Olympic sailing: 2024 Olympics: offshore sailing and kiters in, Finn out

The discussions between the various committees at the annual meeting of the World Sailing Federation in Sarasota, Florida, were heated. It's been a long time since there have been such controversial arguments and such passionate battles as there were last week in America. The stakes were high: In the struggle for the Olympic fitness of sailing for the future, the member associations, class representatives and lobbyists have therefore had an intensive week with little sleep. On Sunday, the proposals of the World Sailing Council meeting were finally adopted by the General Assembly.

After that, the Finn dinghy, which has been an Olympic single-handed dinghy since 1952, will be history. Despite good arguments and a last-minute petition, the boat in which Jochen Schümann won his first gold medal in 1976 and in which so many prominent sailors such as Paul Elvstrøm (1952, 1956, 1960), Willy Kuhweide (1964), Russell Coutts (1984) and also the four-time Olympic champion Sir Ben Ainslie were successful, will have to make way for a reorganisation of the Olympic sailing disciplines. This was decided by a majority vote of the 69 national associations present in Sarasota - the so-called "MNAs" - in accordance with a proposal from the World Sailing Board, which was developed in collaboration with other bodies and had also previously been approved by the Athletes' Commission.

Kitesurfing and offshore sailing become Olympic

A mixed kite competition will be added to the programme. The main aim of this is to increase the appeal of the Olympic sailing disciplines among young people. Mixed offshore keelboat sailing is another new addition to the programme. The hosts of the 2024 Olympic sailing regatta in Marseille, among others, made an impressive presentation in favour of this, as did World Sailing President Kim Andersen, the majority of his Vice Presidents and many well-known offshore sailors.

In France, offshore sailing is a top sport - just look at the millions of enthusiasm for the Route du Rhum, which started today in Saint-Malo. The opponents of the new Olympic sailing variant (and those in favour of retaining the Finn class) had pointed out the as yet undefined format, the threat of extremely high costs, the many World Sailing member countries without coasts (49) and other problem areas, but were not listened to. A statement from the International Finn Class Association on Sunday evening said: "We feel that the Finn class has become collateral damage in the battle for gender balance and Olympic TV rights revenue for World Sailing. It is a great injustice that many of the best athletes in our sport will be denied access to the Olympics in the future. And we honestly believe that the Olympics will be poorer as a result of the exclusion of the Finn class."

Those in favour of the offshore discipline with mixed teams of two were able to assert themselves with their arguments about the worldwide spread of keelboat sailing, which has not been represented in the Olympics since the Starboat withdrawal after 2012, the need for radical changes and increasing the telegenicity of sailing through an attractive "24-hour format", in which one female sailor and one male sailor will be required to work as a team. The 13th Volvo Ocean Race had shown in an attractive way what is possible in this respect.

Torsten Haverland, DSV Vice President for Competitive Sports, said after the vote in Sarasota: "At the annual meeting, we tried to find common ground with other nations in order to make as few changes as possible to the boat classes, because we believe that Olympic sailing needs stability above all else in all other important endeavours, also in the interests of the IOC. That's why we would have liked to keep the Finn Dinghy. The majority of us did not get our way. In this respect, I am disappointed. It's a shame that a discipline that ideally represents the core values of sailing and has historically always produced well-known sailing greats with later careers in professional sailing is no longer part of the programme. Of course, we will now develop paths for kitesurfing and offshore sailing and promote strong athletes. These are challenges that we are tackling step by step. World Sailing still needs to clarify some of the equipment and formats. Our focus is therefore currently on the 2020 Olympic Games, even though we will be tackling the development for 2024 in parallel."

The disciplines decided for the 2024 Olympics at a glance:

• Windsurfing Men - RS:X*
• Windsurfing Women - RS:X*
• Single-handed dinghy men - Laser*
• Single-handed dinghy women - Laser Radial*
• Mixed Kite - (format still open)
• Mixed two-person dinghy - (format still open)
• Skiff Women - 49erFX
• Skiff Men - 49er
• Mixed two-person multihull - Nacra 17
• Mixed two-person keelboat / offshore* - (boat and format open)

(*) Different formats and boats are to be tested here. All in accordance with the anti-monopoly laws of the European Union. The final decisions will be made in 2019.

The RS:X board has been finalised as the equipment for the Olympic surfers. The Olympic mixed kite regatta will be held on foils. The two-person mixed dinghy will be held on a non-foiling dinghy that sails with a mainsail, headsail and spinnaker. The new boat for the mixed offshore keelboat discipline will be a non-foiling monohull with a length of six to ten metres. The keelboat will be able to sail in winds of between four and 40 knots and will be equipped with appropriate sailing gear including a spinnaker.

For the mixed kiteboard discipline and the mixed two-person keelboat, there will be separate trials with a number of different boats before the boat type is finalised. The final decision on the boat type will be made at the Annual Meeting in Bermuda in November 2019. In all equipment tests and decisions, the World Sailing Federation must always bear in mind the European Union's anti-monopolisation laws, which also have Olympic sailing and its Olympic contracting partners in their sights.

Towards the end of the General Assembly in Sarasota, a decision was made on the venue for the World Sailing Federation's annual meeting in 2020. The last three of the initial 21 candidates were put forward. Abu Dhabi, Budapest and Sanya in China were on the shortlist. Abu Dhabi was chosen with 32 and thus more than 50 per cent of the votes. Budapest received 28 votes and Sanya two. The 2019 annual conference will take place in Bermuda in November.