An important message from ISMA Executive Secretary Tim Russell

I have just received a copy of an e-mail sent to Sir Robert Owen, ISMA’s president.  In it Mauricio Sánchez-Bella advises us that the Board of the Real Club Náutico de Sanxenxo (RCNS) has taken the decision to postpone the European Championships until next year.  Sir Robert has asked me to pass the message on to you all.

In his e-mail Mauricio comments: “All the big sporting events are being postponed, even the Olympics. We have stayed in touch with the different fleets and everybody shares the concerns about the situation. 

The RCNS Board has met electronically, and we regret to inform you that we are forced to delay the European Championship by one year. Our sponsors have understood very well the decision, and share the reasoning behind it.   We believe that it would be unfair for the competitors that would face very different opportunities to train and in some cases even the legal impossibility to attend the Championship, so there is no other possible decision.

Please share this decision as widely as possible with the worldwide fleets. We will be announcing it in our webpage in the coming days. We believe announcing this publicly will help the different teams organise their season. 

You can imagine that we are extremely disappointed to delay this championship.  We already have – six months before the start – over 30 classics and 15 open division boats expressing their intention to attend, which would have represented a great success. We have been working the last years to prepare the Europeans and the Worlds for the International Six Metre class in our Club, and we believe this is the correct decision to ensure that we can provide a great series of events, giving momentum to the class, and most importantly,  a wide array  of opportunities to race to the class members. 

Considering the preceding, we are preparing a proposal for the Europeans and the Worlds, coordinated with the different countries holding the venues for the years ahead. As soon as it is ready we will forward it to you to discuss.  RCNS is also intending to re-start our monthly 2020 races as soon as it is legally and practically possible.”

I will of course advise you of the detail of the proposals for next year and the following years, so that all the fleets have an opportunity to be involved in decisions relating to the future programme.

Best wishes – stay safe.

Tim Russell
Executive Secretary
ISMA