If the proposal, first put forward by New Zealand, is accepted by the ISAF Events Committee and eventually endorsed by the ISAF Council it would see the Elliott 6M renamed as the "ISAF 6m" and used for the Olympic event.

 

The proposal also means that the women's match racing event would be conducted in a sportsboat rather than an international keelboat class like the Yngling currently used for the women's fleetracing event and which Britain has won in the last two Olympics, but which has been controversially dropped for 2012 when the sailing events are due to be held in Weymouth and Portland.

 

The Elliott 6m, which are sailed by teams of three - helm, main, bow - have been described as "waterborne hotrods, which place a premium on boat-handling skills".

 

The International Yngling Association (IYA) had claimed that their class of boat should stay on the programme as it would make an ideal match racing boat.

 

They claim that the performance in Yngling, which also consists of a team of three, and has been described "as an agreeable cross between a planing dinghy and a keelboat", depends more on crew work and not so much on speed.

 

But it now appears that Yngling, designed in 1967 by Jan Herman Linge and which means "youngster" in Norwegian, has lost the battle.

 

It was the controversial decision by the world governing body, the ISAF Council, during its annual conference in November 2007 that led to the decision not to include a modern high performance dinghy for women, the expulsion of the multihull event and the introduction of a match racing format for the women’s keelboat event.

 

The Royal Yacthing Association (RYA) were among those who lobbied the ISAF unsuccessfully and fellow governing bodies around the world, believing that the decisions was not in the best interests of the sport.

 

Göran Petersson, the president of the ISAF, supported the move because he said that the sport needed to move with the times.

 

Bigger boats, with as many as 10 to 12 sailors, dominated the early Olympics, but since 1924 the trend has been towards smaller, one-design boats with fewer crew members

 

At the last two Olympics in Athens and Beijing, only Yngling had a three-person crew and lone sailors contested five events.

 

The current Olympic programme features a mix of boats.

 

Some - like the 49er - reflect design and technology advances, while others - like the Star and Finn - have a long and distinguished history.