A message from our president Heiko Kröger

“Dear sailors,

Our season is in full swing and with the European Championship and Para European Championship in Quiberon FRA we had our first highlight of the season.

The French NCA - especially Christophe Etorre and Loïc Eonnet - and the ENVSN organised a great championship. On behalf of the class, I would like to thank all the organisers and volunteers for their efforts!

It was very exciting racing on a challenging course. The Open European Championship and the Para European Championship were very deservedly won by Megan Pascoe, followed by Damien Seguin and myself. 

It was very refreshing to see many of you in person and to catch up with you. Jean-Paul Alexander and I had convened a sailors' forum at short notice to talk together about the current issues of the ICA, the NCAs and the sailors.

Here is a summary of our topics of discussion:

A central topic was the communication channels between the ICA, the NCAs and the sailors. We all agreed that we need to do better here.

The Corona crisis and the war in Ukraine have radically changed the conditions for sailing as a whole. Energy costs have risen rapidly and so have transport costs. Furthermore, the transport of our material is also environmentally questionable. 

We have been discussing how we can continue to organise continental and world championships in the future, as it cannot be assumed that the costs for boat transport will drop to the level of three years ago. Using charter boats alone is not a solution. We have to creatively develop new formats to counteract these problems. 

Another and very important topic was the status quo of the Norlin MK III OD rule. As is well known, this rule is used, in agreement with World Sailing, as a measurement basis for Para World Championships and European Championships in order to guarantee comparable material.

This Norlin MK III rule urgently needs to be adapted to the situation that has existed for some years (discontinuation of licensing). 

Currently, a revision is being worked on under high pressure.

Our constitution needs a revision and I would like to ask everyone to send suggestions to the EC. In the meantime, I have read some contitutions of other international classes and am compiling the helpful parts. 

By the way, the EC and TC are always there for all your questions and ideas. So feel free to contact us!

We have a great website and a very popular Facebook page - please send your photos, videos and reports to our webmaster webmaster@inter24metre.org

I wish you all a great sailing season!

Best regards

Heiko Kroëger, president of the 2.4 ICA”