New equipment

The ISAF Council have voted to keep the Women's 470 in over the 29erXX

The ISAF Council is today deciding the equipment to be used at the 2012 Olympic Games.

Although there are technically many classes up for discussion most of the current Olympic boats look to be safe. The areas where there was a possibility of contention were the Women's Two Person Dinghy - which the 29erXX and 470 - and Women's Match racing - with a whole host of options.

In terms of the 29erXX and the 470, the old favorite, 470 was voted into the Olympics for 2012. Reasonably, although the skiff was favored by both the Equipment and the Women's committees it stood little chance of being voted through today. With many countries already making their funding plans for 2012, a new class now was always going to be difficult to introduce.

In the Women's Match Racing the ISAF Council have voted to allow the class to be a non-ISAF class meaning a class with less global spread can be voted in as the class of choice for Match Racing. The Elliot 6m was selected as equipment for the Match Racing, which is a sports boat so at least provides a small nod to something of a high performance nature.

The Council have kept all the rest of the classes the same. The final line-up for the 2012 Olympic Games then is as follows:

Men’s One Person Dinghy – Laser
Men’s One Person Dinghy Heavy – Finn
Men’s Two Person Dinghy – 470
Men’s Two Person Dinghy High Performance – 49er
Men’s Windsurfer – RS:X
Men’s Keelboat – Star
Women’s One Person Dinghy – Laser Radial
Women’s Windsurfer – RS:X 
Women's Two Person Dinghy - 470
Women's Match Racing - Elliot 6m