Abu Dhabi, January 6th, 2002 - From the UIM F1 Headquarters

A safety meeting was held in Monaco on the week-end of January 5-6 with the participation of:
Mr. Ralf Fröhling - UIM President
Mrs Régine Vandekerckhove - General Secretary
Mr. Siegfried Boettle - President Cockpit Commission
Mr. Cees van der Velden - President F1 Committee
Mr. Fred Hauenstein - President UIM technical commission
Mr. Nicolo di San Germano - UIM F1 Promoter
Mr. Scott Gillman - F1 Drivers' Representative
And with the participation of the boat builders.

In order to improve safety, the following decisions will be taken:
- increase by 5% the minimum weight of the boats
- extend the length of the start pontoon in order to give more space to each starting boat
- increase the angle between the pole position and the first turn buoy

In case the above improvements cannot be applied, the UIM commissioner will be authorized to decide on a rolling start.

Asked by the media, the UIM F1 promoter declared: "our sport is one of the most spectacular because of the high speed on the water and for this reason the search for safety improvement is a never ending story. We hope with these measures to have further reduced the risks that every start represents for the drivers. Those improvements will require additional efforts from the local organisers but I am confident that everyone will be cooperative in this common effort to improve safety in our sport."