ECC 2018 - Sardinia :: Portisco :: bulletins

Dear sailing friends,

in about 6 weeks we will see each other in Sardinia.

Unfortunately, a few crew photos and company presentations are still missing. These will not be able to take into account, because we have now finalized the logbooks and sent them to the printing company.

We know that some of you have already taken advantage of the opportunity to make a skipper’s liability or bond insurance with Pantaenius. If the offered height of the bond insurance is too low, you can also complete this twice and doubles the coverage. For every contract that has been concluded, a small part will go back to our sponsor account. So who wants to take out insurance anyway, should consider Pantaenius again. The online registration is easy and very customer friendly. The links to the insurance offers:
Bond insurance: http://www.pantaenius.de/en/charter
Skipper’s liability insurance: http://www.pantaenius.de/en/skipper

Unfortunately, those who have not submitted their crew lists can no longer be considered for the vest order. We had to complete the order until February, 28 otherwise it could not be guaranteed that they will be delivered on time. Please understand, but we have communicated this several times. Therefore, it may be that the correct sizes are no longer available.

Sasha King would like to create a photo series of “25 years ECC”. If you still have nice photos to contribute, please send them directly to High Point Yachting.
Of course, the opportunity of a financial support of our 25 years celebration will continue. We are grateful for every euro and need it urgently.

Best Regards
Maike and Berthold

Dear Skippers, friends and sailors,
Although it is still winter, the days will soon start to get longer and we are keeping our fingers crossed for blue water with a light breeze and some splashing at the bow of the boat. In the meantime, we have been starting to prepare the logbook and finalize the arrangements for the week with all the various venues that we will be visiting.
This year Mammoet will not sponsor the T-Shirts we all loved. Instead the company Reflex has generously agreed to provide us with gilets. Please remember the 28th February, which is when we need to finalize the clothing orders. So, by that date we need your Crew-Lists with shirt sizes and, for all sponsors with an amount of 2000€ or more the money needs to be transferred before that day to get your logo on the gilets.
We are still searching for more sponsors and hope that you can help with that. We have two new Gold-Sponsors with Reflex and Bertsch, but for a special 25th anniversary party we are hoping for a little more. We have called a lot of people and everyone understands the situation, but understanding does not get us a buffet or drinks. I hope with 2018 we will get some more companies to sponsor in time to be able to plan.
For the logbook we look forward to receive your colourful, artistic and imaginative crew presentations and sponsor advertisements. Please send these by 5th February. Should you not send them in time we will try to use last years if possible.

We wish you all the best
Berthold Schulz and his Crew

Dear Skippers, friends and sailors,
We are happy to present you the completed boat selection list as attached. Unfortunately two crews had to cancel their participation but we are very happy with 48 boats in the fleet. You can find the participating Skippers on our website. Please find attached the template for the crew lists, fill it and send it back until the middle of January.
This bulletin is to remind everyone of the risks that are always present when sailing and to explain the approach that the organisers intend to take. This has been prompted by John Hall Hall’s email of 17th October 2017. The basic message is that sailing can be dangerous so make sure you’re prepared, don’t go out if you’re not confident and, however careful you are, accidents can still happen, so consider taking out insurance.
Inken Braunschmidt and Luca Merlo are willing to help with any queries regarding safety and will make a short presentation on Saturday afternoon before the welcome party. This training is not part of the ECC and will not imply any responsibilities for Inken or Luca. I also think that John’s check list is very helpful, it will be in the logbook and is attached to this bulletin. This too is just a service and is not expected to be a complete list, but rather to provoke the mindset to increase awareness.
We have been fortunate in getting Pantaenius as a new sponsor and we thank them for their generosity. Please take a look at the attached offer for skippers’ insurance and/or deposit insurance. We recommend you consider taking out appropriate cover.
For the first racing day, we plan to have a normal skippers’ briefing from 9:00 to 10:30. Afterwards we leave the port and everyone can do some practical training. During the training, we will make our way to the starting line, which will be 6 to 8 Nm from the port in direction of La Maddalena. The first start will be around 1 pm. To have some time in La Maddalena, we plan for the last ones to arrive around 5 pm. Should any crew think that they are not ready for the first race, they should advise the race committee of their withdrawal and go directly to the next port. These rules apply to all following days’ races. For the first day race, all boats will be competing for the Jose Miguel Martinez Trophy and the race will not count towards the Engineering Challenge Cup or the Commodore’s Cup. All boats should have the same chance to win, so we will split the whole fleet into two groups. To be fair, the group starting first will be chosen by a coin flip.
I hope with this bulletin I give you confidence that, with the right preparation, we can all have a safe and enjoyable week.
A merry Christmas season to all of you
Berthold Schulz and his Crew

Dear Skippers, friends and sailors,

We are very happy to inform you, that the entry list for the 25th anniversary of the ECC is now complete with 50 registered skippers. The boat selection reflects your request of boat sizes and we hope you will all find a boat, which suits you. The lottery, done with the Commodore’s team and the High Point Yachting team, ordered the registered skippers randomly.

Now it is up to you, to choose a boat from the selection list. Sasha and Eva will contact you one after another to choose a boat in the order the lottery gave.

While you choose the boats for the race, we will choose the locations for the parties. From the 1st to the 6th October we were in Sardinia, looking for the best ports, nicest party locations and most challenging racing routes. We started from Portisco, looking at the location for Welcome- and Prizegivingparty, to Golfo Avanci, Olbia and La Tavolara, where we stayed overnight. After that we went on to La Madalena, Porto Massimo and the island Budelli. We made it to Bonifacio, Porto Cervo and Poltu Quatu.

Finally, we are still looking for sponsors and would be very happy, to get your thoughts and advice about who might be interested in this. We need to make a special effort this year so that our 25th anniversary celebrations truly reflect this significant milestone. The benefits of sponsorship are leveraged off the long-term relationships within the engineering community that is the ECC. Whether the outcome is a place on a bidders’ list or finding a new recruit, a sponsor’s short-term investment can provide a long-term benefit.

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Berthold Schulz and his crew

Obituary John Becker, age 67, died on Saturday, October 7, 2017 in a tragic accident while sailing around the Danish island of Aero. He was participating in the ECC since 2001 and known as a kind and at all times cheerful friend and sailor. We are very sorry.

Dear Skippers, friends and sailors,

While you have been enjoying your summer holidays, we have been busy working on your spring holiday that we hope will be your High Point of 2018 and the perfect one to celebrate the 25th anniversary of ECC, which is in itself an amazing achievement. The venue is Portisco, Sardinia and the timing is 5th to 11th May 2018 so don’t forget to book the time off.

The entry list has now closed and we have 52 entries. In September we will use the lottery process to select the order in which you can choose your yacht. In October we will visit Sardinia to see places and faces, so that we can start developing the itinerary and plans for the event in detail. Of course, a lot of the evening functions have been largely funded by our sponsors in recent years, so we will be looking at the opportunities that we can offer our sponsors. We think that the 2017 initiative from François and his team to name races after sponsors was a great idea and we will do the same in 2018. We are still looking for sponsors to make the 25th ECC a special Silver Jubilee celebration. If you are interested in sponsoring or know someone who is, please contact us and we will send you the brochure with the opportunities. We hope many of you will make a special effort to identify sponsors for this special year. If not, we will have to make the medals from paper during the winter……….! We will arrange a special Silver Jubilee evening event in Porto Cervo on the Thursday night and will bring multiple sponsors together to ensure we have a fabulous party befitting this significant milestone in the ECC journey. So, we hereby ask that as many of you as possible reach out to sponsors who want to participate in funding the special night. All sponsors will be added to the ECC Website home page as soon as they commit.

We have also been thinking hard on more difficult issues. In 2017, as well as the tragic accident that happened on the first day, there were also an unprecedented number of complaints about crews not following the ISAF Racing Rules of Sailing. As a result, the Commodores have developed the Charter to include other papers to assist crews in understanding the sporting ethos of the event as well as how to deal with incidents. Look out for these documents (ECC Charter, Eligible Skippers’ List and Emergency Incident Plan) which will be posted on the ECC website shortly. The ISAF rules are so complex that few crews can realistically be expected to know them in detail. We have found a nice short description, which we hope you will find helpful to understand enough to ensure you know how to comply. Please distribute within your crews and encourage them to take these principles on board and to challenge you if you are not following them during the week. We want the 2018 event to be focused on the spirit in which ECC was founded in 1994, namely fair and competitive competition on the water and friendly socialising off the water.

Our next bulletin will announce the lottery results and provide details of the yachts on offer. In the meantime, please let us know if you have any questions so that we can make sure they are addressed in the next bulletin.

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Berthold Schulz and his crew

The ECC 2018 will be held in Sardinia, Portisco between the 5th and 11th May. We declare the entry list for the ECC 2018 open for all eligible skippers. The minimum ECC entry fee of 630 € per boat or 110 € per Person is requested with the application.
Please note the following dates:

• 03rd July 2017: Open entry list for ECC 2018

• 30th July 2017: Close entry list and receive last entry fees

All bulletins will be distributed by email and posted on the website.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Berthold Schulz and his crew

We have teamed up again with Sasha and her team at High Point Yachting for the ECC 2018 in Sardinia. They will have our updated list of the skippers who register for ECC 2018 and will be in touch with you about the Entry Fee Invoice.