Officially out

The ISAF have officially voted against the Multihull and the Womens's Skiff at the Mid-Year Metting

Word is coming through from the ISAF Mid-Year Meeting that the Multhull and Women's Skiff are officially out of the running for the Olympics in 2012.

Today in Qingdao, the ISAF Council met to re-affirm the decision made in November to remove the Multihull category from the Games and bring in Women's Match Racing. If the decision was to be overturned a majority vote was required. This majority was achieved meaning the case was to be re-opened.

However, following this a two thirds majority was required to decide on each individual matter. The case for the Multihull event being returned saw a majority of votes but was not the two thirds required to reinstate the event. Voting was overwhelmingly in favor of women's Match Racing over the Women's High Performance Two Person Dinghy (Skiff).

All this means theoretically both cases are now closed with neither event able to achieve selection for the 2012 Games. Interestingly, due to the emotionally charged nature of the vote, ISAF President, Goran Petersson, made the decision to make all the ballots pertaining to these votes secret. This means the public will be never know which representative voted which way.

In a vote designed to end all questions on this matter it immediately seems some more may be coming ISAF's way. Perhaps most importantly for those campaigning on these issues is the vote receiving a majority to be re-opened but neither subject receiving the same level of support. For a vote intended to put a messy few months behind ISAF it may well be more of the same for the immediate future.