Welcome to the New Melges 24 Class Championship Coordinator for Europe - David Bartol
by IM24CA 27 Apr 2019 03:41 PDT
Melges 24 fleet in Portoroz - Day Three of the 2019 Melges 24 European Sailing Series' 1st event © Andrea Carloni / IM24CA / ZGN
After three years with the Melges 24 international class, the current Championship Coordinator for Europe Benedek Fluck from Hungary has decided to retire this spring because of more involvement and responsibilities with his professional job as an HR Manager.
Benedek alias Bence has been the class representative for all IM24CA title events in Europe since 2016. His presence in IM24CA and at the championships has been creating lots of respect from officers, organizers, sailors and people around Europe. Thank You, Benedek, for all your input and efforts!
"Melges 24 class is one of the best organized international classes in the world. I personally learned a lot about the management of great events ashore and on water," says Bence. He had a lot of fun, gained experience and great sailing friends during his employment.
"In the last three years, having had a chance to be part of two European Championships (Hyeres in France and Riva del Garda in Italy) and the World Championships (Helsinki, Finland), I can say that all were perfect examples of tough racing of professional and Corinthian sailors. I do feel that the sailors in this class are aware of how well organized and fantastic the class executives, technical officers and measurers, juries, local officials and media are behind the scenes at all sailing series' or major events. It was good to be part of the IM24CA Family. It will remain a wonderful memory for me!" he said.
As of now the Melges 24 International Class Championship Coordinator for Europe will be David Bartol from Slovenia. David is a highly respected race officer in Slovenia, Croatia and Italy and has a significant amount of event management experience from club regattas to the World Championships for the Melges 24, J70, ORC and Optimist classes mainly. Besides being certified as an International Race Officer since 2017, he is a certified national judge. By profession, David is a naval engineer and he speaks English, Italian, Croatian, and his native Slovenian.
He has previously served as council member of the Slovenian Sailing Federation JZS where he was the Chairman of the big boats and coaches committee and fulfilled many different roles on it. He is currently the President of the Yacht Club Marina Portoroz, well known to many Melges 24 sailors as the venue for the season opener of the Melges 24 European Sailing Series for many years now.
"I would say that my first contact with the Melges 24 class was in 2008 when Branko Parunov, the then President of the Slovenian Melges 24 Class, had a good idea to organize first Melges 24 Slovenian Open Championship in Portoroz. From then on, I have always been next to Branko to organize this regatta, both in the Race Committee and in organizing authority roles," David says.
"Let me now thank the IM24CA Executive Committee for nominating me for this role and as well Benedek for the work done in the past years. As the Championship Coordinator is a link between the boat owners, crew members, organizers and national classes, my first job will be to listen to all of them as much as possible and to be proactive both at the events of the Melges 24 European Sailing Series as well as at major events."
The IM24CA new Championship Coordinator Europe will soon tackle his first challenges at the 2019 Melges 24 championships - David will be at some events of the Melges 24 European Sailing Series, and during the World Championship in Villasimius in Italy he will act as the IM24CA Championship Coordinator supporting PRO Athanasios Papantoniou from Greece.
IM24CA is extremely grateful to Bence for the great job he has done and is looking forward to working with the new guy on board next to John Abel, Championship Coordinator on the Western Hemisphere, to support the Melges 24 class in being the best design sports boat class in the world.