Optimist, Open Skiff, Youth & Olympic Sailing Blog

Something pretty astounding occurred in Bermuda today. World Sailing voted to replace the RS:X by the iFoil for the 2024 Olympics. Windfoiling is an amazing discipline, yet the rapid selection of this new equipment for the Olympics is truly noteworthy. Indeed, there were several reasons why windfoiling could have been rejected: 1. Windfoiling is really new. Just a few years old, while conventional windsurfing has been around for over 50 years. 2. Windfoiling is still, to a certain extent, an unproven discipline, especially for racing in large fleets, and will probably require new race formats 3. Windfoiling, will undoubtedly generate accidents, injuries, and the proper prevention measures have not yet been fully developed 4. The chosen iFoil equipment has been very recently developed and is barely available world-wide 5. Windfoiling is more present on Youtube than in reality — today, this equipment is simply not present in most countries. 6. As far as World Sailing reg...

Diam 24 Multihull in Action If you bring in new events, new equipments to the Olympics, those should be proven both to provide amazing sailing and to be amazing to watch, so as to be the best choices possible both for the sailing community and the general public. Very fortunately, our sport already offers such options, which would attract the world’s best sailors, and thanks to advances in filming sailing events, would offer the best olympic sailing show ever. Sadly, the events and equipments in Submission M36, which was voted by the Events Committee on May 12, are very unlikely to deliver the best the sport can offer, both for the sailing community and the general public. Hopefully, it's still time for World Sailing to reconsider and to do much better. Here are videos of 4 types of events/equipments that would be perfectly feasible to bring into the Olympics. They would attract the best sailors, and they would generate massive interest and excitement for the sport. WATCH ...