Five boats for evaluation as womens high performance dinghy

Women's High Performance Dinghy Evaluation Event

Five boats will line up for the Women's High Performance Dinghy Evaluation Event, which will be held in Hyères, France from 16-19 April 2007. The 29erXX, RS800, Cherub Daemon, Carbonology GT60 and International 14 have all submitted their entries to the Evaluation Event.

In advance of the decision on the ten events for the 2012 Olympic Games, which will be made at the 2007 ISAF Annual Conference this November, the Evaluation Event will look at whether there are suitable boats for a High Performance Dinghy event for a crew of two women.

The Evaluation Event is part of ISAF’s commitment to actively develop sailing at the highest level and keep pace with all the latest developments within the sport. Previous Evaluation Events have led to the adoption of the RS:X board as the new windsurfer for the 2008 Olympic Sailing Competition and the 49er as the first twin trapeze skiff with asymmetric spinnaker in the Olympic Games in Sydney 2000.

Over the past ten years ISAF’s commitment to increase the participation and exposure of women’s sailing has gained the sport an impressive record at the highest level. At the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, the eleven sailing events showed a massive 32% increase in participation by women athletes compared to Sydney 2000, a higher increase than any other sport which previously included women’s events in the programme. With this increase sailing became the ninth most popular sport in terms of participating women athletes, with a 35% representation of women across the fleets in Athens 2004.

The five boats for the trials in Hyères are:

• 29erXX - A skiff one-design design by Julian BETHWAITE which features a carbon mast and double spreaders on the existing 29er hull
• Cherub Daemon - A skiff one-design, designed by Simon ROBERTS and Richard TAYLOR to fall within the 2005 UK Cherub Class Rules
• Carbonology GT60 - A project by David CHISHOLM using a design by Paul BIEKER, with the Master plug currently in production
• International 14 - Established 75 years ago, the twin trapeze skiff is a well known development class
• RS800 - A skiff one-design designed by Phil MORRISON, with some modifications to the existing RS800 deck mould

Dina KOWALYSHYN (USA), member of the ISAF Equipment Committee, Equipment Control Sub-Committee and Women's Forum, is chair of the eight-strong Evaluation Panel. The panel also includes Athens Olympic gold medallist and twice ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Sofia BEKATOROU (GRE), 1998 World Sailor of the Year Carolijn BROUWER (NED) and Hungarian 470 sailor Marta WEORES.

The fundamental criteria set out by ISAF for the event included:

• The boat must be a monohull
• The dinghy must be able to sail faster off the wind than the wind
• The dinghy is for a crew of two women (average combined weight 120-140 kgs)
• Targeting a price of 14,500 Euros ready to sail

A report on the Evaluation Event will be completed by the ISAF Mid-Year Meeting, to be held in Paris, France from 4-6 May.

Details of the criteria and Evaluation Panel can be found on the ISAF Technical microsite.