A message from our new IACA president - Charles Bueche

Also, new IACA and technical committees.

Dear Fellow Sailors.   During the previous years, we have gone through an interesting period where our boats started to fly, despite the rules that were written to avoid it. This strange situation created all sorts of heated discussions, predictions of class twilight or even worse. The thing is, nothing bad has really happened. A growing part of the fleet has gone airborne, thanks to the ongoing developments, flying is easier to master, and most importantly, people continue to have fun sailing the A's. We have attracted young guns, this while keeping the mature people sailing with us.

During this transition, Landy, Graeme, and the previous IACA and technical committees have stayed calm and on course, like we would expect from any steering skipper, even if the political upwind was sometimes out of the class limits. These people have dedicated their time and energy to make our class strong and successful. We should all thank them for the work they have done for the class.

I made myself available to the class and have been elected IACA president during the last WGM in Medemblik. I should thank the National Association presidents for their confidence, I will do my best to ensure the long-term success of the class.

The following people have accepted to join me in this task: Piet Saarberg continues as secretary, Phil Muyzers will be treasurer, Landy and Graeme Harbour have agreed to continue working for the class, Bailey White will represent the USA, and Thomas Paasch takes over the lead of the technical committee, formed by Andrew Landenberger, Graeme Harbour, Sandro Caviezel and Bruce Mahoney. Last but not least, Gordon Upton goes on with our web presence. I consider myself gifted to have such a great team around me !

We have already started / re-initiated a few projects, an important one being a written proposal for updating the championship rules. A sub-committee composed by Struan Wallace, Tom Bøjland, Stefano Sirri and Landy are already working on it. Because I'm not a politician, I won't make promises. Instead, you will be informed on their progress when valuable steps are made and an initial draft is available.

I take this opportunity to congratulate Mischa Heemskerk for his World Champion title in Medemblik last week. It was a very nice event very well organized by Jan Groot and ISCM, I look forward to sail the Baltic Sea where our Polish friends will organize the next Worlds in 2017.

For those wondering who I am, a few words about me: I'm 50 years old, married to my lovely and supporting wife Christine. We are gifted with two big boys named Erwan and Edouard, both of them sailors, hopefully soon better than their dad. I have been sailing since I was 8 years old, but only discovered the A-Cat in 2004. I have a bachelor in electronics and have been working as software developer/integrator for the last 25 years. When the weather is too cold to sail, I fiddle with tubes (aka valves if you are English) audio amplifiers.

Best regards,

Charles Bueche

IACA President

iaca@bueche.ch