SACA proposal to alter championship rule 16

Dear SACA members,

As previously explained here and polled there, we have tried to submit official proposals to allow the usage of GPS devices during our races, by changing the rule 16. We have submitted two proposals, but only the 2nd one has received enough support to be officially submitted to the next WGM in Punta Ala in September.

The first proposal was requesting a complete liberalisation of the GPS usage. Only Denmark was supporting this proposal. Even if we would have got the support of 3 countries, I have felt a strong resistance against any such evolution, and I doubt we would have received the needed 2/3 majority during a WGM vote, and most probably not during a subsequent world-wide vote, which needs a 2/3 majority as well.

The second proposal was better received and I do have confidence that it might be successful during the upcoming process. It is the result of a grouped work of multiple people in the class, including presidents of UK, USA, Denmark, and severals members of the technical committee. The idea is to augment security by allowing emergency devices (original idea from Landy), and allow for GPS trackers to make live-tracking possible (original idea from Struan Wallace, UK president). Besides, we do ask for a written clarification regarding the usage of GPS devices outside Worlds and Continental championships. The proposal as submitted to IACA today is attached below.

Side note : even if the proposal is not accepted, the current rule will continue to allow the usage of GPS during our future swiss regattas.

We will now wait for the complete list of all submitted proposals and possibly organise a consulting vote within Switzerland to establish the positions of SACA before the WGM. I will keep you informed.

Je suis à votre disposition en cas de questions / Bei Unklarheiten stehe ich zu Verfügung.

Salutations,
Charles