Dear All,
The Gold Cup DN World and European Chamionships are right around the corner less than a month away.
EXTENDED ENTRY DEADLINE
The IDNIYRA Europe Board has decided to extend the entry deadline by one week to 2026.01.21
The same applies also to the Insurance Check deadline: 2026.01.19
Normal entry fee will of course apply until this second deadline. Entry after that is still possible, but according to the NoR at a higher fee. So If you have not made your WC / EC entry yet, it is now time to act!
Looking at the current list of entrants there are some positives as well as some negatives:
+ I count no fewer than 14 nations. Thats pretty good I think. Not exceptionally good, but good non the less.
– We lack the new nations such as China, Mongolia and Portugal. Yes you read right. Some of you might remember Mongolia and Portugal applied for membership at the last Secretaries Meeting. This is unfortunate (as is the absence of Russia and Belarus) but we are hoping to see them all soon.
+ Poland as Organising Country, hardly surprisingly, is the Country with the most entrants with 32 entries (at the time of writing this
+ I am also happy to note that no fewer than 7 Female sailors have already entered. Great !!.
+ I dont have statistics of the amount of Junior Sailors, but from what I can see, there are quite a few. This is good news for the future of the class. We are hoping with the JWC/JEC being sailed next week more Juniors will be inspired to compete at the GCEC 2026.
– What worries me the most is that we still have not recovered from Covid when it comes to the total amount of participants. The Board recognised this three years ago already and focus has been on breaking the trend of declining participation. And indeed, the two last season we did manage to put the class and the amount of entries back on a growing track. Unfortunately it now looks that we have broken the trend in a negative way. Numbers this year looks to be shrinking. At the time of writing we have 112 entries. This is a definite negative, and in my opinion not acceptable !.
So what to do?
1. We have extended the entry at normal entry fee dead line with one week.
2. Winter has finally come to many parts of Europe. Local regattas have been held and will be sailed in many countries. The Board is hoping this will inspire those who have yet to enter to reconsider and join us at the best event of the year: The DN WC and EC. The Board thinks extending the entry time is therefore motivating.
3. The Board has also decided given that there is another one of our anniversaries coming up to make a promo campaign in order to motivate and help more sailors to join us at the WC/EC.
PROMO CAMPAIGN
During the GC/EC IDNIYRA Europe will be celebrating it’s 60th Anniversary. To mark this occasion we have decided to hold a lottery.
The lottery drawing will be held during the regatta. At this lottery retroactive Entry Fee discount vouchers will be be drawn as follows:
– ONE JUNIOR sailor will receive a 100% discount on the entry fee provided we see three more entries from junior sailors who have not made their entry before the original deadline. All present and yet to come Junior entrants are eligible for this.
= Juniors: Please talk to your friends. Ask them to join us. You might be the lucky winner of a 100% free entry yourself!
– ONE FEMALE sailor will receive a 100% discount on the entry fee provided we see three more entries from Female sailors who have not made their entry before the original deadline. All present and yet to come Female entrants are eligible for this.
= Ladies: Please talk to your friends. Ask them to join us. You might be the lucky winner of a 100% free entry yourself!
– FIVE Sailors will receive a 50% discount on your entry fee if we manage to get 120 sailors all in all to register. All sailors, present and yet to come entrants are eligible.
or
– FIVE Sailors will receive a 100% discount on your entry fee if we manage to reach the target of 150 entrants. All Sailors are eligible to receive this!
All in all I am pleased with how the preparations for the WC/EC regatta has progressed. The PRC Manager Arek has been doing a good job gathering the needed people as well as all the equipment. If you’d like to join the PRC as a volunteer please let us know.
The Polish Organising Fleet & organising commitee is well prepared as well. Winter and Ice has come to many parts of Europe. What can I say? It looks good. I think we will have a great regatta ahead of us. We all know this is the best sport on the planet. So why be selfish? Lets se if we can get some more friends to join us. The more, the merrier 🙂
BR & Think Ice,
John Winquist
L 601
IDNIYRA Europe Commodore