Sailors will be required to complete an eligibility form to prove their status as professionals, semi-professionals or amateurs before entering next July's Ford Cork week regatta as organisers mount a determined effort to ensure the biennial week retains its core value as a "fun regatta".
There will be a strict enforcement of the 2000 rule that no group three (professional) sailor will be allowed to sail unless they are in class zero or the sports boat division.
The issue of professionals and amateurs racing together nearly always raises its head at Ford Cork Week and next July's staging is proving no exception following race committee chairman John McWilliam's move to "energetically" apply the International Sailing Federation's Classification code.
Group two sailors (semi-professionals) will be allowed sail in all classes except in the Gentleman's "white sails" only class.
Eligibility status was a locally administered rule until 1998 in Cork where the organisers attempted to keep the professionals out of the amateur divisions but it has proved a thorny issue for the Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) and a matter - it would appear now - that is not without some irony.
An eligibility form must be completed from the ISAF website (www.sailing.org/classification). ISAF, says McWilliam, will reply with a sailor's classification free of charge and this must be submitted with the boat entry form.
Significantly, this week the eligibility checking procedure has surfaced in the British yachting press as an early warning to potential UK entrants.
July will tell all but what is clear for 2002 is that the spirit of the no-pro rule has become as important as its meaning.
Meanwhile, just when Ford Week was about to hit the magic 1,000 entry number - a much hyped target figure for the 2000 regatta - organisers have done some thing of a U-turn on fleet size expectations and capped numbers to a sensible 500 entries.
Neighbouring Kinsale Yacht Club have kept numbers to 100 or so for their staging of Sovereigns week and it has ensured the quality and charm of the event is retained.
Likewise the Royal St George organisers of the inaugural BMW regatta on Dublin bay have decided to limit entries for the keelboat event to 150 boats.
