scheme for in-build inspection of new racing yachts.
 
Reports followed with presentations from the three international rating systems – ORCi, ORC Club and the IRC.
 
From the reports, the discussion moved to the submissions which included a lengthy debate about an IRC World Championship. This resulted in a recommendation for a combined rating World Championship in 2018 (Submission 045-16). The recommendation was voted a unanimous yes. The decision is subject to ratification by World Sailing Council and further work from the respective rating systems.
 
Included in the meeting was a discussion around ideas for Offshore sailing in the Olympic Games. Ideas included overnight offshore racing, on-board video and virtual regattas to compliment the showcase.
 
With the meetings programme concluding on Thursday, the recommendations and reports will now go to World Sailing’s Council who will meet on Friday 11 November from 13:00 – 18:00 local time, 12:00 – 17:00 UTC. The meeting will be streamed LIVE on YouTube here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnjyYImB3V4            

By Daniel Smith / Richard Aspland – World Sailing
 
Information on how to follow the 2016 Annual Conference is available below:
 
LIVE BLOG
 
World Sailing’s LIVE Annual Conference Blog will report directly from the meeting rooms for the duration of the event. The blog can be found here – http://www.sailing.org/media/2016-annual-conference-blog.php.
 
GET INVOLVED ON SOCIAL MEDIA
 
Followers are encouraged to get involved with the 2016 Annual Conference by using the official hashtag #OurSustainableFuture across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The best posts will be aggregated on the Annual Conference Social Wall which will be on display at the conference venue, the Renaissance Fira Hotel, and online here – www.sailing.org/media/2016-annual-conference-social-wall.php 
 
Follow World Sailing on:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/ISAFWorldSailing
Instagram – https://instagram.com/isafworldsailing/
Twitter – @worldsailing
Snapchat – Follow our Story on Snapchat, search for worldsailing
 
LIVE VIDEO STREAMS
 
World Sailing’s YouTube Channel will be broadcasting live from the 2016 Annual Conference. The Opening Address, Forums on Sustainability, Para World Sailing, the meeting of Council and the General Assembly will all be streamed live. The feeds are available here – https://www.youtube.com/user/isafchannel/videos?shelf_id=11&live_view=502&sort=dd&view=2
 
NEWS UPDATES
 
World Sailing will be posting daily recaps on sailing.org throughout the Annual Conference. In addition, a number of press releases touching on the hot topics of discussion as well as special announcements will be issued across the week.

By Daniel Smith – World Sailing
 
World Sailing 2016 Annual Conference Partners

The World Sailing 2016 Annual Conference is supported by:

• FAREAST Yachts – http://www.fareastboats.com/en/home
• Bart’s Bash – http://www.bartsbash.com/
• GAC Pindar – http://www.gac.com/gac-pindar/
• Zhik – https://www.zhik.com/
• Mexico – http://www.rivieranayarit.com/
• Sarasota – http://sports.visitsarasota.org/

About World Sailing’s Annual Conference
 
World Sailing’s Annual Conference brings together up to 700 delegates every first full week of November. It is the central meeting point where the strategy of sailing is reviewed, discussed and celebrated.
 
Over the Annual Conference, participants plan for the future, make key decisions to drive the sport forward, share best practice and generate new ideas.
 
The 2016 Annual Conference will be held in Barcelona, Spain at the Hotel Renaissance Barcelona Fira from 5-13 November.

About the General Assembly
 
The General Assembly of World Sailing takes places every four years. It is on this occasion that the World Sailing Board of Directors (President and Vice-Presidents) and members of the World Sailing Council automatically retire.
 
All full World Sailing Member National Authorities (MNAs) are entitled to be represented at the General Assembly and to vote for the new President and the seven Vice-Presidents.
 
MNAs can nominate members for the World Sailing Board of Directors, Council, Committees, Sub-Committees and Commissions.
 
The next World Sailing General Assembly will take place on Sunday 13 November 2016 from 09:30 – 13:30.