ISCA President Letter
December 2024
Letter from the ISCA President ...
Dear ISCA members, receive a fraternal greeting from the leadership of your class.
Before starting, I want to thank the members of ISCA and National Associations (NICA’s) for having re-elected the leadership of the class for the period 2024-2026, which forces us to fulfill with greater responsibility, the plans for a better future and growth of the class.
With 2024 coming to an end, and having issued a press release that changes and guarantees the future of the class, approving ZIM Sailing as the new manufacturer of the ISCA boat, we can be satisfied to have achieved the goal proposed at the beginning of our mandate in 2022. This process could have been long, but we took care to do it in the right way and with the participation of World Sailing (WS) to avoid jeopardizing the international status of the class.
We started 2024 by coordinating with WS the extension of Authorization Requests for Emergency Parts (sails, masts and booms) that were granted in 2023, and we added the same for Jibetech daggerboards and rudders, which was granted by WS for 2024. Then followed many meetings that have allowed to reach the annual meeting of WS in November 2024, and approve the action plan proposed by ISCA where the approval of the new class rules, the new agreement with WS between WS and ISCA and the approval of a new manufacturer of our sailboat were considered. It is worth highlighting the participation of our WS Representative, Mr. Hector Duval, in the WS annual meeting, where in different committees, he defended the position of ISCA, finally being able to reach the approval by WS for the plan proposed by ISCA.
At the same time, in November 2023, we started the project to look for a new manufacturer. Chris Williams and John Butine led this project that consisted of identifying potential manufacturers, signing confidentiality commitments, sending ISCA proposals, receiving proposals from interested manufacturers, etc., where we had a response from 6 interested manufacturers.
In March 2024, the ISCA Executive Committee evaluated the proposals received and approved concentrating on 2 manufacturers. It was also approved that within the final evaluation of the manufacturers, a visit to the plants is included to see the facilities and knowledge of the personnel they had. This process was executed during March, leaving April for questions and answers that were absorbed by both manufacturers.
In May 2024, the ISCA Executive Committee evaluated both manufacturers and approved the decision to take Zim Sailing’s proposal to the ISCA World Council for final approval (at the same time, we were waiting for WS’s approval to move forward). In the meantime, the contract/agreement began to be worked on between Zim and ISCA, having reached a prior consensus to the World Council in Heath, TX.
The 2024 World Championship, held at Rush Creek Yacht Club, Heath, TX, from October 12 to 19, with 100 competitors, set a record for the participation of junior competitors, having had 16 competitors (10 men and 6 women) and 18 women.
The 2nd South American Youth U21 Sailing Championship was also held, from November 11 to 16 in Paracas, Ica, Peru, with the participation of 120 competitors in various classes (Ilca 7, 6, 4, IQFoil, Techno 293 and ISCA), where the ISCA class had a participation of 25 competitors from 6 countries (13 men and 12 women). Always betting on our youth sailors.
I want to welcome our new ISCA Secretary, Liza Clinton, who will be supporting us for this period of 2024-2026.
It only remains for me to thank the members of the ISCA Executive Committee and the class administrator, for the hard work during this 2024 and all the NICA’s for the permanent support to be able to meet the objectives, and to consolidate the future of the class.
I hope everyone enjoys the holidays, and that we return recharged for a 2025 full of joy and good fortune, which will allow us to continue growing our class.
Saludos, Willo Cappelleti ISCA President
