| Dear members of the Soling family,
On behalf of the International Soling Association I wish you all the best for 2010, good winds, fair races and nothing but good for you and your loved ones.
As I`m writing this, I`m enjoying coffee and breakfast with my family watching a kids movie for the 86th time. My boys still laugh at the same joke and crawl away for the same scary parts, but that makes every time worth while. They can`t watch it alone and need everybody there to feel comfortable.
Comfort is a funny word. We want the best for ourselves, but need others to achieve it. We love the Soling, but can`t enjoy it fully alone. In our beloved world, we can`t be comfortable without others. Having seen a very dark side of life in the last weeks and months myself, I realise more than ever that those others need to be chosen carefully in order to get comfortable with.
To me my boys represent the world at its most vulnerable. They are completely innocent at first, but as they get older they are filled with ideas and opinions and some day will make their own. I can only hope I`m doing the right thing, they didn`t come with a manual. Only time will tell.
Why this look into my personal life?
Because I`m hoping my boys become part of the same family that you are part of.
The family that not only loves sailing and preferably in a Soling, but likes to spend time together and share the same ideas on what really matters
Every event I travel to I look forward to see familiar faces and enjoy to make new friends. And what is really good to see is that almost everybody shares that feeling.
For me in Europe that first event will be the Omega Cup. The same location every year and mostly the same people, but without them, we wont be comfortable.
2010 will not only take us to familiar places and let us see familiar places, new venues and friends will be welcomed in our family. For the first time since many years the European Championship will return to France. I`m looking forward to see many sailors making the effort to sail at a new location and expand their experience.
As the northern hemisphere is enjoying frostbite sailing, the southern is in full swing. Enjoying some great events and preparing for the World Championship. From too many miles away I wish the organisation a perfect event!
One thing we can do as family members to attract new members and have new experiences is to make events more attractive. The most obvious way is to get a bigger fleet, by providing charter boats. I hope that boat owners have the bigger picture in mind and not only personal gain when asking a charter fee. I recently bought my second Soling. I won`t sell my (in)famous UFO, but offer it for a cheap fee to new and motivated (new) family members.
The ISA herself has welcomed new committee members, Tom Mitchell, our new vice-president, and Ashley Henderson, our new Communicationand Public Relations officer.
With the new year we now work with our new constitution. I won`t get into the details, but to be short: it provides us with continuity, with new policy aimed and preservation of our heritage and clear views of our future.
The world wide recession has made the future simple. The only way is up. Right now future events have a hard time finding financial support which could have an effect on the entry fee. Where the ISA can provide help, we will.
The ISA will start in 2010 with a new promotion campaign. Not yet at the surface as we want to be fully prepared, but we won`t be passive anymore. If we want to thrive in the full pond of classes, we need to get exposure. And we will.
Back to the opinions of my sons. We, as sailors and adults, do exactly the same. We sometimes have different ones, but most of us are able to talk it out and create something better than before, like our kids will try to build a better world for themselves.
Let`s start in 2010 by showing them how it is done and make it a better year than ever before.
Together we can.
ISA President |
