The busiest day so far at World Sailing’s 2020 Annual Conference saw four meetings take place on Wednesday 28 October, with three of them broadcast live on World Sailing’s YouTube channel.

The Constitution, Oceanic and Offshore, and Events Committees all convened throughout the day, while the World Sailing Trust also held a Panel Discussion on Gender and Geographical Diversity.

One of the highlights of the Conference so far, the Trust’s Panel Discussion ran between 14:00-15:00 UTC and featured a range of interesting and engaging speakers.

Click here to read more about the discussion, or re-watch the livestream below:

The Events Committee held their second meeting of the Conference from 20:00-23:00 UTC, with Sarah Kenny as Chair and Alastair Fox, World Sailing’s Director of Events, as Committee Manager.

Offshore sailing was a key theme throughout the day across several meetings.

The new Offshore Doubles class was presented by President Larry Rosenfeld in both the Events and the Oceanic and Offshore Committee meetings, and an update was provided on its progress so far. Click here to find out more information or to register.

The Events Committee received updates from the Oceanic & Offshore Committee and the Equipment Committee on plans for the Offshore equipment for Paris 2024, reviewing proposals on the Offshore format and qualification system for Paris 2024 as well as a Ranking system for Offshore sailing.

Further updates on Paris 2024 were also provided, presented by Alastair Fox, while Stefan Rahm, Chair of the Format Working Party, presented an excellent report on proposed new formats and on the presentation of the sport. The discussion focused on formats for Windsurfing, Kiteboarding and Offshore, as well as Event names for Paris 2024.

Proposals for the qualification system were reviewed, with the Sailing World Championships in The Hague, The Netherlands in 2023 set to be the major Olympic qualifier. Elsewhere, Submission 037-20 regarding the Tokyo 2020 Slate of Events was rejected.

Plans for the 2021 and 2022 Youth Sailing World Championships were also reviewed, and an update on the Youth Event Strategy was presented. Submission 033-20 regarding Kiteboarding was approved by the Committee.

Finally, the Committee discussed Match Racing, and received a report on key activities throughout 2020.

This meeting was streamed live on YouTube – you can watch again below:

The Oceanic and Offshore Committee Meeting ran from 16:00-19:00 UTC, with Stan Honey as Chair, and Simon Forbes, World Sailing’s Offshore Technical Manager, as Committee Manager.

Regarding the Equipment Criteria and Equipment Selection Procedure for the Mixed Two Person Keelboat Offshore Event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Committee supported Submission 030-20, with an amendment to reduce the minimum boat length to 6.5m to include the Class Mini.

Recognising that the new Olympic discipline needs organisation, the Committee proposed that World Sailing recognise a partnership between World Sailing and the Offshore Doubles Association to promote the Event and, more broadly, the discipline of double handed offshore racing.

The Working Party on Keel Improvements, chaired by Jason Smithwick, reported on its proposals to the International Standard Organisation regarding the increase of the designed fatigue life of yacht keels. This project will continue; the Committee’s view is that there should not be different construction standards applied to production yachts and boats used for racing.

The Universal Measurement System Working Party continues to coordinate the measurements used by the World Sailing recognised Rating Systems (ORC and IRC).

Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) and International Rating Certificate (IRC) Rating Systems presented their annual reports. Due to the pandemic and cessation of international championships, ORC and IRC reported a decrease in certificates issued.

However, the introduction of the ORC Double Handed certificate this year has proven to be very popular – there were 2,458 certificates issued in 23 countries.

Alastair Fox reported on plans for the 2021 World Sailing Offshore World Championships using the L30 One Design. The format for the Offshore Worlds, as well as the number of L30 yachts available, will be reviewed. Potential venues were discussed and Malta (the proposed location of the cancelled 2020 Worlds) was highlighted as a preference, given the existing relationship with the Royal Malta Yacht Club. Plans were made to confirm the dates and venue of the Offshore Worlds and publish the qualification system (including the possibility of continental qualification) by December 2020.

The application for Class Status from the L30 One Design did not meet the global distribution requirements, and the Committee did not consider the class to serve a unique aspect of sailing to recommend waiving this requirement. The Committee will consider the application again once it meets the minimum global requirements.

The OOC also received the report from the Special Regulations Sub-committee and approved two submissions recommended for approval. These related to alignment with the Racing Rules of Sailing 2021-24, and a rating system abbreviation no longer in use. It was noted that the Offshore Special Regulations (OSR) requirements for Structural Inspection have been clarified by a set of Frequently Asked Questions. The Chairman of the SRSC, Will Apold, highlighted other matters considered, including incident reports and medical commission papers relating to Offshore Sailing,

Reports were also received on Sailor Categorisation, Oceanic Concordat of Major Oceanic Event Organisers, World Sailing Speed Record Council and International Regulations Commission.

This meeting was streamed live on YouTube – you can watch again below:

The second Constitution Committee meeting of the week took place from 07:00-09:00 UTC, ending with a session closed to observers. It was chaired by Graham McKenzie, with Kendall Harris, Director of Legal and Governance at World Sailing, as Committee Manager.

The Committee finalised its recommendations and opinions to Council, and also noted a request that the Executive Office work with the Vice Chair to review the Regulations and consider whether it is possible to make the Regulations gender neutral (as they currently refer to ‘Chairman’ and ‘he’).

They concluded that it is difficult when the Regulations are translated, because ensuring gender neutrality is not straightforward in some languages, but the Committee supported the request to consider it further.

The meeting was recorded in BlueJeans and is now available on World Sailing’s YouTube channel. You can watch it back below:

From 15:00 - 18:00 UTC, World Sailing's Events Committee will meet virtually at the 2020 Annual Conference.