World Sailing’s Virtual Mid-Year Meeting commenced on Monday 10 May with the Equipment Committee and Events Committee both meeting.

The Equipment Committee, Chaired by Jurgen Cluytmans (BEL) met from 1000 – 1200 UTC before the Events Committee, Chaired by John Derbyshire (GBR), convened from 2000 – 2200 UTC. The meetings were the first of two the Committees will hold this week, with the next sessions scheduled for the same times on Tuesday 11 May.

The Equipment Committee moved through the early part of their agenda, available HERE, and did not discuss the submissions put forward for the 2021 Mid-Year Meeting.

The Events Committee moved straight into discussing the submissions on the table and made their recommendations. Their agenda is available HERE.

Events Committee (watch the session back HERE)

Chaired by John Derbyshire (GBR) with Sofia Tedin (ARG) as Vice Chair, the Committee is comprised of a number of experienced event organisers and experienced sailors, including Olympians and coaches.

Following an introduction by Derbyshire, Tedin presented the Combined Events and Equipment Committee Working Party assessment of Alternative Events for 2024 Olympic Games. The Working Party conducted an extensive assessment on all of the submissions put forward for alternative events.

The Working Party tested the submissions against objective criteria including:
– Keep full gender equality on both number of events and athlete quotas
– Alternative mixed-gender events or split of currently approved mixed events into men’s and women’s events
– Should have been previously tested at the respective World Championships organised by World Sailing
– Use of existing venues / fields of play

The Working Party established that Submission M01-21, Individual Men’s and Women’s Kiteboarding Events and Submission M02-21, Individual Men’s and Women’s Two Person Dinghy Events, satisfied all of that criteria. From there, they assessed the Submissions against the subjective IOC criteria which was broken down into seven areas of review: align with Olympic Agenda 2020+5, Prioritise universality, Minimise cost and complexity, Format, Youth appeal, Equipment and Media. The Working Party scored each submission subjectively on a five-point scale; they scored Submission M01-21 26 out of 35 and Submission M02-21 18 out of 35.

Having taken this assessment on board, the Events Committee moved to the Submissions and out of the 15, only Submission M01-21 and Submission M02-21 received a proposer and a seconder.

The Events Committee moved to a vote.

Submission M02-21 received seven votes and Submission M01-21 received six. This means that the Events Committee propose the Individual Men’s and Women’s Two Person Dinghy as the first alternative event and the Individual Men’s and Women’s Kiteboarding as the second alternative event.

This recommendation will now go to World Sailing’s Council who will meet on Friday 14 May. They will discuss and vote on the submissions. The outcome of the process will be a decision of two alternative event proposals, ranked in order of preference, ahead of the IOC deadline, which is 26 May 2021.

The Events Committee will resume on Tuesday 11 May at 2000 UTC.

Equipment Committee (watch the session back HERE)

The Equipment Committee features a large number of experienced boat builders, Olympic sailors, International Measurers and experienced sailors with a wide-ranging variety of skillsets.

As part of a broad agenda, the Committee heard from various Equipment Committee Working Parties to open the session. Brief updates were given on Class Status reviews, the class application process and the One Design Quality Control Strategy.

The importance of safety in sailing was raised and members discussed the World Sailing Incident Reporting Portal. Available HERE, World Sailing requires that an incident be reported if it involves a World Sailing organised or recognised event, any training at or prior to World Sailing recognised events, and any training or racing at events run by a World Sailing MNA.

The purpose of the reporting portal is to ensure MNAs, Classes and Rating systems report relevant information regarding incidents occurring in training or racing, in order to share best practice and raise awareness of increasing safety concerns.

To conclude the session, the Equipment Committee discussed the deferred applications for World Sailing Class Association Status from RS21, IKA Snowkite and iQFOil. The Committee noted the deferral of Snowkite and IQFOil and put forward a recommendation to Council to approve the RS21 as a World Sailing Class Association.
The Equipment Committee will meet again on Tuesday 11 May from 1000 – 1200 UTC to continue their agenda and discuss the submissions.

Watch the Equipment Committee Meeting at the 2021 Mid-Year Meeting on Monday 10 May 2021.