Tuesday 7th December 2004:
Proposals for the FISA Extraordinary Congress in January 2005
In two months time FISA will be holding an Extraordinary Congress in Dubrovnik, Croatia, to discuss general rowing issues and potential changes. This is part of the four-yearly cycle of meetings, and this time there is a lot to discuss.
1.11 Boats constructed or delivered after 1st January 2007 must also show on the production plaqued (defined in 1.10 above) whether the boat meets the FISA Guidelines for Minimum Flotation: "A boat when full of water with the crew seated in the rowing position should float such that the top of the seat is a maximum of 50mm below the static waterline."
This FISA Guideline is to be found in a set of new Safety Guidelines which aim to present FISA's position on various aspects of safety and rowing. It is important to note that FISA has no authority in rowing outside its own events, yet it understands that when domestic safety standards for a sport are called into legal question, the position of the international governing body is scrutinised and will be taken by many courts to define a minimum safety position. To that end their new Guidelines (currently in a PDF Draft Safety Bulletin) are published as advice to countries, although they will be enforced during FISA-run regattas.
The question this opens up is what action NGB's will take. Some have already been considering changing rules on buoyancy, while there has been a very heated debate going on in the last four years in Britain, centred around the Leo Blockley Memorial Campaign for increased boat safety. I caught up with Stephen Blockley, Leo's father, last night, and we discussed the FISA Guideline.
"It is certainly a step in the right direction", he told me, "but it seems to miss some important points. We would suggest including something about the boat having to remain level, and to remain rowable. In our Proposed Buoyancy Standard (no. 50 in the list of documents on the Campaign's server) we recommend that the bottom of the swivel must remain a minimum 125mm above the average water height, to keep the body core out of the water and avoid hypothermia. Also, a standard ought to deal with punctures in the hull, ie any buoyancy chambers ought to be compartmentalised. But a measurable standard, that's to be applauded. It's certainly pointing NGB's in the right direction, even if it may need some tweaking."
It may reassure the Blockleys that the Safety Bulletin is still a work in progress. "We are calling it draft so that national federations can still make suggestions that might help it be better", said FISA Executive Director Matt Smith yesterday. He also demurred over the impact the Guidelines might have, adding: "The safety issue is primarily a national issue. National laws prevail and national courts hear cases. Clubs and waterways and safe training are issues for the national federations. Technically FISA governs international rowing competitions and that is it. But we are ready to present guidelines for those national federations that do not yet have them."
This looks like an over-modest statement. In our steadily globalising world, law in one country can have an impact in another, particularly in the areas of risk assessment and safety. Fine-shell rowing varies little in its fundamentals around the world, and if standards tighten in one country, they will be used as an example by those seeking compensation that it is possible to reduce risk of fatality more than was previously thought. With the benefit of any advice they choose to call on, FISA's safety pronouncements will surely be seen as they intend - a minimum acceptable level.
The proposal this time is essentially the same: to fix a single pair of lightweight limits to which all athletes in those classes will adhere. For men it is proposed to be 70kgs and for women 57kgs. This essentially brings the current maxima down to the current average level. On the plus side, it will stop the "making weight" issues affecting all the rowers in a crew, as the rest will no longer have to run off weight to help a heavier person bring the crew average down. On the minus side, it may disenfranchise existing lightweight rowers, especially those used to being the heavier ones in large crew boats.
It should be noted that for the same proposition to be making an appearance again four years later, FISA must be very sure they need to change the current system. There is good evidence from the FISA Medical Commission that the present system is unhealthy for the athletes, and would benefit from the change. FISA is in a difficult position here as regards proving it, though. I can think of no sports (and even if I'm being unimaginative there are certainly very few - synchronised boxing, anyone?) which have teams where mass weigh-ins and weight maxima apply in this way, so it is worth listening to their conviction that a change is necessary.
The summary and brief explanation of all the proposed rule changes is downloadable here as a PDF file.