REPORT FROM ISAF RACE MANAGEMENT SEMINAR, St. Paul’s Bay (Malta), 13 – 15 December 2005

The seminar was hosted by the Maltese Yachting Federation with Anna Rossi, Secretary to the Federation doing an excellent job as coordinator. Ion Echave (ESP) was the appointed ISAF Seminar instructor.

The seminar was held at the Dolmen Hotel, a big hotel complex in St. Paul’s Bay, where dinghies can be seen sailing around the island. The hotel has all the convention centre facilities needed to run seminars, conferences and similar activities.

The seminar attracted 11 race officers representing 6 countries. The biggest number (4) coming from Italy, 2 from the host country (Malta), 2 from United Kingdom, 1 from Australia, 1 from France and 1 from China.

Most of the attendees were experienced race officers, with many of them involved in sailing for many years in various roles. The cultural diversity of the delegates produced very rich debates and long discussions on many matters. The ambiance was excellent and there were good contributions from the attendees who demonstrated real interest in race management issues and the seminar itself.

The seminar was run in accordance with the updated presentation material with particular focus on the need to achieve consistency in the decisions made by race officers at top level events. In this way attendees received clear guidelines with regard to ISAF Race Management philosophy.

All attendees sat the written test with the majority achieving the required standard to proceed to IRO status.

Ion Echave (ESP)