Merry Christmas! - A message from The President
Dear Presidents of National Associations, representatives, committee members and sailors world-wide,
Soon will 2020 be behind us. We will most probably remind this year for the pandemic and not for our sailing exploits. The world has changed for everyone, we all had to cancel something, skip a regatta, not go to visit friends and family. Some lucky among us have been able to sail anyway - that was the year during which our platform being a single-handed class became an asset. While being able to sail, the situation was still somewhat demotivating : events postponed, re-scheduled, and finally cancelled a few days in advance, that's hardly a motivation for training. Even the post-training drink was sometimes problematic.
Outlook to 2021, with some good news on the horizon : a vaccine seems to be there or soon will be, clubs have learned how to organize regatta during a pandemic, and sailors might be able to participate again, in Europe crossing borders was often a problem, this might soon be a thing of the past.
On the IACA side, we have two important items on the agenda. First is the world-wide ballot to accept or refuse the creation of the Classics Discipline. As soon as we have the members emails in our possession, we will be able to organize this voting process. This shall happen in the next few weeks.
The next big thing is the planning for the Worlds- and Continental Championships. It is quite a challenging project to coordinate large events. Think about how difficult it is for a national association to find a club and a calendar period that allows good sailing and not collide with wathever happens elsewhere. Now imagine a pandemic ruining these plans for not one, but 4 countries, committees and clubs. And collisions with Olympics Games, and whatever other constraints that we need to observe, one among them are sailors asking for "champaign sailing conditions" and while we are at it, short trips from- and to home.... yes we do our best but for miracles there is a small waiting delay :-) In a few words, we won't be able to postpone events for years without frustrating at least one sailor, most probably much more than one. Be sure we do our best to keep everyone has happy as possible !
I take this opportunity to thanks everyone working for the success of the class : presidents, committee members, they all dedicate their time for you and deserve a big thank you !
Warmest wishes for a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year for you and your families !
Charles and the IACA committee
