World Tasar Council Update
by Chris Payne 24 Sep 2017 08:15 BST
24 September 2017
A busy start line for 97 boats at the 2017 Tasar Worlds in Gamagori, Japan © Junichi Hirai / Bulkhead Magazine Japan
After an extremely successful world championship held in Gamagori, Japan, there have been a number of changes to the World Tasar Council (the International Class Association for the Tasar).
Ikuya Takana President of WTC and President of the Japanese association has handed over the reigns of the WTC Presidency to Rod Porteous of the United Kingdom district. Ikuya Takana stays on the committee as the immediate past President.
Other changes included Mike Karass of the North America region stepping down as Chief Measurer after guiding the technical aspect of the class for the last four years. Chris Payne of the Australian region will take over his role, bringing 50 years of sailing experience and over 10 years in the Tasar class.
Pete Ellis continues on in the pivotal role as Executive Secretary
The Tasar class is experiencing a growth spurt with the last two world championships being some of the biggest worlds ever conducted by the class. The 97 boat fleet in Gamagori, Japan was an excellent show case of how to run a world championship, this was in no small part due to WTC President at the time, Ikuya Takana, and his fantastic team.
In July 2019 the class will convene again for the next World Championships in Hayling Island, United Kingdom. More information on the event can be found at tasarworlds2019.org. Hayling Island is one of the premier regatta venues in the United Kingdom and is recognised by the Royal Yachting Authority as a Centre of Excellence for sail training and competition at World Class level. The club has over 50 years of experience of running large National, International and Olympic regattas and more recently run world championships for Lasers, Flying Fifteens and the International Moth. This makes it ideally suited to the running of the Tasar 2019 World Championship. It will be 8 years since the worlds were last in the UK, but those that attended it still talk about what a great time they all had.
For more information on the Tasar Class please check out the web site at www.tasar.org