It has been a difficult and fraught six months for ISAF with the uproar at the decision last November to throw the multihull out of the 2012 Games. It was also disappointing that the women's skiff didn't get the nod ahead of women's match racing, but in the end there didn't seem much appetite for it. It's easy to forget that we live in the most progressive dinghy racing nation in the world, and that it can take years, more likely decades, before we can bring other nations with us. Not every nation is as skiff-crazy as we are in the UK.

These issues were all raised again, despite ISAF's apparent reluctance, at the Federation's mid-year meeting in Qingdao. The 38 members of ISAF Council voted to reopen the decision on Olympic Events for Weymouth 2012, with a small majority - 20 members - in favour of reopening the discussion. However, the second vote required a two-thirds majority to actually change any of the Men's or Women's Events from last November's vote. The two-thirds majority wasn't achieved in either case, so the status quo remains. The keelboat classes stay in, the Men's multihull and the Women's high performance boat are out.

I won't bore you too much with the politics of all this. What's done is done, except to ask why of the 38 members of ISAF Council, not one is an active Olympic sailor? In other words, the people who are directly affected by these decisions? Last year ISAF formed an Athletes' Commission, which consists of one representative from each of the Olympic Events.

Laser Radial representative, our own Laura Baldwin, attended the meeting representing the Athletes' Commission but wasn't allowed to stand up and speak on behalf of the competing athletes in the Council Meeting. "It was disappointing not being able to make the case for competing athletes" said Baldwin. So why wasn't she allowed to speak? "ISAF is very shaken by the level of personal attacks that individuals have come under over the past few months, and they didn't want to put me in a similar situation."

Personal attack or not, Baldwin still would have liked her chance to speak. "I spoke to many Committee Members and really felt I was getting the athletes' point across. What I think is being missed here is how these decisions have such a massive impact on sailors' lives. The problem with the multihull being thrown out of the Games is that the skills to multihull sailing are so unique, it's not going to be that easy for people to step cross into other Events and continue their careers. My fear is we're going to lose a lot of these sailors from Olympic sailing."

At the moment the athletes are just pawns in the game. ISAF did the right thing by creating an Athletes' Commission. However at the moment it is a toothless organisation. To have Baldwin there at the meeting, and not allow her to speak when clearly she wanted to (Laura is big enough to decide for herself whether she can cope with any personal abuse), is patronising in the extreme. One wonders what ISAF is afraid of, in not having an athlete there. The closest thing they have to an athlete's representative on ISAF Council is Theresa Zabell, who won two gold medals steering the 470 in 1992 and 1996, and interestingly she was in favour of the Men's multihull and Women's high performance boat.

Sporting bodies are often, and sometimes unfairly, accused of being out of touch with the sports they represent. Who can forget England Rugby Team captain Will Carling's description of the Rugby Football Union Committee as a bunch of "57 old farts"? That wayward comment earned Carling the sack, even if it amused the rest of us. The best way for ISAF to avoid similar accusations would be to give at least one actively competing athlete a seat at the top table. From a Council of 38 members, is that really too much to ask?

New Rules

If ISAF's handling of the Olympic Events for 2012 has been muddled, it is to be applauded for the clarity of thought and purpose in producing a simplified set of racing rules. While ISAF has aimed this one-sheet of rules at newcomers to racing, I think most of us could benefit from these rules. From knowing the rulebook inside out back in my team racing days at university, I have to admit that as the boats I started sailing have got faster, my knowledge and recall of the rules has got proportionally slower. Basically, the faster the boat, the less important the rules appear to be, until you find yourself aiming at another boat with a combined closing speed of more than 30 knots. At which point you need to be able to remember the right rule rather quickly!

Anyway, here are ISAF's 10 Basic Rules of racing, which I think do a very good job of dealing with 90 per cent of the situations we're likely to encounter:

Basic Rules

 
1. You must comply with the principles of good sportsmanship.

2. You must try not to collide with another boat.
 
Rules When Boats Meet
 
3. When you and the other boat are on opposite tacks, if you are on port tack you must avoid the boat on starboard tack.

4. When you and the other boat are on the same tack, you must avoid the other boat

(a) if she is in front of you, or

(b) if she is on your leeward side.

5. After starting, when you and the other boat approach a mark or an object that both boats need to avoid, and the other boat is between you and the mark or other object, you must give her sufficient space to pass it safely on the same side. However, when the boats are on opposite tacks at a windward mark, this rule does not apply.

6. When the other boat is required to avoid you, if you change course, you must give the other boat an adequate opportunity to avoid you.

Other Rules

7. At the starting signal you must be behind the starting line.

8. After the starting signal, you must sail the course described by the race organizers.

9. You must not touch a mark of the course.

10. If you think you or another boat has broken a rule or if you are unclear about the rules at any time during the race, you must describe the incident to the advisor after the race. The advisor may then add two points to the score of any boat that has broken a rule. If the offence is serious, the advisor may add extra points to the
boat's score.

You can download the one-sheet of rules from here: http://www.sailing.org/22317.php. ISAF emphasises that these are experimental rules only, and all feedback is invited, which you can do by visiting: www.sailing.org/contactisaf

Simplifying the game

The wonderful thing about our sport is that it requires so many diverse skills for success, there are many different paths to the same point. Some of us know how to start on the B of BANG! every time, some can sit out longer and harder than others, others can tune the rig until the boat sings, others can read the race course like a chess board. Few of us put all these skills together, and many of us are guilty of working to our strengths and conveniently ignoring the weaker aspects of our game.

Dealing with the weakest parts of our game takes good self-awareness and some degree of mental strength to be able to face up to these awkward truths. If we're honest with ourselves, overlooking our weaknesses is the worst thing we can do, assuming that improving our sailing is what we'd like to do.

Jon Emmett's new book, Be Your Own Sailing Coach, was launched at the Dinghy Show in March. It is aimed at helping the reader address any such weaknesses, and coming up with ways of working on and improving them in a systematic way. On the very first page, Jon introduces the goal dartboard. This is an excellent way of visually representing your strengths and weaknesses. Giving yourself a mark out of 10, the better the score for a given skill, the more segments of the dartboard you fill in. Once completed, this instantly shows you which areas of your game require the most work.

For example, I might give myself 8/10 for heavy weather boathandling, but 2/10 for rules knowledge. This suggests I've got more work to do on the rules than I do on perfecting a heavy-weather gybe, although for those of us short on time there is the other matter of setting priorities. Boat-on-boat issues don't arise all that often in the International 14, for example, whereas one bad gybe can result in a capsize and ruin your day.

Jon's book doesn't tell you where to set your priorities, but he does show you ways of making sure you divert your precious time to the areas that are most valuable to improving your sailing. He also includes advice from Olympic sailors Paul Goodison, Simon Hiscocks and Joe Glanfield, whose comments provide useful insight into the structured and positive ways that Olympic athletes go about solving problems.

Even the chapter list is quite a useful checklist of all the different areas that we need to think about if we're to be successful in our own sailing:

1.      Goal Setting

2.      Self-preparation

3.      Venue preparation

4.      Technology

5.      Starting

6.      Boat handling

7.      Tactics

8.      Strategy

9.      Rules

10.  Meteorology

11.  Boat Speed - Upwind

12.  Boat Speed - Reaching

13.  Boat Speed - Running

14.  Fitness

15.  Diet

16.  Body Weight

17.  Mental Attitude

18.  Racing Log

19.  Concentration

20.  Boat Preparation

21.  Finance.

This is a very comprehensive, well-designed book that covers pretty much everything you need to know to go out and win. That is, it gives you a broad brush overview of all the important areas. At more than 270 pages, it's already a big book, and while some important areas are passed over in only the scantest of detail, this is all you can expect from a book with such a broad remit.

The publisher is Wiley Nautical, who took over the niche publisher Fernhurst recently. I learned much of my racing from devouring all the Fernhurst books in my teens, and still reckon they are among the best textbooks out there. Jon Emmett's book follows very much in that vein, so it's strange that the new publisher hasn't made more of a connection with some of the other, older books in their series. When I was left wanting more from the Tactics chapter, for example, why not cross refer to Rodney Pattisson's Tactics book which, although more than a quarter century old, is still relevant as ever?

Still, back to Jon's book, and let me conclude by giving it a very high recommendation for anyone who wants that overview of how to run an effective campaign. For experienced racers there may not be much that's new here, but you'll still find a lot that you've probably forgotten. This is a good reminder of just how many facets of the game there are, and that there is always room for improvement, no matter where we are on the learning curve.