Objection to the Decision of the HJS Executive Committee on the competition system and the assignment of coefficients to ranking regattas in the Optimist class
At the regular session of the Executive Committee of JK Zvir held on 27 March 2012, we also considered your proposal of regattas for the Optimist class for 2012-13 and made the following decisions:
- Uputiti prigovor HJS i stalnim tijelima
- To mobilize the citizens of the town of Hvar, the Mayor, the Hvar Tourist Board, sailors, HJS member clubs, the Ministry of Sport, the Ministry of Tourism, sailing enthusiasts, the media and everyone else who wants the betterment of Croatian sailing, all in an effort to have the decision changed.
Here are the reasons for our decisions: We consider the procedure for changing the competition system to be contrary to the Statute. The HJS Executive Committee has taken over the competence of the Competition Council (VZN); under the HJS Statute:
- Article 31, point 1: "The [Competition] Council is responsible for and takes care of: ...proposing to the Executive Committee the system and calendar of competitions and the scoring of regattas for the composition of the national team".
- Article 30: "The President of the Council is also the national team selector. The President of the Council submits the Council's work plan to the Executive Committee for approval."
The VZN did not propose this system and regatta scoring — it is a decision of the Executive Committee together with the sporting director, as witnessed by the resignation of the VZN president, Mr Vladimir Barbić.
By reducing the number of regattas from 12 to 6 and not sailing in the "winter months", the continuity of sailing is destroyed. Only the richest clubs can sail abroad in those months, while we from the smaller clubs do not have the financial means, so competing in those months becomes impossible for us. We know that some coaches do not want to go to a regatta just before New Year — they would rather go skiing — but you should know that we were the first in Europe to start sailing in winter, back in 1974, with 6 Optimists, 10 boards and 25 Lasers. Today sailors from 27 European countries, North America and the Netherlands Antilles come to our regatta. Perhaps some clubs are jealous of us, but we are not jealous of them, even though the state never built us a marina to finance ourselves from.
By reducing the number of 1.6-coefficient regattas for 2012 you favoured JK Labud, which nominated you for President, and turned against us, who brought you the deciding vote because of the promise you have now broken. We deeply believe you were badly advised — do you really want to destroy the Optimist class, the cradle of all Croatian sailors? Must it really come to a rift and bad blood among us, who created and popularized Croatian sailing, especially the Optimist class?
If the number of regattas really had to be reduced (which we do not agree with), why did you not announce an open call? Why did the Executive Committee make the decision without the consent of the VZN and without consulting the member clubs? Why is the coefficient being taken away from Dubrovnik and Hvar, and not from Labud, Opatija, Crikvenica, Vega, Split, Mornar, Šibenik? By what criterion? Perhaps Hvar and Dubrovnik have no Olympians, but they have produced and still produce top sailors and national team members — and without money, rich sponsors or marinas. When you have money you can buy competitors, but it takes far more effort and knowledge to create a competitor!
Finally, we also disagree with the Executive Committee's decision that the team for the World and European Championships should be chosen from among 24 sailors by 5 coaches. Our opinion, and the opinion of many other coaches who were at the last regatta in Crikvenica, is that only non-sailors who know nothing about sailing and sport could decide something like that. Because if a child sails all year and earns a place at the World Championship, what coaches can take that away and send someone who is, say, 24th on the ranking list? It means the best will not go, but those whose parents pay, whose coaches agree among themselves to support one another, and so on. Already in Crikvenica we "quarrelled" over which sailors would make the national team. In our opinion that system is insane. Since 1995, when we first set out from Hvar to the regattas, the Optimist class scoring system was built up — the system that produced today's Olympians. Mostly it was financed by parents; many top sailors failed to achieve such results only because their parents could no longer afford it. Among them are our national team members Vedran and Bojan Ive. Mr President, we ask you to annul this decision of the Executive Committee and propose a public debate among the member clubs, and to let the VZN, in cooperation with the class and the interested member clubs, make the fairest decision. Anything else we consider unsporting, and a sowing of the seeds of discord among sporting friends.
JK Zvir will do everything through legal channels, through appeals to the HJS, to have this decision changed. You did not ask us for our opinion, but we are voicing it through our website, through Facebook and the media, and we have received truly strong support. We removed your predecessor at an extraordinary assembly; if need be we will prepare for an extraordinary or regular assembly again, but we sincerely hope that reason can prevail. Please think this over once more — in a way we consider you a fellow townsman, since you own property in Hvar. All of Hvar lives for this regatta in winter, so how will you stroll along the riva and the piazza if you do not annul this decision? We are very emotional about all this; we have spent our whole lives in sailing and have given everything for sailing and for this regatta. If we have hurt you with any of our statements in all of this, we deeply apologize. We are convinced that bad advisers have manipulated you — do not let that ruin the many good, not to say excellent, ideas you have implemented in the HJS, which do credit to you and to all of us. President Tonko Buzolić Secretary Nikša Ive
