World Sailing's 2018 Conference underway

Delegates at World Sailing's 2018 Annual Conference were officially welcomed yesterday evening by World Sailing President Kim Andersen and Visit Sarasota Director of Sports Shelby Connett.
The World Sailing President addressed delegates, thanking them for their continued support and reiterating the importance of the meetings throughout the week.

As for the day ahead, Monday 29 October will see six Sub-committee meetings, the Women's Forum and the Safety in Sailing Forum.

Safety in Sailing Forum

Safety in sailing will be discussed in an open forum, featuring leading influencers, from 14:30 to 18:00. The Forum will be split into two parts and topics.

To open the Forum a session on how to deal with the new risks associated with foiling in competitive sailing will be held followed by the importance of being ready when sailing offshore.

Speaks and topics include:
Safety in boat design - Gonzalo Redundo
Protective clothing and headwear - Martin Bertrand
Race management - John Craig
Medical Emergency procedures - Dr Spike Briggs
Injury trends in Olympic sailing - Dr Ben Tan
Maintenance and checks- Hasso Hoffmeister
Offshore Personal Safety training - Chuck Hawley
Offshore safety equipment - Alistair Hackett
Offshore race management - Phil Lawrence

The Forum will be streamed live and available to view here - https://youtu.be/XAEvM5Aw5kk.

Regional Games Sub-committee

There are numerous Regional Games worldwide that feature sailing. In 2018 alone there was the Mediterranean Games, South American Games, African Games, Asian Games and the Central American and Caribbean Games.

The Sub-committee will review the ones held in 2018, look ahead to 2019 and identify future opportunities for the sport. Click here for the agenda.

International Umpires Sub-committee

Following the meetings of the Race Management, Judges and Measurers Sub-committees on 28 October, it's the turn of the International Umpires - another strand of officiating within the sport. Education and development will be a leading topic and you can find the full agenda here.

Olympic Classes Sub-committee

It has been a busy 2018 for the Olympic classes with the first Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualifier - the Hempel Sailing World Championships - being held in Aarhus, Denmark. The Olympic classes will review the year and look forward to the busy period looking up to Tokyo 2020.

Furthermore, they will look at the sports presentation, new media and the events strategy.

Click here for the agenda.

Match Racing Sub-committee

World Sailing has an extensive portfolio of match racing events including Blind, Women's and Youth World Championships and the Nations Cup.

The Sub-committee will review events in 2018 and discuss future events, including the World Match Racing Tour.

Racing Rules of Sailing submissions related to match racing will also be discussed with recommendations put forward.

The full agenda is here.

Equipment Rules Sub-committee

Submissions related to the Equipment Rules of Sailing will be discussed alongside reports related to class rules, in-house certification program and equipment control process. Click here for the agenda.

Watch and follow

The eSailing World Championship Final, two Forums, two days of Council and the Annual General Meeting will all be streamed on World Sailing's YouTube. Click here for the live playlist.

Daily news reports will be available on World Sailing's website, World Sailing's Twitter and Facebook account wil