ISAF Executive Committee Meeting Final Act In Danish Sailing's Year of Sports

The ISAF Executive Committee held the third of their quarterly meetings in Copenhagen, Denmark from 11-13 September.

The meeting was held at the Royal Danish Yacht Club in Copenhagen as part of the “Year of Sports 2009” for Danish sailing, building up to the IOC Session and Olympic Congress to be held in the same city at the start of October.

ISAF President Göran Petersson chaired the meeting of the Executive Committee, which focuses principally on preparations for the ISAF Annual Conference, held in November at Busan, Korea. In addition to reviewing the arrangements and Submissions (proposals to amend, add or delete an ISAF Regulation or policy) to this year’s Conference, the Executive Committee also covered a number of other topics on their Agenda.

ISAF Secretary General Jerome Pels said, “ISAF would like to thank the Danish Sailing Association and the Royal Danish Yacht Club for all their assistance in organizing the meetings and their excellent hospitably. The three days of meetings were very productive and we will shortly be realising more details on this year’s Conference including all of the meeting papers and Submissions. It has been a memorable year for sailing in Denmark and I would like to congratulate the federation, clubs and sailors for all that they have achieved.”

ISAF Executive Committee in front of two old 12 Metres. From left: Alberto Predieri (ITA), Tomasz Holc (POL), Teresa Lara (VEN), David Kellett (AUS), Eric Tulla (PUR), David Irish (USA), ISAF President Göran Petersson (SWE), Danish Olympic Committee President Niels Nygaard, HM Kong Constantine, Nazli Imre (TUR), Danish Sailing Association Secretary General Dan Ibsen and Teo-Ping Low (SIN) © Danish Sailing Association

The ISAF Strategic Plan for 2009-2012 was discussed and will be presented at the Annual Conference. The Executive received a number of presentations on key areas of strategy including technology and sailing from Patrick Bergmans, ISAF Council member and chairman of the Technology Working Party; an update on Race Officials from Charley Cook, chairman of the Race Officials Committee; a review of Governance, from Philip Tolhurst, chairman of the Constitution Committee; and a report on the ISAF Code of Conduct for Environment from ISAF Vice-President Teresa Lara.

Other areas covered include financial matters, reports on ISAF and other major sailing events, an update from the International Association for Disabled Sailing (IFDS), reports from the ISAF Commissions and reports from the President and Vice-Presidents on their areas of responsibility.

Minutes from the Executive Committee meeting will be published on the ISAF website www.sailing.org later this month. The 2009 ISAF Annual Conference takes place in Busan, Korea from the 5-15 November. More details can be found on the Meetings section of the ISAF website at www.sailing.org/meetings.

Ahead of the IOC Session and Olympic Congress, the ISAF Executive Committee meetings where the penultimate act marking a hugely successful “Year of Sports 2009” for sailing in Denmark. Over the course of the year, venues around the country have hosted many international championships, regattas and meetings, including:

· Finn Gold Cup – Vallensbæk
· 470 Worlds – Rungsted
· Contender Worlds – Sönderborg
· Laser Radial Europeans – Skovshoved
· EUROSAF match race Europeans – Middelfart
· Int. Moth Europeans – Horsens
· Laser Radial Youth Europeans – Skovshoved
· Dragon Gold Cup – Skagen
· Europa Cup Laser – Aabenraa
· Europa Cup 29er – Kerteminde
· European Sailing Federations (EUROSAF) General Assembly – Copenhagen
· ISAF Executive Committee meeting – Copenhagen

Dan Ibsen, Secretary General of the Danish Sailing Association, said, “We were delighted to host the ISAF President and the Executive Committee in Denmark for their September meeting. Since the announcement four years ago that Copenhagen would host the 2009 IOC Session and Congress the Danish Sailing Association and the organising clubs have been busy preparing for our “Year of Sports 2009”.

“The Danish Olympic Committee, Sport Event Denmark and Danish Sailing Association has strongly supported the sailing programme in Denmark, and the organising clubs have received a lot of credit for the organisation and management of the events on the water and on shore, the friendly hospitality and huge efforts of the many volunteers from the clubs, who with great pleasure spent a part of their holiday together with sailors from close to 80 countries from all over the world.

“Through these combined efforts we have successfully realized our ambition of promote sailing in Denmark and Danish sailing clubs as future organisers of international championships and events.”

Next year Denmark will host the RS:X World Championship in Kerteminde and the 505 World Championship in Aarhus. And the ambition is to have at least one or two international championships in Denmark every year in the future.