International Tornado Association's New Committee and website

by Patricia Kirschner Ross on 5 Oct 2009
The International Tornado Association, ITA, is pleased to reveal its new-look Committee headed by ITA President and Olympic Bronze Medalist, Roland Gaebler.

The recently-formed new ITA Committee is comprised of some of the biggest sailing names known worldwide not only from the Olympic scenario. They are committed to a number of challenges and that includes fighting to have the Tornado class reinstated onto the 2016 Olympic sailing program.

After 40 years of history the Tornado is still one of the most exciting, spectacular and media-friendly boats on the planet. High-speed sailing in double trapeze with gennacker is the ultimate sailing experience. The boat has an outstanding quality and it is enjoyed every day on the water. The One-Design is creating fairness and low cost sailing.
Easy to handle, fast to sail.

But the Tornado lost the Olympic status in a very awkward way. Big disappointment to all Multihull sailors and difficult to understand why it is not in the Olympic program anymore. How to explain that to the thousands of sailors and young talents in the clubs and sailing schools that love to sail Multihulls and have the dream to sail the speedy boat at the Olympic Games?

The ITA is already hard at work to get the status back for 2016 in order to give the next generation a boat which is fantastic to sail. A race calendar restructure is underway and it will provide even better and more spectacular races for the sailors, spectators and media.

The ITA is also excited about the new webpage that goes live as you read this news. It reveals a hot and exciting interview with Darren Bundock who just added another World Title to the several existing: Bundock is now seven times Tornado World Champion.

He shares with us his opinions about ISAF, the future of Multihulls and Tornado, and his retirement from the Olympic scene amongst other topics. Not to be missed! Check it out now in the News section!
www.tornado-class.org

www.tornado-class.org has a new clean fresh look; a website for all Tornado sailors and the content will be driven by what the sailors want. The brand new forum will bring the Tornado sailors together and create conversation amongst the fleets spread around the world.

The webpage was designed focused on the principle of being an easy to find and organized source of information to not only the sailors but also the media and Tornado enthusiasts. No wonder it was created by a Tornado sailor, British Andrew Dowley.

It fits well with the new Committee that has also a new, modern look and is made up of energized and motivated sailors used to deal with the media, sponsors and officials.

Roland Gaebler is a three time Tornado World Champion and Bronze Medalist at the Olympic Games in Sydney. He brings in a lot of experience from event and media management. He was also the creator of the Volvo Champions Race for Tornados and 49ers. He works as Business and Management Coach.

The new ITA Vice-Presidents are well known Olympian sailors Carolijn Brouwer from Belgium and Konstantinos Trigonis from Greece.

Carolijn Brouwer is a four time World Champion in the Laser and Europe dinghy classes and a Silver Medalist at the 2007 ISAF Combined Worlds on Tornado in Cascais, Portugal. The 1998 ISAF Sailor of the Year brings a wealth of experience being the retiring ITA President and a member of the ISAF Events Committee since 2004.

Konstantinos Trigonis is a two time World Champion in the 470 class and has been a Tornado sailor since 2005 already claiming two Tornado European Championships.

The Secretary of the ITA is Patricia Kirschner Ross who has served in this role since 2004 with German Olympian sailor Gunnar Struckmann being the Treasurer.

The new Committee is ready to take on any challenge!

Website: www.tornado-class.org