Many of us have been enjoying a ferry ride to and from Helsinki this summer, a relaxing time before and after races and a good opportunity to develop ideas for moving the Class forward.
Going North, a group of sailors have been discussing, how participation in Open National 5.5m Championships can be raised in numbers, while going South another group took up the initiative from Kristian Neergard, who had mentioned the need to promote the Modern boats of the Class.
I have the pleasure to announce results, starting with the new "5-Nations-Cup" Challenge Trophy, whose results from 5 Open 5.5m Championships will be counted by low point scoring, offering one discard. The National events selected for 2012 will be:
French Open | Austrian Open | Dutch Open | Swiss Open | Norwegian Open
For 2013 countries can apply to the International Class, however those countries with the biggest participation shown in 2012 will have advantages in being chosen.
Going South, we met in a conference room to brainstorm on where we stand in the Class, where we want to go and how best sailors can be convinced to board and own a 5.5m Modern boat. The outcome has been promising and I will use the ideas, contacting with the Presidents of the National 5.5m fleets to codevelop individual ways to promote the Class on National level.
In a first step we will be trying to reactivate several Modern boats (only 32 of 43 Modern boats are racing actively) and in a next step promote new ones being built. I would like to encourage all of you to support this by contacting to owners of idle lying boats and to convince them to return to the race course. So, fill the starting grid with what we have available, and then take the next step.
