#allirelandsailing – The Irish Sailing Association (ISA) has issued its final list of invitees (see below) for tomorrow's All Ireland sailing championships at Howth Yacht Club together with clarification on how the selection for the competition was conducted.

The explanation follows comment from sailors on this site as to why some of the country's biggest classes, such as the Laser dinghy and Flying Fifteeen keelboat were not invited.  

In a statement, the ISA says it gives 'certain discretion' to a steering group in how it operates the selection criteria. It says these are published in the letter to classes requesting their nominations.

The statement continues 'The main operating difference for tomorrow's competition was the request for 2014 National Champions to be nominated and that a place would not be passed to a another sailor. Classes who had not completed a nationals by August 25th could use a ranking list. The objective was to ensure that as many class national champions as possible would get an opportunity to compete in the 2014 championship'.

According to the ISA, the basic rules are:

The class must have their ISA affiliation for 2014 paid in full.The Race Officer at the national championships has to be a National RO, or Regional RO under mentoring by a National RO. This is an ISA Policy from 2005 designed to improve the standard of racing at class championships. For this purposes the ISA recognises the qualification of officials from other national authorities e.g. RYA, FFV as well as ISAF International ROs.The SG are not permitted to select from classes that do not comply with one or other these rules.

All other nominees were considered and the selection process set out in the report was followed. The top three dinghy and keelboat classes based on numbers at their national championships were selected first, that gave six. The remaining classes, dinghy and keelboat together, were then ranked in order of numbers and the next nine selected. Where there were equal numbers a lottery was held to determine the order. The remaining classes were ranked in order for call up, by lottery, if and when a place became available.

Some nominees were unable to accept places due to pre-existing commitments (e.g. family engagements or competition abroad as part of ISA Squads) and the places awarded to other classes in order of the selection. In other cases the nominee was not able to accept a place.

Full text here

2014 ISA All Ireland Invitees