The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) ends its annual conference in Edinburgh today with several crucial decisions hanging in the balance. For elite Irish sailors, the selection of the Olympic classes for Athens 2004 will be of particular interest and ends months of speculation.
The recommendation to be put before the general council this morning presents a straight-forward choice. After months of lobbying before intensive discussion earlier this week, the line-up of boats has been narrowed down to two candidates for elimination: the three-man Soling keelboat or the high-performance 49er Skiff dinghy.
The loss of one of these is needed to make way for a women's match-racing event. As the quota for sailing medals cannot be increased, and ISAF is committed to improving the level of women's participation in sailing, the hard choice must now be made.
The Soling has attracted some criticism for the fleet racing that eventually eliminates all contenders before a match-racing final series.
This has resulted in proven Soling sailors reaching a final that doesn't include most of the world's best-known match-racers from the Americas Cup and Swedish World Series events.
The 49er was selected after extensive trials among a variety of skiff classes in an attempt to maximise the profile of sailing in Sydney harbour, the home of the 18-foot skiffs.
Given the waterside venue of the last Olympiad, the 49ers would finally give the sport its spectator appeal and present a newer, more dynamic image.
Meanwhile, Sydney 2000 was the theme for the ISAF Sailor of the Year award and the twin awards, one male and one female went to two gold medallists.
A regular visitor to Ireland took the female prize as Shirley Robertson's 12-year campaign eventually ended with a gold for Britain on her third Olympic Games.
A similar story of endurance and commitment saw Mark Reynolds and Magnus Lledjhal of the United States take the male award.
Dubbed by some wits as "Mr Comeback" for the performance that saw Reynolds start the Sydney regatta with a dismal result, this was gradually transformed as the regatta progressed and the pair chipped steadily away their points deficit to confound all with an overall win.
At home this week, in the aftermath to Gerbil Owens's success at the Champion of Champions event in Howth last Saturday, the Irish Sailing Association "is pleased to announce the winner of the GP14 class first-timers trophy is Noel Butler, Irish National Laser II champion. During the course of the event this honour, due to an administrative error, was awarded to John Twomey."
This statement followed an inspection of the entry forms at ISA Headquarters on Monday. In fact, by prior agreement, Butler was nominated by the Laser 2 class association as he was the winner of the class Traveller Series for their events during the season. Tom Fitzpatrick was the actual Laser 2 national champion but was nominated by the 1720 class as he won that national title as well and came fourth last weekend.
The new champion of champions, Owens, nominated as the 420 national champion, came second overall in the Laser 2 national championship.
