Early in 2016 IRSA wrote a set of ‘internationally acceptable’ rules for the RG65 class and submitted them to the RG65-ICA for comments. In April 2016 these rules were shared with the RG65 community. These rules were rejected after consultation with you, the RG65 community, in June 2016.
After that IRSA insisted on setting up a Workgroup with RG65-ICA to go over their rules and discuss them. Starting in March 2017 and for the next nine months a team of three representatives for IRSA, three representatives for RG65-ICA and about 20 observers from both sides were able to ask questions about any item in the rules.
The RG65 team worked hard to get IRSA to adopt the current RG65 rules without modification. After a lot of negotiation it became apparent that this would not be possible and so the ICA team sought to protect the RG65 class in its current state. The Workshop has never the less been a very rich experience that exposed the complexities of rule writing. It also showed how passionate we are about our class.
IRSA continued to, and still do, want to establish a set of rules which would be suitable for competition at World Championship level under World Sailing/IRSA and the ICA team worked with IRSA to adjust their proposed rules so that they reflect much of what the RG65 class stands for. This was achieved in some cases but not in others.
The result of all this, culminating in the recently released Joint Statement, is that the RG65 class will continue to operate as it always has done. But in addition IRSA will soon release this set of rules that will allow competition at a World, Continental and International Championship level. As things stand, the vast majority of boats that currently comply with the RG65 rules (published in 2014) will also be able to comply with the new IRSA rules .
But again, let’s be clear, the only people that would need to ensure that they comply with these IRSA rules are the people that want to take part in the World, Continental and International Championships run by IRSA.
Through this process we have ensured that the RG65 class is able to continue operating as it has for the last 40 years.