New Offshore Doubles format submitted to IOC
At the end of April World Sailing’s Oceanic and Offshore Committee requested World Sailing communicate to the IOC new information about a proposed much-revised format for the Mixed Offshore Event. Offshore Doubles itself can now count 1700+ members from 70 countries acquired in just a few short months. Young teams like South Africans Michaela Robinson (20) and Siya Vato (27) see this as a chance to be in the Olympics and build a career in sailing that wouldn’t exist for them without this platform. They are going for it!
World Sailing remains firm behind the Mixed Offshore Doubles for Paris 2024 with improved format proposal The Oceanic and Offshore Committee recommends that World Sailing recognize the following clarification regarding the Mixed Two Person Offshore Event and communicates this new information to the IOC.
Off the coast of France during the Mediterranean summer, near coastal areas provide a better test of sailing skill than do areas fur- ther offshore. Along the coast there are often daily transitions of wind from night-time drainage breeze to late morning thermals, including frequent incursions of the synoptic wind. Competition in this challenging environment is ideal for a Mixed Two Person Offshore Event.
We have concluded that the entire field of play is best kept within a square area, 20 miles on each side (i.e., 400 square miles), that is adjacent to the coastline. The course should comprise multiple laps around marks within that box with the ability to change future legs on which no competitor is yet sailing to meet the desired finish time. This will result in the best competition given the characteristics of the wind in the Mediterranean in the summer as described above. The technology to enforce the defined race area with electronic course boundaries already exists with zero risk. Such boundary systems have been used for decades in ocean races like the Volvo Ocean Race, Vendee Globe, TransAtlantics, and even in inshore races like the America’s Cup. This adds essen- tially no cost or complexity and makes it easy for competitors to stay within the pre-determined boundaries.
A fortunate by-product of this new field-of-play is that it will be entirely within the coverage area of French cellular data networks, particularly with LTE antennas mounted at the masthead of the race boats, which avoids blockage problems of humans and
sails.This
SEAHORSE
square area, 20 miles on a side, comprising 400 square miles, is substantially less than the area over which the IOC has based its cur- rent estimates of size and complexity for security and media coverage. We expect other summertime events to similarly be held in coastal areas for better competition, taking advantage of the challenging daily wind transitions. The fact that the field of play ends up within cellular
ALEC SMITH
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