Daily review - 6 November - 2017 Annual Conference

World Sailing’s 2017 Annual Conference was in full swing on Monday 6 November with another batch of meetings.
 
Topics of discussion ranged from Olympic classes, the future strategy of the World Match Racing Tour, In-House Certification and the development of regional games.
 
Throughout the week, World Sailing are reporting live from the meeting rooms on the hot topics of debate and discussion via the Annual Conference blog. Click here – www.sailing.org/media/2017-annual-conference-blog.php – to view the blog.
 
To get involved with the discussion head to World Sailing’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and use #UnitingOurSport.
 
World Match Racing Tour taking notice of America’s Cup decisions
 
The Match Racing Sub-committee received a report from the organisers of the World Match Racing Tour. The recent series concluded in Shenzhen, China and Torvar Mirsky claimed the title, racing on the M32 multihull. The famous Congressional Cup was the only World Championship event in 2017 that featured monohulls.
 
Following the announcement that the 36th America’s Cup will move from multihulls to monohulls, the WMRT are taking notice. For the 2018 Tour, there will be a mixture of multihull and monohull events and the WMRT team are inviting monohull event organisers to come forward with proposals for inclusion in the tour.
 
In addition, the Sub-committee also looked ahead to the 2018 Blind Match Racing World Championships. The Royal Northern Clyde Yacht Club of Helensburgh has come forward to host the event, subject to the signing of the event contract. The 2018 edition is likely to take place at the end of August, or first week of September in 2018.
 
Positive discussions around the Olympic Games
 
The Olympic Classes Sub-committee is made up of representatives from the 49er/49erFX, 470s, Laser/Radial, RS:X, Nacra 17 and Finn.
 
Discussions ranged from the immediate strategy of Sailing’s World Cup Series to the longer-term goals and aims from 2021 to 2028.
 
The next World Championships of all the Olympic classes will be in 2018 at the Aarhus Sailing World Championships. Klaus Natorp, Events Director of Aarhus 2018, delivered a full report on the progression of the championship. More than 1,200 sailors will compete at Aarhus 2018 and the city will come alive for the championships.
 
Aarhus 2018 is the first qualification event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The Sub-committee also reviewed qualification systems for Tokyo which will discussed and debated further at the Events Committee and World Sailing Council later this week. 
 
Ensuring fair and equal equipment for all
 
The Equipment Rules Sub-committee discussed the World Sailing In-House Certification (IHC) Programme.
 
This is a scheme whereby satisfactory equipment control is achieved and equipment certified by manufactures through the application of a Certification Quality Management System under licence issued by World Sailing directly or via a World Sailing delegate.
 
IHC applies to manufacturers. As most manufacturers are not class specific, the scheme is not class-specific however classes have a clear role within the programme through the enhancement of equipment control specifications and hands on control training. This makes the class associations, together with manufacturers and MNAs, firm stakeholders in the Programme.
 
World Sailing is aiming to expand the IHC Programme over the coming months and years.
 
Regional Games aiming for Para World Sailing inclusion

There are numerous regional games held around the world. From the Pan-Am Games, All African Games, Mediterranean Games and Pacific Games, the variety is great.
 
The Regional Games Sub-committee continuously look to include sailing in regional events with the discussion today centred around inclusion into the South East Asian Games.
 
In addition to this, the Sub-committee are working on engaging with Regional Games organisers to include Para World Sailing. Most recently, Para World Sailing was included in the European Para Youth Games.
 
The Sub-committee will also be looking to raise standards of all Regional Games by creating guidelines for event delivery.
 
Tuesday 7 November
 
The meetings and debates continues on Tuesday 7 November with the Constitution Committee, Race Officials Committee, Special Regulations Sub-committee and Women’s Forum.
 
Sustainability will be the main topic of debate at the second open forum. World Sailing will be launching Sustainability Agenda 2030 as well as hearing from a line up of expert speakers.
 
The forum will be streamed live on the World Sailing Network from 14:30 local time here – https://youtu.be/ChLA7Rq8L9E