Dear class members,
We are pleased to announce the votes cast on the eight proposals published on 09-08-2023 have all been supported by a majority of 85% or more. A clear signal. Good comments were received as well.
Based on this result and the comments the IHCA Rules Committee prepared and submitted a recommendation to the IHCA Council to accept the eight changes as proposed. The Council has now done this unanimously.
At the outset in one of the received comments, I would like to clarify that the only thing changed for the trampoline rules is that trampolines for Hobie Wave, Hobie 17, Hobei 18 and Hobie 20 may come from any source. Here it should be observed that the provisions of General Rule 16.5 still apply.
What happens now? The change to IHCA General Class Rule 16.5 will be submitted to World Sailing (WS) for their approval as 16.5 also involves our WS international classes. This part of the process takes a while, and the changed rule may be foreseen to go into effect around 01-12-2023. As this rule change is a prerequisite for the other proposed trampoline rule changes these will go into effect on the same date.
Hobie Wave Rule 1.1, 1.3 and the new 10 will go into effect immediately. They are meant to clarify questions we have been asked to investigate prior to the Hobie Wave North American Championship on September 11-16, 2023. Furthermore, the IHCA Rules Committee did in June grant a one-off exemption to the provisions of IHCA General Rule 16.5 for the 2023 Hobie Wave North American Championship so trampolines from any manufacturer may be used during the event. This should address the trampoline question for this event while waiting for WS to approve the change to General Rule 16.5. This class rule exemption has been given under the provisions of Racing Rules of Sailing, rule 87.
Click here for the updated class rule book.
Finally a huge thank you to those of our members who took the time to comment and vote. Also, a huge thank you to the IHCA Council for their quick decision to make it possible to have the requested Hobie Wave rules in place before their 2023 HCANA National Championship. Saved us quite a bit of work with interim rulings.
Erik Olsen
IHCA Rules Committee Chair