ASAF Cup and ASAF Youth Cup Series announced in Singapore

by Icarus Sailing Media on 25 Jul 2014 ASAF (Asian Sailing Federation) held their Executive Committee meeting in Singapore at the ASAF Secretariat on 21st March 2014.

The launch of the ASAF Cup and ASAF Youth Cup series was announced.

When reviewing the Championships events in 2014-2015, the Executive Committee expressed sincere thanks to all those MNA’s and clubs who have come forward to host these ASAF Cup and ASAF Youth Cup events. The Committee and host MNAs were happy with the format for the first ever ASAF Cup which will be competed in a minimum of the eight Olympic Classes while the ASAF Youth Cup will include the Optimist, Laser 4.7 (under 17), Laser Radial (under 19), RS:One (under 19) and other optional classes which the host country can best support with charter boats.

The ASAF Cup and ASAF Youth Cup series which will be inaugurated in 2015, will be based on the following cup events for the first three years:

ASAF Cup (Overall results for award of ASAF Cup will be based on best two out of the three events):

1. ASAF Invitational Cup 1: Enoshima, Japan from 19-22 June 2014 (Test Event) - ASAF CUP 1 in June 2015

2. ASAF Invitational Cup 2: Shanghai, China from 23-26th October 2014 (Test event). ASAF CUP 2 in October 2015

3. ASAF Cup 3: Mussanah, Oman from 10-14th March 2015

ASAF Youth Cup (Overall results for award of ASAF Youth Cup will be based on best three out of the four events with final Event mandatory for series prizes):

1. ASAF Youth Cup 1: Chennai, India from 16-22nd December 2014 .
2. ASAF Youth Cup 2: Hong Kong from 14-17th February 2015
3. ASAF Youth Cup 3: Singapore from 17-21 March 2015
4. ASAF Youth Cup 4: Abu Dhabi from 8-11 April 2015



The Events Committee of the ASAF will liaise with event organisers for issuance of Notice of Race for all events by end May 2014 for prior consultation with the ASAF Technical Advisory Panel before posting on public domain from July 2015. Sailors from around the world are invited to participate at the ASAF Cup and ASAF Youth Cup series and the Executive Committee are confident that in future these will be one of the best competed events by the best sailors not only from across Asia but also the World.

Dr. Malav Shroff, President of ASAF said, 'ASAF is delighted to launch this series of events which will enable Asian Sailors to compete with each other on regular basis to raise overall standard of sailing in Asia. This series will also provide opportunities and platform for new technical officials to be trained and qualified in Asia in the coming years.'

In another significant development, ASAF Executive Committee approved the first partnership for ASAF with LaserPerformance during the meeting. This will be an initial three years partnership where LaserPerformance will make some cash contribution to help defray the administrative cost of ASAF. This funding, along with others that ASAF will be seeking in its continuous efforts to raise more sponsorships, will allow ASAF to grow sailing in Asia, and run the organisation more efficiently.

Jason Lim, Secretary General of ASAF said, 'This support from LaserPerformance is a significant step forward for ASAF as it will allow us for the first time to fund important administrative activities in Asia in its mission to develop sailing in Asia. With the start of the ASAF Cup and ASAF Youth Cup, this is a very timely help from LaserPerformance and we are indeed very grateful for their help'.

Bahman Kia, CEO, LaserPerformance commented, 'We believe Asia has a tremendous potential to grow the sport of sailing. ASAF has been making remarkable progress in the past year towards growing the sport of sailing and we are hopeful that the new administration of ASAF will be able to use this funding to grow the sport even further. We in LaserPerformance believe that youth sailing is very important for the future of our sport and LaserPerformance will continue to support and dedicate its efforts towards this end in our partnership with ASAF'.

Other matters discussed included the marketing and promotion of ASAF, events and services to sailing in Asia, plus matters to do with sponsorship support. The Executive Committee also set the date for the next ASAF Annual General Meeting which is scheduled on 21-22 September 2014 in Incheon, South Korea.