World Sailing
international sailing sports body
World Sailing, formerly the International Yacht Racing Union and International Sailing Federation (ISAF), is the international sports governing body for sailing; it is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
History
The creation of the International Yacht Racing Union (IYRU) began in 1904, when Major Brooke Heckstall-Smith AINA, then Secretary of the Yacht Racing Association (now the Royal Yachting Association) wrote to the Yacht Club de France, pointing out the desirability of holding a conference for the purpose of devising an International Rule of Measurement for Racing Yachts acceptable to all European countries. As a result, an International Conference of Yacht Measurement was held in London in January and June 1906, at which the Metre Rule was developed. This group went on to adopt a formal Constitution after a meeting at the Yacht Club de France in Paris on 14 October 1907 which is seen as the formation date of the International Yacht Racing Union.
On 5 August 1996, the IYRU changed its name to the International Sailing Federation (ISAF).
On 14 November 2015, ISAF changed its name to World Sailing.
International Yacht Racing Union (IYRU) - 1904,1907 to 1995
International Sailing Federation (ISAF) - 1996 to 2014
World Sailing (WS) - After 2015
Competition formats
Competitive sailing regattas contain events which are defined by a combination of discipline, equipment, gender, and sometimes categories. These criteria are defined by the race's purpose.
Disciplines
The following are the main disciplines:
Fleet racing – The most common form of competitive sailing involving boats racing around a course.
Match racing – Two identical boats race against each other.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q381929. VIAF identifies the subject as 131060319. The Library of Congress control number is n2008039237. Authority coordinates are 50.895, -1.405. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1904, 1906, 1907 and 1996.
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This entry incorporates text from “World Sailing” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.