EUROSAF General Assembly hosted in Andorra

by Dan Ibsen on 31 Mar 2014 29 European sailing federations gathered in Andorra for the annual meeting with Federacio Andorra de Vela as host for all delegates. The meetings were conducted 1000 metres above sealevel.

Delegates from all over Europe gathered on Friday in Andorra, most of them coming through Barcelona, with three hours by bus to beautiful Andorra in the Pyrenees. Andorra is one of the smallest ISAF and EUROSAF member federations.

29 sailing federations out of 42 was represented at the meeting in Andorra. ISAF Vice-president Chris Atkins and Wilfred Klein from IFDS also joined the meeting.

Federacio Andorra de Vela organized three very good days for all the delegates, still with snow in the mountains. The meetings were held 1000 meters above sea level and the Saturday evening dinner was hosted in a restaurant on top of the Pyrenees at 2.200 meters. All the delegates cheered the Andorra federation for organizing a fantastic gathering for European Sailing.

The EUROSAF General Assembly took place Saturday, the first part of the day with the more formal procedures and matters for the ordinary general assembly. ISAF president Marco Predieri and Secretary General John Friend presented the report of all the activities during the past year, inclusive of all the EUROSAF events.

Second part of the meetings were held as a workshop with the following presentations and discussions:
• Sailing in Andorra - Josep Pla, President of the Federación Andorrana de Vela
• The Growth of 2 Keelboat (2K) Team Racing in Europe – John Friend, EUROSAF secretary General
• ISAF Race Management Continental Ambassadors - Tomasz Chamera, Performance Director, Polish Yachting Association & Chairman of ISAF Race Management Sub-Committee
• EUROSAF Disabled European Sailing Championship - Rafa Gonzalez (ESP), EUROSAF Vice-president
• EUROSAF Race Officials Exchange Program – Rudiger Schuchardt (GER), chairman of Race Officials Committee
• ISAF Update and Q&A - Chris Atkins, ISAF Vice-President
• EUROSAF Events 2014 and beyond – Dan Ibsen, Vice-president (DEN)

2K Team Racing have developed during latest years and EUROSAF is cooperating with the International 2K Team Racing Association, and there is now an annual '2K Team Racing Championship of Europe'. More than 10 majors clubs in Europe have now annual regattas for this new discipline, and there is a growing interest around Europe.

Disabled Sailing has become a part of the EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup with possibility for the Paralympic Classes to participate together with the Olympic Classes. EUROSAF will also, in cooperation with IFDS, introduce a Disabled European Sailing Championship to be held for the first two years in Valencia. The first year with the 2,4m, and second year with 2,4m, SKUD and Sonar.

The Race Officials Exchange program is still growing and providing possibilities for national race officials to get out to international regattas in order to learn and gather experience in this important field.

ISAF Vice-president Chris Atkins is responsible for the contact and cooperation between ISAF Executive Committee and EUROSAF, and gave an update about the decisions for the ISAF World Cup which will start in 2015. The two main purposes are:
- To maintain the profile of the Olympics sailing and the top sailors in between Olympic Competitions
- To give ISAF an event property in order to develop the sport and revenue from sponsors in order to further invest in development of sailing

The ISAF World Cup is not about universality – that’s for EUROSAF and the other continental federations. And it is not for increasing participation – that’s for EUROSAF, MNA’s and Classes. This gives the continental federations the possibility to develop series of events at their continents in order to support universality and participation.

The ISAF World Cup will not conflict with the Class World Championship, nor the EUROSAF regattas. The up to five world cup events around the world should also be cost effective for ISAF and the MNA’s.

The Class World Championships is not a part of the ISAF World Cup, but the top three sailors will annually qualify for the Grand Final event with a fleet size of 20.

Recruiting a head of sailing World Cup – on Monday next week – PR from ISAF.

ISAF will publicize the ISAF World Cup Plan in the coming week, and also the new Head of Sailing World Cup, who from the beginning will be directly involved in the further development of the world cup. Clear goals have been set for this new ISAF function.

Besides three from the Class Worlds in each class, the rest of the 20 participants in the Grand Final will come from: the winners of the ISAF World Cup Round events (up to five), the best continental sailor from the host continent, and the remainder will come from the ISAF World Sailing Rankings, which for the first time will give rankings an important role for the sailors.

Kiteboarding will also be a part of the Grand Finals and the ISAF World Cup Rounds.

Finally the complete EUROSAF Events program was presented by Vice-President Dan Ibsen (DEN). This will be presented separately in another article about EUROSAF.