New Caribbean Sailing Week for 2019

From Scuttlebutt Sailing News

A newly formed event called Caribbean Sailing Week (CSW) is set to take place October 17-20 in English Harbour, Antigua. The 2019 event combines two individual Caribbean Sailing Association (CSA) events which have taken place for more than 20 years – the CSA Annual Conference and the CSA Caribbean Dinghy Championship (CDC).

The new format event will allow the CSA to increase the profile and status of the CDC and Annual Conference due to having considerably more CSA Member representatives from the Caribbean regional sailing community gathered together in one place. It will also increase the overall value of the event to those wishing to attend, providing a much wider cross-section of CSA members with reasons to attend than are being catered for within the current format.

The CDC, the regional sailing regatta element of CSW, will be a multi-class championship event for one-person Optimist, Laser/Laser Radial classes, and for two-person the RS Feva class. The event will also see the introduction of a new keelboat-specific discipline.

“During the 2018 CSA Conference an important goal for the organization of building capacity came through strongly,” said CSA President Alison Sly-Adams. “This capacity refers to not only increasing participation in all events, but in supporting skills building in all roles required to support regional development of the sport along with the growth in the number of people entering sailing as a sport. The new format Caribbean Sailing Week will be a key element in us delivering on this goal.

“We felt a change in format of the CDC was necessary to ensure it could be more inclusive of all islands rather than limiting it to a 6-team championship. With that said we will introduce a new Nations Cup which will keep the spirit of inter-island competition alive and kicking.”

As well as a new look CDC regatta and CSA Annual Conference program, Caribbean Sailing Week will also include clinics for sailors, their instructors and coaches, as well as training courses and professional development opportunities for those individuals looking to get involved in sailing in more technical roles such as race officials, umpires and measurers, the delivery of which will be organized to run alongside and even as part of the CSA Conference and CDC regatta schedule.

“We are here at this exciting point in terms of the growth in sailing-related activity in our region due to the fact that the CSA is a pro-active organization for whom standing still and doing nothing is not an option,” notes Mark Theron, Chairman of the CSA Sailing Development Committee.

“On behalf of the members of the CSA Sailing Development Committee, I want to say thank you to all CSA members that have provided us with feedback, ideas and valuable insights into ways in which our organisation could successfully re-imagine the CSA Annual Conference and CDC events so as to do more to help increase participation in sailing related activity in the Caribbean region.”

For the first year of the new format event it will be hosted in Antigua. As well as being the base of the CSA secretariat and having hosted both the CDC and CSA Annual Conference events in 2018, it will be more feasible for the organization to shape and refine the new format before opening the event up to other host nations across the Caribbean region in 2020 and beyond.

Details and updates of the event can be found at www.caribbeansailingweek.com

Source: CSA

For more on this story go to: https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2019/01/08/new-caribbean-sailing-week-2019/