Bob Fisher: The revolt against World Sailing is not just a small group from one country; it has repr
SAN FRANCISCO (#1083) – Bob Fisher (GBR), our longtime friend and dean of the international yachting scribes, has weighed in on the controversy surrounding World Sailing and what many consider to be their dysfunctional, top-down corporate-style governance, and the organization's perilous finances, via his column in the September issue of Yachts & Yachting, just out....
One major sailing organization is under review of its peer group which feels that it has been badly mismanaged of late and seeks to restore it to its proper purpose – World Sailing has been badly mismanaged, according to the peer group, and has lost money at an unbelievable rate since the current Executive took charge.
It proposes an amendment to World Sailing’s powers of Council principally: “To suborn completely the authority of the World Sailing Chief Operating Officer and Federation Staff to that of the World Sailing Shareholders represented primarily and finally by the World Sailing Council and secondly and temporarily by a super majority of the Executive Board.”
That would place the decision-making back in the hands of the elected sailors and away from the paid staff keen to increase the turnover of the organization by extending the scope of it into new fields. Why else would we be involved in Kite Boarding if there were no revenue associated with it?
This is not just a small group from one country; it has representatives from far-reaching countries as well as the principal regions of Europe, North and South America, the Orient and Australasia.
Maybe this time the revolutionaries will reverse the trend and place World Sailing in its original state with its original purpose – to be the international authority for our sport. –Bob Fisher
The non-sailing CEO of World Sailing, Andy Hunt (GBR, far left), with his nine-member Board of Directors. From Mr Hunt's left, Quanhai Li (CHN), Scott Perry (URU), Nadine Stegenwalner (GER), Ana Sanchez (ESP), President Kim Andersen (DEN), Gary Jobson (USA), Yann Rocherieux (FRA), Jan Dawson (NZL), and Torben Grael (BRA). Photo courtesy of World Sailing.