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Annual Conference wraps up in Sanya, China
A two day meeting of the ISAF
Council followed by the Annual General Meeting drew the 2015 Annual
Conference to a close in Sanya, China.
More than 500 delegates met on the Chinese island of Hainan from 7 – 14
November to make the decisions that will shape the future of sailing into
the new year. The meeting of ISAF Council, the final decision making body
of ISAF, voted on the recommendations made by the ISAF committees
throughout the week.
ISAF President Carlo Croce delivered his report to ISAF Council on 13
November touching on the spirit within the current ISAF Executive Committee
as well as the goals of the federation. The report is available to view on
the ISAF website here - http://www.sailing.org/news/41430.php
ISAF Vice
Presidents' Reports
Nazli Imre gave an overview of the activity within training and development
at ISAF. The 2015 Emerging Nations Program was reviewed and was viewed as
success with five continental clinics bringing in 105 sailors and 48
coaches from 38 nations. As a result of spreading the sport, the 2015 Youth
Worlds is set to be a record breaker. Sailors from 80 nations will head to
Langkawi this December, smashing the previous record of 67 nations.
ISAF Vice President Gary Jobson gave an overview of the Committees he
covers such as Racing Rules and the Oceanic and Offshore Committee as well
as giving an update on the Marketing and Media activities. Jobson also
spoke about the Live TV at the World Cup events throughout 2015 and
outlined the plans to push ahead for further live coverage in 2016 building
up to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Chris Atkins has been working closely with ISAF's Race Officials, most
notably those who were at the Aquece Rio – International Sailing Regatta
where he was able to see first-hand the expectations and pressures the Race
Officials were on. Atkins praised them for their decisions and their
continued diligence and excellence. Atkins also touched upon the upcoming
African qualification regatta for the Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition.
Algeria will hold the first qualifier in the Laser, Laser Radial and RS:X
and will feature sailors from 10 nations gunning for a single spot.
Quanhai Li spoke about the success of Sailing World Cup Qingdao which acted
as a Rio 2016 Olympic qualifier in the Men's and Women's 470, Finn and
Nacra 17. Li mentioned that there were 200 volunteers and 120 media in
attendance.
Scott Perry has been looking after Para World Sailing and mentioned that
the upcoming 2015 Para World Sailing Championships in Melbourne, Australia
will welcome a total of 31 nations to the event with a possibility of 2 -3
further countries.
Adrienne Greenwood gave an update on the 2015 ISAF Youth Match Racing World
Championship in Swinoujscie, Poland. Sam Gilmour (AUS) overcame Joachim
Aschenbrenner (DEN) in what was a reversal of the result from the inaugural
World Championship in Helsinki, Finland in 2014. The event continues to
grow with bids to be received for the 2017 edition early next year.
Greenwood also spoke about the ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championship
which was won by ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year nominee Lotte
Meldgaard Pedersen (DEN) and the ISAF Team Racing World Championship that
was held in Rutland, Great Britain.
Member National
Authorities Movements
Three new members were welcomed into ISAF. The Nicaragua Federation of
Sailing and St Vincent and the Grenadines Sailing Association were welcomed
as full members of ISAF with the Anguilla Sailing Association becoming an
associate member.
The Montserrat Yachting Association resigned as an ISAF associate member.
New Committee
Structure
A new structure of the ISAF Committees commencing in 2017 was approved.
The Match Racing Committee was reformed into a Sub-committee that will
report into the Events Committee. The Youth Worlds Sub-committee were
changed to the Youth Events Sub-committee.
The Windsurfing and Kiteboarding Committee and the Empirical Handicap
Sub-committee were discontinued.
The Regional Games and Development & Youth Committee were combined into
a single Development and Regions Committee with a Regional Games
Sub-committee created. The ISAF Sail Rankings and Match Racing Rankings
Sub-committees were changed into Working Parties.
Finally, the Disabled Sailing Committee's name change to the Para World
Sailing Committee was approved.
Equipment and Racing
Rules of Sailing
The 2015 Annual Conference was the final opportunity for the Equipment
Committee and the Racing Rules Committee to review submissions relating to
the 2017-2020 versions of the Equipment and Racing Rules of Sailing.
A large number of submissions were received in advance of the Annual
Conference and the expert committees made their recommendations to ISAF
Council. Several of the recommendations were approved and now the hard work
begins for the changes to be implemented in time for the publication of the
rules books in 2016.
Rio 2016
ISAF Technical Delegate Alastair Fox and Rio 2016 Sailing Manager Walter
Boddener presented on the Olympic Sailing Competition.
Fox spoke about the competition schedule, race officials, pollution
concerns and lessons learnt from the test event in August. Boddener gave an
update on the Marina da Gloria that is recently undergoing renovations. The
handover is expected in April 2016 and ready for competition. Flamengo
Park, adjacent to Marina da Gloria will also make up part of the venue.
Other business
The Nacra 15 was selected as the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships
multihull for the 2016 event and onwards. It was also confirmed that the
five events for the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games will be the Boy's
and Girl's Windsurfing, Boy's and Girl's Kiteboarding and a Mixed Multihull
event. The Techno 293+ was confirmed as the windsurfing equipment and the
Nacra 15 for the Mixed Multihull. The Kiteboarding equipment is to be
confirmed.
Class applications came from Kiteboards, Dinghies, Foiling Catamarans and
Around the World Race yachts. The RS Aero, Far East 28R, Volvo 65, IKA Twin
Tip Freestyle, IKA Kite Foil and Nacra F20 Carbon were approved by ISAF
Council and will now be subject to signing a contract. The M32 Class
application was deferred to the 2016 Mid-Year Meeting.
The next ISAF meeting will be the Mid-Year Meeting in Milan, Italy next May
with the 2016 Annual Conference taking place in a European destination to
be confirmed from 5 - 13 November 2016.
Full details of all the decisions made at the Annual Conference will be
available on the ISAF website here www.sailing.org/meetings in the next few weeks.
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