ITA Newsletter 23, July 2024 by Manfred Schumi

Hi all,

In a few weeks the Worlds 2024 in Brunnen will start. We will probably have more than 35 boats from six nations, including one or two US-Teams. Another US-team from California had unfortunateley canceled the participation but hopes to show up next year. There are already five teams from England on the list, but only one from Austria. In this country we have a serious problem motivating sailors to travel.

But overall we have a pleasant development this year:

– boats from three nations started at the easter regatta in St. Raphael,

– we had 18 boats from four nations in Torbole,

– there were 28 Tempest at the German Nationals on Forggensee (including three French teams and one Swiss), which shows the strength or the German class,

– even in England we saw nine boats at their Nationals (without foreign participation)

We have still some problems in Switzerland, but thanks to the efforts of Michael Ribback and his team at the latest regatta on Sihlsee (end of June) there were eight (!) Swiss boats in the result list. seven will come to Brunnen. In Austria only five national teams took part at the Nationals on Mondsee (thanks to the Germans 18 boats on the list), that needs an urgent improvement. Currently only 4-5 teams are regularly sailing regattas.

In 2025 the Tempest Worlds will be held from 16th to 23th August in the Netherlands. SV Hoorn on the Ijsselmeer will be our host. We have been three in 2010 and intended to go there in 2020 when Corona stopped us. In June 2020, when we had to cancel the event, there were already about 25 boats on the entry list. So we hope that we will see many boats from England as well as Dutch boats in Hoorn (and of course the usual suspects from GER, FRA, SUI).

The further schedule is France in 2026 and Austria in 2027, but so far no details have been fixed.

This year one new boat (GER 1200) was build by Mader, and we hope for more next year. The second-hand-market is almost sold out (see the list on tempestclass.com, which will be updated after the Worlds).

The financial situation of ITA is stable despite we had a lot of higher expenses in the last years e.g. the purchase of the Mark-II-original-plug and the professional videos and fotos made  in Kiel and on Lake Garda. Thanks to the support of Swiss Tempest  and their national federation  there will be hopefully no extra liabilities this year. But in 2025 in the Netherlands the support from local sponsors is expected to be low, so the class is ready to pay for some extra socials.

We are still searchimg for a second class measurer who has to go through the  procedure issued by Word Sailing. Also ongoing is the discusison if we shall allow battens in the jib. A new draft sail is on the way and should be tested soon. The condition is that there should be no speed avantage, the purpose of the battens shall only be that the gib has a longer life.

At the beginning of this year we started with our new website. Alys Rouanet has created a modern surface for tempestclass.com. You should find there recent regatta results from all countries and also an archive of the former Worlds including the most important results and the winners of our trophies. In the blogs you find the latest news. If anybody has suggestions for further improvement please contact us.

Hope to see many of you at the Worlds,

Stay tuned,

Manfred, President ITA