New International Multihull Council formed to promote sport

Multihull sailors around the world have established the International Multihull Council (IMC) to promote their sport globally.

President, Paul Pascoe explains why this is now necessary. “The decision of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) to exclude any Multihull Event from the 2012 Olympic Games has shown that we cannot entirely rely on others to promote our interests, so need to establish our own organisation to do so. As there is no representation for Multihulls within ISAF, either formally through a Multihull Committee, or informally, through the interests of individual Councillors, national multihull associations from several leading ISAF Member National Authorities (MNA) have jointly founded the IMC.”

The founder Members are the National Multihull Associations of Australia, Great Britain, Netherlands and United States and are represented on the Executive Committee by Paul Pascoe (AUS) as President, John Williams (USA) as Vice President, Nick Dewhirst (GBR) as Secretary General, Edwin Lodder (NED) as Treasurer and Rod Waterhouse (AUS).

According to the new Constitution “The purpose of the Council is to promote catamaran sailing and racing. To this end the Council will agree upon matters of common interest, present the views of the membership to third parties, provide representatives on national and international bodies, arrange sponsorship and lobby for changes in the interests of the membership. The Association intends to complement the activities of clubs, classes, national and international sailing and sporting authorities.”

Pascoe adds that while our immediate priority is the inclusion of Multihulls at the 2012 Olympic Games in Great Britain the breakdown of process and representation within ISAF has also highlighted the need for an integrated lifetime multihull strategy, which should begin at entry level, with youth education and training. The new generation of rota-moulded catamarans now makes this feasible.

Secretary General, Nick Dewhirst, would like to hear from multihull sailors in other countries, both those who already have national multihull organisations and those who may now wish to establish them. He comments “The founder Members have already seen how our effectiveness is much enhanced at national level if we speak with one voice for multihulls, rather than separate class or commercial interests. IMC hopes to do the same internationally and encourages the multihull community in other countries similarly to speak with a united voice to their MNA, as national lobbying has now become urgent”.