Copied from The Daily Sail:
RYA calls for ISAF re-vote
We speak to Rod Carr about the RYA's call for ISAF to re-open voting on the 2012 Olympic classes
Today the debate about the selection of events for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, made in Estoril last month (see here and here), has taken a new turn. As dissatisfaction spreads throughout the sailing world, the RYA has fired a significant warning shot across the bows of the ISAF. The RYA it should be remembered is not only one of the top Olympic nations when it comes to sailing but represents sailing in the country where the 2012 Games are to be hosted.
A letter was, today, sent to ISAF from the RYA in addition to being copied to every voting MNA (Member National Authority) in the World. The letter – attached below - calls for a re-evaluation of the 2012 Olympic events to be voted on in March next year at the ISAF’s mid-year meeting.

This is the first time we have seen any MNA stick their head above the parapet and actually call, officially for some action to be taken. The question now is; what has to be done for this to work?

Earlier this morning we spoke to RYA CEO, Rod Carr, who was very clear about their view on the vote in Estoril. “The first thing that I want to point out is that [the vote] was a legitimately, legally made decision. We are not challenging the legality of it. We are challenging the rightness of it,” he explained.

So how does this letter begin the process of getting ISAF to change their minds with regard to class selection? In essence, alone, it can do very little. For the ISAF to be able to review the situation officially two thirds of the voting ISAF Council members - 24 out of 36 - must agree to the proposition. But before we even get that far there is another hurdle to jump: “As it says in the letter, we need the ISAF to defer telling the IOC what the events are,” Carr explains. “The IOC should be informed by March and we are saying, write to them and say ‘we request permission to defer announcing our events.’ I can’t believe, this far out from the [2012] Olympics that is something the IOC would refuse.”

So then if the ISAF do ask to defer their announcement to the IOC how on earth are the RYA going to be able to achieve the support of two thirds of a council who have already voted on the subject? “To get that motion on the table, we could propose it, but we believe it would be much better if the President of the Executive Committee realised there are lot of upset nations and said ‘right, we have an issue’ rather than letting each nation come in with their own admissions to support ours,” Carr comments. “That is what we would prefer, so that is why we have copied our letter to every MNA in the world, so they can easily show their support. My guess is that if that does not gender much of a response at all then the Committee will say, ‘well Britain feels quite strongly about it and the Australians do, but no-one else does.’ If all the people who have spoken to us to say they want it re-opened, which is about 20 countries before we sent the letter out, then there is lots of pressure.”

Clearly then if the RYA receive the backing of the 20 MNAs they have already spoken to, the job of getting 24 Council members to re-open the voting is almost there, with each MNA having a repreentative on on the ISAF Council, albeit a shared one with other MNAs.

Of course there is another way that the voting could be re-opened. The ISAF constitution has a clause in which if five National Authorities band together and call for an emergency meeting then it must take place. It seems this is another possibility for re-opening negotiations. “If you have five nations, you could call a special council meeting, but we are not looking to do that. I think if we do not get enough nations to persuade the President to re-open, then having five will probably not get us anywhere as we will still have to convince another 20 odd people not to get the same vote again. That is a bit of a hand-grenade option. As soon as you do that you risk not having a concession. We want to build a situation where reasonable MNAs and people of interest say ‘frankly we messed up here, we have a chance to put it right, let’s put it right,’” states Carr.

However, with the current climate as it is and much complaining about the voting process in Estoril, whereby all the votes were made at the same time as opposed to having an effective vote off between events, how can we ensure the same mistakes are not just made again? “Once they have decided to re-open the debate they will of course have to vote again and we hope they will not re-vote on the American slate principal, ie all at once,” explains Carr. “We hope there will be a vote-off, with the most popular classes like the Laser [men’s single handed dinghy] first and the most questionable classes such as the multihull in the latter stages. That is what we want and if it is re-opened we will stand by the outcome of that.”

We have seen in this voting process a number of national authorities making the poor decision to vote based on which event they are most likely to medal in. This voting without the good of the sport in mind is clearly not the way forward and no matter what happens this time round we still believe a reshuffle of how the ISAF Council is arranged is in order. Carr is more hopeful other nations will vote in the interests of the sport. “We hope that more nations will act like we did and the Australians and realise that if you vote purely on medal winning possibilities then you end up shooting yourself in the foot. Clearly it is no good having lots of good Olympic class sailors but no Olympics,” he exclaims.

Whatever happens it is encouraging to finally see one MNA backing the opinion of so much of the sailing public. However, this letter by itself, although a good start, is not yet enough. We must hope that we can sort out this mess, re-open the voting and ensure an exhilarating Olympics in London come 2012. We must also look at the way in which these decisions are made in our sport and start to consider some possible changes.