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World Sailing Plaques - Breaking News May 12, 2023 (revised May 16, 2023)

5/12/2023 4:13 pm

IMPORTANT NEWS TO ISCA MEMBERS

 WORLD SAILING PLAQUES ON SUNFISH HULLS

 Issue May 12, 2023 (revised May 16, 2023)

 

ISCA is issuing an alert for Sunfish hulls with World Sailing plaques 103679 and higher or no World Sailing plaques. Revised to cover older boats.

 

In early February 2023, ISCA found out that boats being delivered to dealers in the USA did not include the required World Sailing Plaque (sticker).  Further investigation uncovered a much larger issue than expected. 

 

  • What LaserPerformance (LP) was doing:

As stated, recent boats were supplied without World Sailing plaques.  From approximately 2021 to the present, some boats came with plaques, but they were non-legal plaques. LP printed their own World Sailing plaques, but these plaques are required to be purchased from World Sailing.

 

LP confirmed 560 Sunfish produced as of March 2023 either had no plaque or had a non-legal WS plaque. Since then LP has shipped more boats with no plaques.

 

  • Why World Sailing plaques are important:

The Sunfish class gained international status in 1984.  A fee must be paid to World Sailing for each new boat built, and the plaque certifies that the fee has been paid. Without this plaque the boat is not class legal per WS and per the ISCA rules. All boats will be inspected for World Sailing Plaques at all ISCA events, including qualifying events for the World Championship and Pan Am Games

 

The name World Sailing was adopted in 2015, and that governing body has had different names over the years.  World Sailing, International Sailing Federation (ISAF), and International Yacht Racing Union (IYRU) are names of the organization since Sunfish became an international/World Sailing class. 

 

  • Current Situation:

After multiple conference calls with World Sailing and LP to resolve the issues of 1) previously manufactured boats with no WS plaques or LP printed plaques, and 2) future plaque requirements for new boats, Laser Performance agreed to pay for all these plaques.  On May 5 we finally received payment. Going forward LP is required to buy the plaques from ISCA and not from World Sailing. Additionally, WS required ISCA to be responsible for distributing plaques for the 560+ boats with issues.    

  • Solution for World Sailing compliance:
  1. If any of the criteria below are met, please CLICK HERE - WS Plaques for boats 2021-2023 to order a valid World Sailing plaque mailed to your current address for free.
    • Owners of boats built in 2021 to present without a World Sailing plaque.
    • Owners of boats with World Sailing plaques stickers greater than number 103678. All plaques above that number are LP non-legal plaques. 

 

 

  1. If the below criterion is met, please CLICK HERE - WS Plaques for boats between April 1990-2021 to purchase a valid World Sailing plaque for $15.00, which will be mailed directly to your current address.
  • Owners of boats built in April 1990 and after with NO WS (or ISAF or IYRU) Plaque. 

All boats built in April 1990 and after require a plaque. The plaque (port side cockpit forward surface) may read World Sailing, ISAF or IYRU.  If this was removed, covered with personal stickers, etc., it will need to be replaced with new WS Plaque.  

 

How to tell if your boat was built in April 1990 or later:

  • If your boat was built with metal edges, it was built before 1990
  • If your boat has the newer, “rolled” edge, check the Hull ID Number. If the last 4 characters are D090 or later, the boat requires a plaque.  Those characters are decoded as follows: D, which is the month it was made (D = the 4th month of the year, April. May would be E, etc.), 0 which is the last digit of the manufacturing year, 1990, and 90, which is the model year of the boat, also 1990.  For instance, J394 would have been built in October 1993 as a 1994 model and would need a plaque.
  • One other approach is if your boat was made by Sunfish Laser Inc, Vanguard, or Laser Performance, it was built after 1990 and needs a plaque. If your boat was built by Pearson it may or may not need a plaque – It does if the HIN ends in D090 or later as shown above.

 

 

 

 How to tell year of your boat is built....

Build year is the last digit of the year the boat was built.  In this case, it was built in 2019 and is a 2020 model year boat.  A number ending in 323 would be a boat built in 2023 as a 2023 model year boat.

 

** All new WS plaques will start with the letter A-105XXX to clearly show that it is a new plaque. 

 

Please email the class office with any questions: www.sunfishclass.org Sunfish Class Administrator, Martine Zurinskas sunfishoff@gmail.com or 404-451-7743 

 

ISCA