5 April 2012
We would like to share on these pages the statement that our friends from JK Orsan of Dubrovnik sent to the president of the HJS. Their regatta was one of the first we attended after the Homeland War; we truly love Dubrovnik and the Dubrovnik Regatta. For us Dubrovnik is not far away, nor will it ever be, and we hope we will long be able to keep coming to Dubrovnik for 1.6-coefficient regattas:
Mr President,
At the regular session of the Executive Committee of JK ORSAN – Dubrovnik on 28 March 2012, we also considered your proposal of regattas for the Optimist class for 2012-13.
We must say that we are disappointed by your decision to reduce our coefficient, and that of JK ZVIR – Hvar, from 1.6 to 1.5.
We have never before had any complaints from the participants of our "Dubrovnik Regatta" — quite the opposite, we have received nothing but praise. You therefore owe us an explanation of the reasons for this decision of yours. Evidently your view from point 1 of your letter prevailed: "An even distribution along the Croatian coast." Because to get to Dubrovnik you must cross the border — but why did you skip Hvar? We presume the children and officials are reluctant to go to "some" Hvar and "some" Dubrovnik out there.
The other day a state official said that Dubrovnik does not need a motorway — that reaching Ploče is enough, since he considers that the land border. And you, dear sir, have set Split as the sea border, and so reduced the coefficient in order to cut the number of participants in this regatta of ours, which ranges from 85 to 120, with children also taking part from Slovenia, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia.
We understand — it happens to us often that people say: "Well, you are far away," even though they come to our regatta once a year, while our children travel ten to twelve times a year from Split to Poreč. But why has Hvar been left out, when it is so close?! — and an excellent regatta organizer. Even so, as before, our children will continue to travel to all the regattas in the calendar you have adopted.
Next year JK ORSAN celebrates 80 years of uninterrupted work and activity, and we believe that through our many years of work we too have contributed to the reputation of Croatian sailing — we do not know whether you are aware of that; evidently not.
The next thing we discussed is the letter in which you say you will announce a call for hosts of the coming regattas. We suggest that in the next call you include an initial stake for the Federation's costs, and accommodation for the judges and officials in a 5-star hotel. For the judges, at least 3 per diems a day; and, in particular, all interested towns must have a motorway connection and, of course, a connection to the border of the Republic of Croatia from Poreč to Split.
It is also the decision of the Executive Committee that we will not bid to host any of the proposed regattas in the coming period.
On the remaining issues we will state our position at the next Assembly.
Executive Committee of JK ORSAN
Marinko Mikulandra, president
