On May 21st there was a Extraordinary General Meeting of the International Nacra 17 Class World Council followed by a 48 hour voting period. 18 special resulutions were discussed and voted on, along with a class policy and a constitution change to move the organization to Switzerland. These were subsequently voted on.
The full details of the vote are here.
#1,# 7, #8, – The Class voted to clean up the rulebook and formally allow for repainting of the foils using the clearcoat paint used on factory original foils. This is necessary as the teams are continually sanding their foils to ensure maximum performance. Allowing white paint as an option did not pass.
#2 – The Class voted to clean up how the mast rake is measured but rejected a change to allow masts to be raked further aft than is currently allowed.
#3 – The racing weight of the boat was added to the rulebook
#4, #15 – The Class rejected some recommendations by Nacra Sailing with regard to the front beams and raising of daggerboards. Nacra Sailing and World Sailing may yet need to review these proposals from a technical point of view.
#6, #11, #14, #16, #17, #18 – were all passed, and were all small modifications to allow the boat to work better in it’s new foiling configuration.
#10, #12, #13 – were all rejected, and were also of similar intention to the above list. Some proposals may find their way into future votes in modified forms.
#9 – This motion passed and puts limits on where retrofit boats can be used in future championships. As followers will note, the C-board Nacra 17’s were able to be upgraded to full foiling boats, and almost 100 retrofits have been completed. However, although there have been no cases of problems arising from this upgrade, there did exist the potential for the exploitation of this process which might have allowed an upgraded boat to put configured to a teams advantage. The class rules would have very limited means to address such a boat, which is why these boats will now be banned from the Olympics entirely, and futher, at any world championship, should a team make gold fleet in a retrofitted boat they will be relegated to silver fleet for that part of the championship. While most teams are using new boats for top level competitions, we do acknowledge the potential for disappointment by some of our members, but as an Olympic class we also must do our utmost to ensure the rules provide a level playing field while racing.
The final vote was a class policy vote on if/when the fleet should be allowed to race with their daggerboards raised from the full down position. In order to reduce wear and tear on crews and boats, the class has adopted a policy of requiring both daggerboards to be in the fully down position while racing. Some class members feel that the rule should be suspended in tougher sailing conditions to increase the control teams have and decrease the scale of any falls off of the foils. This vote required only 50% to pass, but received just under 40% of the vote and therefore the policy of requiring boards to be down at all times will be continued.
Each of the class rule and constitution votes now goes to world sailing for approval before adoption.
