CHOPPY WATERS

Despite criticism of World Sailing in recent years, its president Kim Andersen is determined to see his changes through and intends to stand again, hears ROB KOTHE

- ROB KOTHE

For quite some time, you could say, World Sailing, the sport’s governing body, has been navigating difficult waters. The organisation has found itself under fire from sections of the sailing community over a series of issues, including decisions regarding Olympic equipment and Olympic events, and over the handling of World Sailing’s own finances. There have been high-level changes in personnel and World Sailing (WS) is currently looking for a new CEO after Andy Hunt stepped down last autumn.

We have interviewed World Sailing’s president Kim Andersen before in Yachts & Yachting but we caught up with him again at the Yachting Racing Forum in Bilbao, Spain, late last year.

This annual event is a series of talks and debates between some of the most respected names in sailing. Andersen’s 30-minute talk at the event outlined WS’s many successes since he took over the presidency from Carlo Croce in 2016. Unusually for the Yacht Racing Forum, afterwards no one seemed to want to challenge Andersen’s upbeat presentation, but concerns had not gone away and questions remained. The president of World Sailing was happy to sit down with us after the event to talk through some of the issues that have made the headlines.

FINANCE AND GOVERNANCE

In 2014, Carlo Croce, the president of what was then then ISAF (which became World Sailing in November 2015), announced a €5 million sponsorship agreement with Russian gas giant Gazprom. This was expected to bring €1 million annually into WS coffers.

Two years later, in 2016, it was announced that sailing’s Olympic income would be £11.8 million. This would be WS’s primary funding vehicle through to 2020.

Meanwhile additional sponsorship deals had been negotiated, announced by CEO Andy Hunt, and things were looking financially rosy. But there were choppy waters ahead.