ISAF President and Executive members join the 2012 EUROSAF Annual Meeting & General Assembly in Limassol, Cyprus.

ISAF President Goran Petersson (Sweden), Vice President EricTulla (Puerto Rico), Honorary Treasurer David Kellet (Australia) and General Secretary Jerome Pels,  took the opportunity to witness at first hand the workings and development of EUROSAF by attending their 2012 Annual Meeting held in Limassol, Cyprus over the weekend of 28th & 29th April.

The 2012 meeting was split into two parts, the formal General Assembly, which took place on the Saturday morning, with the remainder of the meeting being split into three workshops, which looked at the topics of EUROSAF Events, Race Officials' Education and Media & Marketing.  Each of the working groups was lead by one of the Vice-Presidents, who were responsible for keeping the group focused on their specific task and on summarising the findings and recommendations to the whole meeting, which was reconvened on Sunday morning.  By adopting this approach, the Executive Committee hoped to understand better the thoughts and ideas of the members concerning the future direction of EUROSAF in years to come.

A more details report of the findings from these workshops will be published in the near future.

During his address to the closing ceremony, ISAF President Goran Petersson stressed the importance of EUROSAF to the development of the sport of sailing. Europe is the strongest of the Continental Associations within sailing and can help advance the cause of Continental Associations in other parts of the world.  These organisations are likely to be taking a more significant role in the sport in years to come and the strength and togetherness he had witnessed during his time in Cyprus was very encouraging for the future. He also talked of the the challenges facing sailing in years to come, with particular reference to the importance of retaining the place of sailing as one of the 28 summer Olympics sports. Standards within the sport must remain high and through initiatives such as the European Sailing Cup and Youth Championships EUROSAF are helping to increase the quality of the sport for the future.

Kjell Borking, Olivier Bovyn, Helmut Jakobowitz and Evert Lagerweij, were each presented with an award for their services to EUROSAF during the 2012 General Assembly in Limassol, Cyprus.

During the official dinner of the 2012 EUROSAF General Assembly, held in the Famagusta Nautical Club, Limassol, former Vice-president`s Kjell Borking (Sweden), Olivier Bovyn (France) and Helmut Jakobowitz (Austria) were recognised by EUROSAF for their services to EUROSAF over many years. Each was presented with a plaque commemorating their years of service to sailing in Europe.  In addition, Evert Lagerweij (Netherlands), who had served as Treasurer since the formation of EUROSAF in 1998, was awarded with an engraved crystal glass goblet to commemorate his time in office.

The awards were introduced by Marco Predieri, EUROSAF President, who also presented the plaques to Olivier Bovyn and Helmut Jakobowitz, both of whom had stood down from office in previous years, but were present on this occasion to received their awards. Dan Ibsen, one of the Vice-President's, who worked closely with Kjell Borking for many years, both in EUROSAF and in Scandinavia, present him with his award, and John Friend, a former Vice-President and long time Secretary General, presented the award to Evert Lagerweij.

I all, the four award recipients had completed more than forty years of service to EUROSAF, which for an organisation just fifteen years old, is not only impressive, but also shows what a significant contribution each had made to the formation and early development of the Federation. President Predieri said "EUROSAF are most fortunate to have such dedicated volunteers willing to commit so much time to the development of sailing within Europe.  All the award recipients are most deserving of the recognition they have been given, which is very modest by comparison to their contribution".

During the evening the President of the Cyprus Sailing Federation, Yiannos Photiou, said how delighted he was to be able to welcome EUROSAF to their country for this annual meeting. Cyprus have been a strong supporter of the European Federation for many years and that he and his colleagues within the Federation were very proud to act as host to the meeting.  He made a number of presentations on behalf of the CSF, to Goran Petersson, the President of ISAF, who was amongst the official guests and to Marco Predieri and John Friend from EUROSAF.

The evening continued with the serving of a traditional Cypriot Meze meal, including a delicious variety of meats, fish vegetables and, of course, Cypriot wines.

Marco Predieri, Dan Ibsen and Rafa González, are re-elected as President and Vice-Presidents of EUROSAF, respectively.

During the 2012 EUROSAF General Assembly, hosted by the Cyprus Sailing Federation in Limassol on 28th April,  Marco Predieri (Italy) was re-elected as President for another two years period and Dan Ibsen (Denmark) and Rafa Gonzalez.(Spain) were re-elected as Vice-Presidents, also for another two years.  All three were unanimously elected by the members present.

All those elected expressed their gratitude to the members for their continued confidence and for the opportunity to continue the work they had been progressing in recent years. They repeated their commitment to EUROSAF and to the development of sailing, and the improvement of the quality and standards throughout sailing competitions in Europe.

Dan Ibsen will continue as Chairman of the Events Committee and Rafa González will continue to Chair the Marketing and Media Committee.

The complete Executive is as follows: President; Marco Predieri, Vice-Presidents; Rafa Gonzalez, Dan Ibsen, Oleg Ilyin (Russia) and Panayiotis Kontides (Cyprus). Also members of the Executive are Andreas Denecke (Germany), the newly appointed Treasurer and John Friend, Secretary General.  Co-opted members are Ruediger Schuchardt (Germany), Chairman of the Race Officials' Committee and Olivier Bovyn (France) Chairman of the EU Committee.

Sailing Aarhus and EUROSAF jointly announce that entries are now open for the EUROSAF Youth Sailing, European Championship, being held in Aarhus, Denmark, from 4^th to 10^th August, 2012.

Entries are invited from European National Authorities for Sailing in nine different disciplines, including the single-handed Laser Radial and double-handed International 420, both boys and girls, the RS:X sailboard, boys and girls, and three open disciplines utilizing the International 29er, Hobie 16 with spinnaker and the Sirena SL16.  The age limit for competitors is under 19 on 31^st December, 2012.

This event will be held annually, during the first full week of August.  The regular date in the calendar will help the National Authorities in planning their participation and the class associations in setting dates for their own youth events to avoid a clash.

Racing will take place on the Bay of Aarhus over a period of five days, which will be preceded by two days for registration, measurement and practice.  The Open Ceremony will be held on Sunday 5^th August and the Prize-Giving will be on Friday 10^th August.  The Notice of Race was published 5^th January, 2012.

In order to participate the European National Authorities for Sailing need to submit a Pre-Entry Form, which will be found on the event website www.eurosafyouthsailing.org along with other relevant documentation and information.

“We are very excited about being selected to host the inaugural EUROSAF Youth Sailing, European Championship here in Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark” said Thomas Capitani, the Executive Director of Sailing Aarhus.  “We have hosted many World and European Championships in the past and the experience we have gained from these events will be invaluable in the organisation of this championship.”

Marco Predieri, the President of EUROSAF, said “the EUROSAF Youth Sailing, European Championship is being organised by popular request from our members, the European National Authorities.  This will add another layer of high level competition for youth sailing in Europe and provide competitors with the experience of participating in an international multi-class, multi-cultural championship.  There will also be plenty of opportunity for social activities, which will help forge the friendships which make sailing a lifetime sport”.

For more information, or interviews, please contact John Friend john.friend@eurosaf.org or Thomas Capitani: tcn@sailing-aarhus.dk/+45 20 40 84 42

The Notice of Race for the EUROSAF Match Racing, European Open Youtg Championship, 2012 is now published and is available by clicking here. The event is to be held from 5^th to 8t^h September, under rhe burgee of the Associazione Vela Lago di Ledro, Lago di Ledro, Trentino, Italy

Entry is by invitation and those wishing to receive an invitation should follow the process in Section 6 of the Notice of Race. Entries are limited to one team per country, unless it is necessary to invoke paragraph 5.2 c) of the Notice of Race.

The winner of the EUROSAF Match Racing, European Open Youth Championship, 2012 automatically gains entry to the EUROSAF Match Racing, European Open Championship 2013, which is to be sailed in St Petersburg, Russia.

J/22 Keelboat.

Equipment to be used for the EUROSAF Match Racing, European Open Youth Championship, 2012