WORLDS LATEST! IMCA RECIEVES THREE OFFERS TO HOST

We are aiming to keep you all updated as best we can on the state of play with the world championship. We will post news as often as possible here on the site and if you have any queries don't hesitate to e-mail me or post them on the discussion forum.

Since we first started tackling the issue of rescheduling the Melges 24 World Championships on Monday we have received three fantastic offers of help. The first came from Premiere Racing to run the event within Key West and we are investigating this option right now. Late yesterday we got another great offer from the St Petersburg Yacht Club if Florida who have offered to run the championship for us as a stand alone event and again we are actively following up this offer. Finally we have an offer from Octagon to hold the event within SORC 2002 or again as a stand alone event,
this was a very generous offer but unfortunately timing is likely to make it impossible for us to consider (see notes below).

As you can imagine this is not an easy problem to resolve so we want to keep you all informed about how the decision is being made and to ask for any comments or suggestions so we can be sure we have heard the class views before making the final decision. Here are some of the key things the IMCA Executive Committee have to take into consideration:

1. This is officially the 2001 World Championship and we have another World Championship already planned for Travemuende, Germany in late July/early August 2002. If we run the 2001 event any later than end January 2002 we will be in grave danger of devaluing both events.

2. The European crews were due to ship their boats starting this weekend and have already had to drop out of these shipping slots. The soonest they could reasonably now get their boats to the US would be around early December. (Over 20 European owners had committed to attending the event.)

3. We are officially required to give 90 days notice of the new event which takes us to just after Christmas. We hope it will be possible to get some leeway on this timing but we must ensure that owners, particularly those travelling from Europe and the US West Coast and Mid West have enough notice to replan their holdiay leave, travel and boat shipping, etc.

4. Which ever option we choose we must make sure that flights and accommodation are readily available for the extra number of competitors, no point planning an event no one can get to.

5. Despite the fact we desparately want to hold this event we must not allow our enthusiasm to force us into a substandard event. Better that we do nothing than that we do a bad job.

6. We must make a decision on this matter very quickly. The longer we delay the more people will drop out and we must make a choice and get on with the work needed if we're to be ready in time.

7. We must take into consideration the views of the owners, there's not point chosing an option which is great from the planning and PR perspective if no one is prepared to go!

Please keep watching the site for updates and please e-mail me with your thoughts and an indication of which option you prefer and would be prepared to attend. Also please make use of the discussion forum - it's times like this when it really comes into it's own for enabling us all to talk to each other.

Very many thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.
Fi Brown
Editor

Further information will follow as soon as possible. Questions, comments? contact Fiona Brown, IMCA Press Officer, E-mail or call Tel +44 7711 718470, Fax +44 1243 372881