Letter from the IACA Committee

Letter by the IACA Committee--

There has been much written in the social media and numerous emails between interested parties since the WGM in New Zealand about the outcome of the Rule 8 vote and the future direction of the class. The IACA committee is elected by the members and hopefully acts in the best interest of the class.

We are bound by our constitution and must respect the wishes of our members. Should these wishes change it is our role to listen and act. The recent WGM had various proposals around Rule 8, none of which changed, as the 2/3rd majority required to do so was not met.

We now have talk of breakaway groups, different divisions etc that we think is a shame and not at this stage in the best interests of the class. Foiling boats, flying boats etc whatever you want to call them are here to stay, they will not go away. Whatever rule is in place, someone will always find a way to work around it. The original purpose of Rule 8 was to stop such things, and some very smart and well-credentialed people at the time thought it would cover. How do we go back now? Ban curved boards (80 out of the 81 boats at the worlds had either "C" or "J” boards) so this is not the answer. Write new rules and prohibit boats from flying out of the water? We would need to grandfather the entire world fleet that did not have straight foils which is not feasible.

People need to realize that there was nothing new at this years worlds, all the equipment used was commercially available and previously used at the last Europeans without question. We simply had a group of very talented sailors who took things to a new level.

Our constitution clearly shows how this matter could be reopened, but it would require a significant amount of support from the majority of countries to warrant doing so. Without this support there will be no further action until at least with WGM in Italy 2015. At this point it is up to the nations to submit and support a new submission to remove or tighten rule 8. Otherwise we need to accept the decision taken in NZ, work within the current rules and continue to enjoy the premier catamaran class in the world.

IACA Committee