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Charles
1237, Sticks and Stones
1942, Ingrid
Yorkshire Dales SC God does not deduct from our allotted life span the time spent sailing(or talking, texting, reading, posting to websites & emailing about it)
Just a bit more background and explanation to add to Charles' posting.
Many of you will have seen that the ISAF this week voted to exclude Catamarans from the Olympics. The Council overturned the recommendations of the ISAF Events Committee and (narrowly) dumped the multihull in favour of the keelboat (currently the Star). They also voted to retain the women's keelboat in match racing format rather than move on to something more modern and faster like a 29er. It seems that they are trying to make sailing more boring to watch rather than to update it to make it more media friendly. On some occasions in the past the ISAF have, evidently, reversed decisions from their conference a few weeks afterwards. We hope that they will do the same this time and include the multihull. I am therefore advising you of another petition to sign - see the link below. Please sign it. Do not be put off by the donation screen at the end. Just close it after voting you do not have to donate anything.
For those of you (like myself) who are particularly incensed by the decision you might like to write politely to the chairman of the ISAF, Goran Petersson to request a rethink. His EMail address is goran.petersson(at)vinge.se
Many Thanks
Bob Carter
UKCRA have also set up a new petition, this one being aimed at the IOC. If you disagree with ISAF's recent decision then please sign the petition which can be found at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/mult ... index.html
I see we have got 5177 signatures on the petition to date. UKCRA are working behind the scenes to see if there is some way that the Cats can be included in the Olympics. A big signature list on this petition helps the case. Have you signed yet?
2012 Olympic Sailing Competition - Decision on Events
I write on behalf of the RYA, and many other organisations, commentators and sailors, who believe that the decisions made by ISAF last month on the 2012 Olympic Events are not in the best interests of the sport of sailing throughout the world and should be reviewed. We believe the decisions could prejudice our future as an Olympic sport, and restrict the global growth of sailing, for the reasons highlighted below.
However, if ISAF takes the opportunity to review the decisions in May 2008, the Executive and Council members will then be able to take into account all the comments and feedback that November’s decision has generated, and as a result sailing will be stronger and our future more secure.
1. The decisions weaken sailing as an Olympic sport, and do not comply with IOC guidelines
The IOC has specified that the inclusion of sports within the Olympic Programme should be supported through analysis of each sport against identified criteria, and that to be considered for admission to the Olympic Programme, a sport must show a direct emphasis on youth and development.
IOC’s current evaluation is that sailing has a low number of nations taking part, very low hours of television and number of viewers, high television production costs, and that ISAF has a very high reliance on Olympic revenues.
In its 2002 report, the IOC Commission stated that sailing has a high number of events in comparison to its media appeal, and that its cost and complexity presented challenges to the development of the sport. As a result, in addition to recommending a reduction in the number of events, the Commission noted that keelboat Events are expensive both in Equipment and infrastructure, and recommended the reduction in Events be made through the exclusion of keelboat events.
The 2005 IOC report states that in order to improve the presentation of its sport, ISAF has introduced ‘Equipment innovation introducing faster and more spectacular boats’.
However, the decisions now made by ISAF in November 2007 run counter to both the wishes of the IOC, and ISAF’s earlier response to IOC. These decisions mean that ISAF is:
• removing the highest performance boat (multihull) and choosing not to include a women’s high performance dinghy,
• preserving the more expensive keelboat Equipment and infrastructure, and introducing additional match racing infrastructure cost, and
• preserving those Events that suit the resources and physiques of established Olympic sailing nations and are hardest for new nations to break into.
Given that ISAF has to reduce the number of Events from 11 to 10 in 2012, priority should be given to Events that are lower cost, more globally inclusive, and more spectacular.
2. The current decisions will bring fewer new nations and young sailors into the sport of Sailing
Our Council members are required, when exercising their vote, to ‘have regard to the interest of the sport of yachting throughout the world as a whole’. Sailing federations can only attract public funds and support when there is suitable Equipment available, and there is some prospect of Youth Championship and Olympic competition. Only if we maximise the appeal of Olympic Events among young people, and in emerging sailing countries, will we grow our sport.
ISAF should ensure its Olympic Events, taken as a whole, support a range of athlete physiques and weights to suit all countries, test as wide a range of sailing skills as possible, and appeal to the youth of the world to attract them into sailing, or retain them in the sport. To minimise overheads in-country, ISAF should be maximising commonality between Men and Women events.
Against this background, ISAF’s November decision runs counter to the direction ISAF needs to take because:
• Women have been denied a high performance Event, despite the Men’s high performance Event receiving 34 out of 36 votes. Events Committee recommended increasing the number of high-performance Events by 1, Council decided to reduce it by 1.
• The women’s high performance dinghy would have helped to reduce the loss from our sport of youth women sailors looking to sail a modern 2-person dinghy at the highest level.
• Multihull sailing is common throughout the world, from inexpensive off-the-beach holiday sailing to long distance racing, and could therefore grow nation participation. However ISAF has removed this option and potentially alienated this group of sailors.
• The keelboat is normally the most expensive Equipment for MNAs to support and does not suit typical Asian physique. And now Men’s keelboat racing is fleet racing, Women’s is match. This further increases costs, and makes our sport even harder to explain to the media.
• Match racing events typically support far fewer entrants than fleet racing, and will be the most expensive Olympic event (in terms of officials, number of coaches, and supplied Equipment),
• The skills demanded by Men’s keelboat are very similar to those demanded by both Men’s 1-person dinghies today - for instance many Star competitors have previously competed in the 1-person dinghy Events. Whereas multihull and high performance dinghies typically test different skills, and would therefore enable additional sailors and nations to experience Olympic competition.
3. Voting Procedure
We also believe the amendment to the voting procedure agreed by Council was hasty, and has subsequently been shown to be unwise. The Working Party’s May 2007 report to Executive and Events Committee had identified that no Event should be excluded unless it received less than 50% of votes, either in the first ballot or in a subsequent run-off ballot.
The consequence of Council using a different procedure was that Council never actually made a choice between specific alternatives, and both the Multihull and Women’s High Performance Events have been excluded even though they both received over 50% of votes. In addition the changed procedure opened the door to tactical voting. These are the two main reasons why, we believe, the ISAF Council decision to overturn the recommendation of Events Committee has been greeted with so much disbelief and loss of respect.
We therefore request that ISAF does not nominate to IOC the list of Events for the 2012 Olympic Regatta on 18th March. We request that instead ISAF defers this nomination, and reconsiders the voting procedure and Events decision at its May 2008 Council meeting.
Has anybody in the last few days, received an e-mail from Jon Worthington? There is an attachment by Nick D, asking us to write to our MNA, whatever that is.
I am very happy to support UKCRA and any others, who support the inclusion of catamarans at the olympics. But, I feel I am out of my depth. For example, I had never heard of ISAF until recently. I still don't know what it stands for.
Similarly, what is the position of the RYA? They seem to be running with the foxes and hunting with the hounds. They seem a contrary bunch.
So, if anybody writes in support of Nick, please could he/she add my name as a co-supporter.
With thanks,
Andrew Hannah,
TBYC.
Fading star of the Thorpe Bay fleet
Former rugby player in the extra-B
Struggling musician
Second best cabbage in the village show...
Yes I found the email unclear, so I checked back with Jon.
The mail is targetted at foreign nationals.
The RYA are now on our side. There is no action required from UK sailors.
MNA means Member National Authority, i.e. the National Authority for our sport reporting to the international body, in our case the RYA.
ISAF means International SAiling Federation (think the Skiers already had ISF).
I'll let you know if you need to write a letter to anyone !!
Charles
1237, Sticks and Stones
1942, Ingrid
Yorkshire Dales SC God does not deduct from our allotted life span the time spent sailing(or talking, texting, reading, posting to websites & emailing about it)
Yes, I contacted Nick with grateful thanks for all that he and his fellow workers have done. They clearly pulled the stops out to analyse the information to which the ISAF may not have given due weight in November 2007 and make it public.
The RYA made it very clear to the ISAF during December that it wishes the November list NOT to be sent to the International Olympic Committee.
I think the reason that many people have received an email from Jon Worthington may be that the 18th March is getting close and the petition that lots of people signed was an international effort. There is nothing for us to do at the moment except to be ready to gasp in amazement and distress if the list is sent in its present form. If you know anyone in other countries who may be willing to contact their member national authority, then you could forward the email to them.
Thanks to Chris Atkins, our Chairman Nick Dewhirst, UKCRA and also the RYA.
Hi Robert
I think the reason why Worthy has circulated it to all the signatories is it is not going that well. Inspite of a well written and well argued case by the RYA not many countries have made the case to the ISAF. It takes, I believe, 2/3 of the ISAF delegates to vote to reverse the previous (November) decision. Thus far few Coultries (MNAs) have written to the ISAF to make the case for the change. If more do not write in it is likely to remain unchanged. Nick is doing a sterling job on the propaganda. Worthy is distributing it to the signatories of the petition in the hope that we can wake up other MNAs into supporting the case. The ISAF seem happy to bide their time.
There is not much we can do unless some of our members have friends in high places in other countries.
Cheers
Bob
It's difficult to know where we are at without a bit of inside information like this. It seems ludicrous that a so-called governing organisation can make such a stupid decision. If nothing changes it is clear that ISAF will have done a great disservice to multihull sailors, women sailors and sailing in general. Gits!
Does anyone know where the many US cat sailors stand on the issue - and what about the Hobie 16 people who race (there must be loads of them worldwide)?
This is the latest epistle from Nick - no action necessary unless you have not signed the petition & want to.
Cheers
Bob
Dear Petitioner
Thank you for signing our initial e-petition to the RYA about including multibhulls in the 2012 Olympic Regatta to be held in Weymouth. This succeeded in getting the RYA on side. 5800+ people worldwide have contributed to the campaign by joining our new petition to the IOC. If you have not yet signed this please do so.
The chances are improving that the decision may be reconsidered by ISAF so that the large part of the sport from the Olympics is again included. The deadline for putting items on the agenda for ISAF's Mid-Year Conference was 15th March. Campaigners have persuaded more than a dozen countries to follow the RYA example and put in multihull submissions. That may well be a record. ISAF must announce soon whether it takes seriously the public concerns about its role as guardian of our sport or continues its initial reaction that the matter is "closed".
The issue matters not just for cat fans, but all those who believe the Olympic Regatta in Weymouth should focus on modern high performance boats as it affects not just the Open Multihull Events but also affects the Women's Skiff.
