Big news: New Sailing Event at 2024 Olympics: Mixed Two Person Offshore
Aug 22, 2019
The J99 could be one of the boats used in competition for the event
Not without some controversy, World Sailing is introducing some changes for the Olympics. For the first time in Olympic sailing history, a Mixed Two Person Offshore Keelboat event will be on the programme at the Paris 2024 Olympic Sailing Competition.
The Mixed Two Person Offshore Keelboat will join kiteboarding, windsurfing, multihulls, singlehanded and doublehanded dinghies and skiffs, promoting the diversity of the sport. This in turn will support World Sailing’s hopes to promote and grow universality in all disciplines and increase female participation with gender equal medals and athletes. Their expectations, as you can see in the video, are very exciting.
For qualification events, World Sailing will approve a list of one-design boats that are already regionally available and can be accessed as a charter boat. Boats will be equalised to ensure fair competition. The recently launched J99 has been mentioned as a possible choice and, perhaps by happy coincidence, it is built in France.
Katherine Stone takes a First Look at the J99 exclusively featured in the October issue of Canadian Yachting magazine – you won’t want to miss it!
For Paris 2024, World Sailing’s Council will select a list of different Equipment it considers to meet the key criteria by 31 December 2020 and then make a decision on the Equipment, selecting from the list, no later than 31 December 2023.
MNAs, Class Associations and Manufacturers have all been invited to propose Equipment for the list and a World Sailing Working Party will evaluate each proposal. A recommended list will be presented to Council for approval in November 2020.
Courses
Starting and finishing in Marseille, the Mixed Offshore event is expected to last for either three days and two nights or four days and three nights off the French coastline and whoever crosses the finish line first will be declared Olympic champion.
The race course and length will be announced in the lead up to the start so the competition can take advantage of the latest weather forecast. Current options proposed include long and short courses heading towards the West and East of France.
See the video that takes a first look at how the event may look at Paris 2024…
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