Rob Weiland
The maze
Offshore sailing does not have, and maybe never did have, one single authority representing the whole discipline. Despite the multiple bodies that came and went over the past 120 years, predominantly born from the desire to create international rules, including handicap systems to permit racing different designs against each
other, there has never to this day been universal agreement upon a single basis for the racing of offshore yachts. Meanwhile, following equipment choices made for the Olympics
and later driven by the money generated by those Olympics, even before the start of WWII the growing accessibility of the sport had seen the focus of the ‘administrative process’ shift towards small boat racing. Prior to the 1900s, for centuries any sailing competition had
taken place under local rules administered by local clubs; there were grander, wider organisations sitting above these clubs, but the racing itself remained a local activity. Then as the 20th century dawned representatives of some of these evolving yacht racing institutions decided to meet up to share experiences and ideas in pursuit of a more unified way forward. So in 1906 representatives from the UK and mainland western
Europe, as well as an observer from the USA, joined several respected nautical engineers and designers at the Langham Hotel in London to discuss and formulate what became known as the International or the Metre Rule. They met again in Berlin in October 1906 and then in Paris in October 1907 where the new ‘International Rule’ defining the measuring and rating of yachts was ratified. Also a start was made on formulating construction regulations
(scantlings) as well as on ‘the rules for racing’. A major consequence of this meeting was the creation of the International Yacht Racing Union (IYRU), from 1996 known as the International Sailing Fed- eration and since 2015 as World Sailing. But the IYRU was initially a European affair comprising Austria-Hungary, Denmark, Finland,
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France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland and Belgium, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Hardly a world governing body. Certainly, from the beginning US yacht clubs like the New York
Yacht Club and US bodies like the North American Yacht Racing Union, now US Sailing (founded in 1897 but dormant till 1926), were also involved in European discussions and attempts to stream- line sailing rules. But it was not until soon after the end of WWII that sailors in the US would recognise a single national governing body, let alone one from overseas. Even today, 80 years later, I feel US Sailing is still not seen as
‘their federation’ by many American sailors and sailing clubs. Many nominally ‘worldwide’ sports federations struggle to be universally accepted and, logically, as it is such an enormous country, the sit- uation in the USA is no different. In fact, the USA did not join the IYRU till 1952, 45 years after
the IYRU was founded! Many other nationalities did not apply for IYRU membership until the 1960s; the Australian Yachting Federation only applied in 1966. But with travelling becoming easier and more money around, times were indeed ‘a-changin’. From the 1920s onwards the Metre Rule found itself competing
with a growing number of rivals, each claiming a better solution to the measuring and rating of yachts. The CCA Rule of the Cruising Club of America and the RORC Rule of the Royal Ocean Racing Club were each created by combining two earlier American regional rating rules, the Seawanhaka Rule and the Universal Rule, with further variations administered by clubs across the European mainland. Modern yacht racing can be seen to start in 1960, when for the
first time both sides of the Atlantic agreed on how to race, starting with universal racing rules followed from time to time by mutually agreed updates. As chairman of the IYRU rules committee, Crown Prince Olav of Norway was instrumental in driving this development, ably supported by other members including Robert Bavier (USA), Niels Benzon (DEN), Jan Loeff (NED) and Gerald Sambrooke- Sturgess (GBR).
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