President' letter 2008

Dear friends,

I thank all of you for the increasing success of the FD Class during the sailing season 2007, showed by the interest of new sailors in the FD and our Class activity.

Congratulations and many thanks to the Centro de Alto Rendimento in Murcia, the Organizing Committee and to the FD Spanish Class for the excellent organization of the World Championship 2007, where competed 72 teams from 14 Countries.

Moreover, the increasing success of the Euro Cup and World Cup events, show that the strategy to schedule an International races calendar with specific and advertised events, scheduled in different Countries, seems to kindle the interest of the sailors to increase their participation in the races and to be involved in the Class life.

As always, many thanks to all the Clubs organizing the FD races every year, since they help our Class to support and go on to organize classical events, became a tradition in the annual FD fixtures

With regard to the women FD teams, best congratulation to the German Peggy Bahr, the Spanish Dolores Sanchez - Herrero and the Dutch Tanja Heijink, for their results and partecipation to the most important International races.

With regard to the technical matters the increasing number of carbon riggings adopted by the teams from every Countries (actually, in the International races, more than 40 % of the fleet adopt the carbon profiles), shows the success of this new tool in the technical development of the FD.

The manufacturers, from different Countries in the World (UK, Australia, Italia, etc.), are going ahead to push the evolution of carbon riggings (mast, boom and spinnaker pole with different profiles, stiffness and fitting), to reach the best performance and reliability at the minimum weight that, according to the Class rules will be 8.5 Kg.

That competition among the manufacturers and the increasing interest of the teams to compare different technical solutions will allow the carbon riggings to have a further and fast evolution .

With regard to the Class life and promotion there are some important news.

In spring 2008, after the first three years of Sponsorship Agreement between IFDCO and HARKEN SAILING WEAR will end ; during this first three years of sponsorship contract, Harken Sailing Wear supplied our Class with several clothes of their sportswear collections.

Two weeks ago, I went to the WINCH - HARKEN Sailing Wear headquarter, where I met the the Team Managers ; during that excellent meeting , IFDCO and WINCH confirmed their reciprocal interest to their brands ; so, we agreed to go on with a new sponsorship agreement until end 2012 .

In few weeks WINCH will show me the next spring-summer and fall-winter collections 2008 ; moreover, besides the actual HARKEN Sailing Wear, WINCH will add a further collection with several models inspired to the FD history and emotion.

Those clothes, reporting both the HARKEN - WINCH and the IFDCO Logos will be available for each FD Class member with a special discount.

In detail, the HARKEN Crew Collection will be always available with several clothes (jackets, polos, gilets, t-shirts etc.) in several colours and sizes; moreover, every year WINCH will develop and produce a fall-winter and spring-summer collections, in which will be selected some articles to show the IFDCO Logo.

As always, will be possible to look the HARKEN Sportswear Collections with the FD Logo on the IFDCO Website and in the FD Bulletin; moreover, there will be a link between the IFDCO and the HARKEN Website.

Together with a lot of enthusiast sailors who granted the worldwide success of the FD Class, HARKEN will do being inspired by the most peculiar feature of the FD Class: to be in the van with high-tech and innovative solutions.

For the same reason, IFDCO chose HARKEN Sailing Wear, as brand to perform the sportwear for the FD teams.

IFDCO, selling the sportwear to the Class members, will collect money to spend for the Class promotion, advertisement and activity; for instance, will be very important to help the young and new FD sailors, increase the participation to specific events and support the Transport of the boats to attend to World Championships overseas.

In 2007 the result of that strategy allowed IFDCO to give a grant of 900 € to every container shipped to Spain from Overseas, to attend to the Worlds in Mar Menor .

That represents just the first step of the IFDCO activities to support our teams; anyway, that process requires time and the cooperation of Class members, National Secretaries, etc. to show and improve the advantages to the sailors.

Also in 2008 IFDCO will be engaged to sell the Sailing Wear in order to give grants to support the IFDCO activities, in particular the shipping of the containers to the next Worlds in New Zealand...

With regard to the sailing activity 2008, besides the classical races, and particularly the Euro Cup events,we 'll meet to Rabìc (Croatia) on next May to attend to the European Championship.

The meeting in Rabìc will be the best chance to award the Euro Cup and Dawes Cup 2007; moreover will have the Competitor Hearings, the National Secretaries meeting and the AGCM..

With regard to the sailing activity 2008, the most important news will be the VINTAGE YACHTING GAMES : that event has been proposed one year ago by the Dutch sailor Rudy den Outer, ex FD sailor and actually Soling helmsman.

Rudy, proposed to create and organize a event comparable to the Olympic Games, addressed to the past Olympic Classes; for such a reason he contacted me for the FD.

The event to organize every four years, as the Olympiade, will be held for the first edition to Medemblik, on next 20-27 September.

I showed his proposal to the IFDCO Officers at the last AGCM and the National Secretaries Meeting in Spain, and it was agreed to join the VINTAGE YACHTING GAMES ; actually, the other Classes involved will be : Europa, O-Jolle, Soling, Dragon.

The aims of the VYG has been explained, as well as the selection criteria to adopt by every Class, through the International Classes and their National Secretaries; the VYG goal will be to have 2 boats / Country in every Class.

Personally, I think that the VYG represents a particular event, not only to remember the history of our Class, but also an excellent way to advertise and promote our Class to the media, network, sponsors and to the sailors.

With regard to the Measurement Committee, according to my proposal, the VYG decided to appoint John Best as Chief Measurer of the VYG.

Anyway, the NoR of the VYG 2008 is quite ready and will be sent to every FD National Secretary in few days.

The season 2008 will go on with the classical races and the "Conrad Gulcher Trophy", a classical event for the FD Class, as always organized by the Loosdrecht Sailing Club .

Finally we 'll have the World Championship to Napier in New Zealand, on next Christmas holiday.

Many sailors seems interested to attend to the Worlds and, as always, Frank Nojien is still engaged to propose us the best solution.

According to the IFDCO team approach and the friendship, among all the Officers, the Commodores, the Sub. Committees and the National Secretaries, we are going on to promote, advertise and develop the FD Class under every point of view.

Together with new sponsorships to support the Class activities and events, is very important to promote the FD Class to the media, network and sponsors, improving the website.

For such a purpose it was agreed to develop the website with regard to the graphics and the aesthetic aspects : it is quite ready and will be online in few weeks.

Let’s commit ourselves all together, in order to support and quicken every process to advertise FD !!

Finally, let's me thank all the FD sailors and the IFDCO Officers engaged in the Class life and activities.

.. . . . . . . . and I go on to dream our Class and is future !!

I 'm looking forward to meeting all of you and I wish you . . . . good sailing !!

Alberto Barenghi