The ISAF Sailing World Cup has been in the planning for several years, and in November 2006, ISAF approved the initial six events and the overview event concept, with the ISAF Executive Committee charged to finalize details. The objective of the ISAF Sailing World Cup is to provide a clear competition structure for Olympic sailing and enhance Olympic sailing for the competitors, provide a media and marketing tool to benefit sponsors, event organizers, the sailors and the sport, and to promote and educate people about sailing. In November 2006, ISAF approved that a series of events will combine under the umbrella of the ISAF Sailing World Cup, with the subject to contract the initial events being:
Sail Melbourne
Rolex Miami OCR
Princess Sofia Trophy
Semaine Olympique Française
Holland Regatta
Kiel Week
The ISAF Sailing World Cup will kick off in 2008 and ISAF has been working in partnership with the event organizers to finalize details of the concept and calendar scheduling. A consistent approach will be taken not only on the competition format across the World Cup events, but also on media activities, marketing and the event brand. As part of their commitment to the World Cup, each event organizer will be required to contribute towards TV production, to an amount which will be matched by ISAF and put in entirety towards the television production and distribution. From 2009 onwards, the scheduling of Sail Melbourne and Rolex Miami OCR will be moved to enable competitors to compete in both events, with Sail Melbourne during the second week of January and Rolex Miami OCR during the second week of February.
A sailor’s finishing place at each individual event in the World Cup series will count towards his ISAF Sailing World Cup score, using a high point scoring system and no discard. The intention is to also count results from the individual Olympic Class World Championships within the World Cup scoring. However, as at the moment Kiel Week is the last event in the World Cup series, World Championships will need to have concluded prior to Kiel in order to be included. From 2010 onwards, ISAF plans to introduce a Grand Final which will take place in the months after Kiel Week and see the top sailors from the series in a 'head to head' Grand Final at a venue which will be moved around the world each year. ISAF also intends to add additional non-European events to the World Cup series in the coming years, with an initial focus on an event in Asia. ISAF will publish a separate update on the launch of the ISAF Sailing World Cup.
