Voting at the CIVL Plenary in 2010
Sunday 13:00
The future of competition class wings in FAI Cat 1 has been saved by the CIVL Plenary in Lausanne when the UK’s proposal to limited the events to EN D paraglider and below failed to win the crucial majority support of two thirds of the voting members.
It was a close run thing though with 14 for, 14 against and 2 abstentions.
This means the 2011 World Championships in Spain will be battled out on competition wings.
The French proposal to continue the working group’s work with an increased mandate for further controls, leading to certification, passed.
Other decisions made were that the 2013 World Championship will be in Bulgaria. The bid was won by a very large margin with a 12 vote margin over Portugal.
Sunday 27 Feb 2011
“It’s all going to happen today.”
The competition paragliding world is on tenterhooks as the great ‘Serial versus Open Class paragliders’ debate is voted on today at the annual meeting of CIVL in Lausanne, Switzerland.
CIVL is the governing body of competition hang gliding and paragliding within the FAI, and oversees competitions like the World and European Championships.
They have been meeting in Switzerland for the last four days at their annual plenary.
At the top of the agenda for many pilots watching is what is going to happen with a proposal to limit Cat 1 competitions (World and Continental championships) to certified-only gliders, effectively banning uncertified gliders from the championships.
CIVLs Secretary, Louise Joselyn, said this morning that “Anything could happen.”
“The proposals of the Open Class Technical Working Group to create a ‘competition class’ of ‘semi-certified’ (my word) gliders was well received by the paragliding subcommittee,” she said.
“The UK proposal to limit Cat 1 competitions to certified-only gliders has tangible support from the PMA, EHPU and Ozone Gliders. Within the subcommittee, the views are split with strong views in both camps. Anything could happen.”
She added, “Until yesterday, the favourite view was that both would go through, giving us ‘competition class’ gliders in 2011 and certified only gliders in Cat 1s in 2012.
“But now, the French are planning to modify their own proposal to extend the operation of the OCTWG, in a way which would effectively block the UK proposal.”
Voting will take place later this afternoon, with the results known almost immediately.
The Plenary also saw presentations from countries bidding for championships. “Yesterday we had presentations from Bulgaria, Turkey and Portugal,” said Louse, “all bidding for the 2013 FAI Paragliding World Championships.
“Certainly Portugal gets points for the slickest video presentation, but all the bids are looking good.
“Bill Moyes presented the Australia bid for the HG Worlds in 2013. The quality of the bid showed the professionalism of the Forbes operation, having hosted the championship twice before.”
She added: “Meanwhile, even over breakfast this morning, the lobbying continues…”
For a full rundown on the debate over Open Class gliders in Cat 1 competitions, see this thread at paraglidingforum.com.
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