Executive Committee Action
April 4, 2022
The Executive Committee is acting on behalf of the Governing Board per Lightning Class Constitution, Article XII, Section 1(b), to temporarily suspend Document Governing All Sanctioned Lightning Class Championships, Articles Governing All Lightning Class World Championships, Article V. Entries, Section 3.3 The Class Office when filing slots shall not create a situation where one Country has more than 50% of the entered boats (the “50% rule”), for the 2022 Lightning World Championship.
The Executive Committee received valuable input and overwhelming support from the Governing Board on this matter through an email survey of the group and a Zoom meeting that took place on April 3, 2022.
With the World Championship essentially 6 weeks away, immediate action was necessary to ensure a successful regatta. A formal amendment will be made to the 2022 Lightning World Championship Notice of Race.
Reason behind the proposal: The World Championship is scheduled to begin on May 16, 2022 in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, United States. On March 27, 2022, there were only 30 entries to the World Championship and an initial proposal was made. Based on our conversations with likely competitors, under the current rules, including the 50% rule, the Class Office expected total entries of 40 to 45 boats. The United States had filled its quota of 20 slots. Due to Covid-19, a war in Europe, and global economic conditions, there are many unfilled slots for the World Championship from geographical areas outside of North America. The Class Office is exhausting all efforts to fill these slots from non-United States boats, including soliciting boats from the other geographical areas, and from the other North American countries. With this action it is anticipated that there will be 10 to 15 additional entries to the World Championship from the United States. It is anticipated that with these additional entries, there will be 50-60 boats entered in the World Championship, a historically consistent entry amount for a North American based World Championship (Miami 2003 60, Burlington 2009 60, Buffalo 2015 67). The intent of this action is to fill the unused entry slots, not to make the World Championship an open regatta.
Application: With this action, entry to the World Championship will be opened to United States boats that sailed the 2021 Lightning North American Championship, in order of finish, for the unused slots from other geographical areas, until those slots are filled. This process would begin on April 4th. We expect this process to take approximately one week. If the entire entry list of United States boats from the 2021 North American Championship does not fill the open slots by April 15, 2022, the Class Office will open possible entry to any other interested United States boat from April 15, 2022 to April 18, 2022. If the number of interested United States boats is less than the number of available slots on April 18, 2022, all of the interested United States boats will be immediately allowed to enter on April 19, 2022, and any other boat after that date wishing to enter will be allowed entry on a first come, first serve basis until the remaining slots are filled, or until April 30, 2022, whichever comes first. If the number of interested United States boats exceeds the number of available slots on April 18, 2022, there will be a lottery on April 19, 2022, to allocate slots to the interested boats. Entry to the World Championship would still close on April 30, 2022, per the Notice of Race of the World Championship. Boats that were not qualified to register before the April 1st late registration fee will be able to register without penalty.