Spreading the A-Cat love.

What to do if you get a boat, but have no National Association to organise you?  

Hungary, despite being landlocked, has a proud leisure sailing history. It dates back to the late 18th century on Lake Balaton, the largest lake in central Europe.   Now, what do if you are keen and find yourself with an A-Cat in such a place?  Andras Barton is a Hungarian sailor from that region and has been fortunate enough to get himself a cheap 2016 Exploder, converted it into a Classic, and has been sailing it around enjoying himself as is only to be expected with such a vessel.  

But he is now looking for something else.  Unfortunately, he is alone in wanting to race other A-Cats in Hungary at present.  There are a few others there, but none seem interested in any racing, which is a pity. There are some juniors in clubs sailing NACRA 15s and you can play and race against them, but in reality, a 15 is no match for an A-Cat in a 1on1 race.  So, what is to be done?  Fortunately, our A-Cat family is a very friendly and loving one.  He contacted the AUT association, and they welcomed him with open arms, allowing him to join with their fleet in training and winter racing down at CVAT in Anzio, Italy and thus escape the harsh central European winter.  However, without a Hungarian A-Cat Association, so what can he do?

Fortunately, IACA has provision for this very circumstance.  You can join as an individual member if there is no official National Association in your country.  Just look at our famous Greek, Czech, Finnish, Cayman and Virgin Island sailors.  These folk are regularly seen on the international event circuit, and they must be having fun, because they keep turning up.  This is just what Andras has done, as he wanted an HUN sail number, so rather than join with the Austrians, he also chose to go it alone.  The only thing he loses is as an individual, he won’t have any IACA voting rights and will need to make his own arrangements with IACA as regards major event entries etc. 

So now we have an HUN 12 floating about.  We all look forward to seeing and welcoming him to a few open meetings in and around the European circuits.  But just maybe one day, he will be joined by a few other sailors joining the class in Hungary, and you never know, the HACA could be born.