Optimist, Open Skiff, Youth & Olympic Sailing Blog

The "ILCA Magic Formula" Source: https://www.facebook.com/ILCANorthAmerica/ The international Laser class ILCA released today an announcement titled « Discussions Continue Towards Olympic Certification, » just a day after its European branch EurILCA released a comprehensive statement about how it sees the future for the Laser. See our coverage of the EurILCA announcement: «  Europeans Outline Way Forward for Laser Class . » ILCA blames UK based LaserPerformance for the absence of an agreement, particularly regarding FRAND, which must be resolved for the Laser to be Olympic in 2024. « Since World Sailing’s required FRAND policy was approved in November 2018, ILCA has reached out on numerous occasions to work with the various builders and IP rights holders towards a FRAND compliant policy.  Unfortunately, Laser Performance did not engage in this process. » « To date, both Performance Sailcraft Australia and Performance Sailcraft Japan have agreed to the terms of Wo

Lasers 4.7 at the 2019 Europeans in Hyères, France Source & more pictures: https://eurilca.smugmug.com The European Laser class EurILCA issued this May 30 a circular titled « Laser Standard and Laser Radial Stay as Olympic Boats, and Now? » The circular, addressed to the Laser class district officers in Europe, explains first the relative silence of the Europeans in the past weeks, despite all the actions taken by the international Laser class ILCA, including the termination of the world’s largest Laser builder LaserPerformance and the name change operated by ILCA. « EurILCA didn’t make a lot of communications during the last weeks regarding the termination of Laser Performance as a party to the LCMA (Laser Construction Manual Agreement) and the action done by the ILCA executives. The reason for our silence was to preserve the class and to not have a negative impact on the voting for the Olympics. » The document acknowledges that the vote by the World Council of World Sa

It is now a week ago that the kumbaya meeting between World Sailing, the international Laser class ILCA, UK builder LaserPerformance and other Laser builders took place on May 22nd in London. And lips are mostly tight. May 30 Update : while not revealing what happened at the May 22nd meeting, the European branch of the Laser class, EurILCA, has published an extensive statement, which we analyze in the post: Europeans Outline Way Forward for Laser Class . What do we know? First, the parties are mostly quiet since the kumbaya meeting. There was no renewed public calls by LaserPerformance for example for the heads of ILCA to resign. Yet, the calls by LaserPerformance for ILCA, considered « incompetent, » to move back to Europe and to « appoint a professional executive team » are still online, and are dated as late as May 19th. So are the many other grievances they have against ILCA. Second, it seems that the Laser class, World Sailing and LaserPerformance are collaborating to red

The mid-year meeting of World Sailing saw voting taking place on the single-handed dinghy for the 2024 Olympics. Or more precisely, on the single-handed dinghies for the 2024 Olympics. And that’s very different, as there were indeed two separate votes for the men and the women single-handed dinghies, which means different boats for men and women could in theory have been selected. Contrary to the logic that governed the re-evaluation of equipment for over a year, equipment committee members and member national authorities were offered the opportunity to vote for two different boats. This could have been for example the Devoti Zero for women and the Melges 14 for men, or the RS Aero for women and the Laser for men, or any other combination among the four contenders. That came as a surprise, as everything seemed geared towards having delegates to vote for the same boat for men and women. When voting took place last week-end, nobody was ready to cast different votes for men and

World Sailing's Equipment Committee just voted for the Aero for the 2024 Olympics.  Here are the results: Aero 9; Laser/ILCA 3; D-Zero 0; Melges 0; Abstention: 1 Council vote to take place on Sunday 19.  Update: Council voted in favor of the Laser, against the recommendation of the equipment committee. However, the Laser will need to get an Olympic contract signed by August 1 2019, which will require it "to put its house in order" - with negotiations starting this May 22nd with the Laser class ILCA, LaserPerformance, other builders and World Sailing. Watch the full discussion at the equipment committee on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKfwM6SkCQo

RS Sailing made public the development of an RS Aero 6 on social media. As discussed in our analysis of the World Sailing Evaluation Panel Report, all the rigs tested in Valencia, at the Sea Trials, were overpowered for women. RS Aero had already a 6 rig in development, but was not allowed to get it considered in Valencia - as per the rules governing the testing. The RS Aero 6 would be a replacement to the Laser Radial for female single-handed sailing at the Olympics. See our recommandation here . See Communiqué by RS Sailing and a picture of a RS Aero with a prototype 6 sail below. INTRODUCING – THE RS AERO 6... The RS Aero 6 has been discussed and sought by those who feel they too often fall in between the RS Aero 5 and RS Aero 7 rig sizes. Two and a half years ago an RS Aero 6 was initially developed. At that time the Class felt we were too young to be further split by a 4th rig. RS Sailing are now in the process of further refining an RS Aero 6 rig in anticipation of

A document titled « Update from International Laser Class Association (ILCA) » and addressed to World Sail Council and Committee members was published by Sailing Anarchy on May 16. This document was not yet available at the time of writing our own May 16 article Laser Name Change and New Builders: Is There a Plan B? The ILCA document is obviously in favor of the status quo, i.e. keeping the Laser Standard and the Laser Radial for the 2024 Olympics. « we are more than well suited, we are well proven and we are clearly the best and only choice for the 2024 Olympics and beyond, » states ILCA. Unlike RS Sailing, which is open for example to have the Aero to start with the women fleet, or even the youth fleets, the Laser class pretends the Laser is the only choice for Paris 2024. We provide here a few comments on the ILCA Update, which falls short of addressing the key issues facing the Laser. The ILCA document provides new information, including 24 possible new builders, and pr

In 2012, there was a plan for a complete overhaul of the Laser with a new name - the Kirby Torch - and with new builders. The plan failed. In 2018, the plan became to rename the Laser as an « ILCA » and, again, to have new builders. Will this new effort succeed? And if not, is there a Plan B? See also our Update dated May 17 -- ILCA to Seek a Solution with LaserPerformance - but Only After the Vote for the 2024 Olympics , following the release of a new document by the Laser class. Flashback: the Torch Experiment The 2012 attempt to change the name of the Laser has similarities with the current one. « After numerous attempts, Bruce Kirby felt he had no choice but to withdraw Laser brand building rights in North America and Europe. » states the Website http://www.kirbytorch.com/   « After exhaustive negotiations failed to resolve the continuing unauthorized manufacture of Bruce Kirby’s sailboat design, Bruce Kirby Inc. took the carefully considered step of terminating the builde

While analyzing the recent World Sailing evaluation report for the 2024 single-handed dinghies highlighted how unsuitable the Laser Radial is for most female sailors, another approach to look at this issue is to check the level of participation of women in the Laser at regattas.  In other words, what is the degree of balance between men and women participation in competitive Laser sailing? It is obviously beyond the scope of this blog to undertake a global analysis of this question. The idea here has been simply to check the level of participation by women over the past 3 years, at the North American championships, both in the senior and in the master categories. Contrary to Europe, the Laser class does not organize youth North American championships. The table here shows that, in average, over the past 3 years, the level of participation of women has been 14% for senior sailing, and 2% for master sailing. This is obviously very far from a gender balance. Laser sailing in Nor