Star Class Honoring the Past, Leading the Future
The Star Class has asked the two candidates for a statement for you to read to give an educated vote. Ballots will be distributed next week to all voting members.
ENRICO CHIEFFIDear Star sailors,
since I have been nominated officially candidate to run for Presidency, I thought appropriate to share with you my vision on the Class and future developments. Before I do it, let me thank the many friends that have asked me to candidate, for their trust and friendship. I have accepted this possibility because I am a passionate Star sailor myself and I felt the obligation to return some of all that I have received from this beautiful Class over the years.
To start with the positives, our Class is experiencing beautiful international events with great participation, fun, fair sailing and great friendship. All continental events of this year proved very successful. Hubert and his predecessors made a terrific job to make this happen. Also, the partnership with successful outside organizations like the Bacardi Cup and the SSL, have bought a tremendous benefit to our Class in general. To continue with the positives, the strength of any organization lies in the people that forms it and in this respect, the Star Class has the most incredible community of people in its membership.
This said, I think that our beloved Class is facing a serious crisis into the future that is linked to many different factors: 1) competitive sailing overall is suffering, 2) keelboats are suffering towards more modern and fast classes, 3) youngsters are not joining our class, 4) females are missing, 5) local Fleets racing is disappearing, 6) members average age is increasing, 7) overall memberships are dropping, 8) members are joining and paying fees only if they are able to compete in events showing a lack of interest for the more general health of the Class, 9) Class financials are negative since few years eroding the savings done in past years.
If I look at the evolution of classes that disappeared from the horizon, our current situation needs to be addressed with strength and not treated like “business as usual”. If our objective is to have fun in the short period, we do not have a problem, but if instead we want to have our Class to be successful in the long term, we need to act now and find solutions to reinvigorate it.
Let me touch on some of the points above:
As you can see, I am not outlining a specific action plan yet, because I would rather develop it with the rest of the team in charge of the Class. On the other side I felt appropriate to express my general point of view, so that you have the chance to acknowledge what to expect from my possible Presidency. What I can tell you now is that I am ready to possibly take the difficult challenge to project our beautiful Class into the long term future.
Respectfully,
Enrico Chieffi
TOM LONDRIGANQ1 - What qualities do you possess that make you qualified to be the Star Class President?
(Answers to these questions and more are available at tomlondrigan.com)
Commitment and Collaboration
I have been committed to the Star Class for over 40 years and part of Class leadership for over 25 years. I view serving as President to be another level of commitment and one to be based on international collaboration. I have met many of you, and there are still so many more sailors I look forward to meeting.
I have volunteered at all levels of Star Class governance, serving as Fleet Captain, District Secretary, Class Vice-President, and Chair of the International Governing Committee. I helped with the development of the Boat Loaner program and the creation of the Legacy Foundation. Serving our Class has been a labor of love and it is why I became a life member when I was 30 years old.
My father taught himself to sail on a Star in 1967, the year I was born. Our family has sailed Stars for 55 years. We have all levels of racing in our family, from a World Champion to young club racers, men and women, boys and girls, skippers and crews (over 15 family members over the years). We have had four Londrigan boats on the same World Championship starting line (1997 Marblehead) and we still race every week at our local club.
I don’t believe our Class should be run from the top down. Rather, I believe our Class should be driven by the members. It is our responsibility as Class Officers to listen and follow through for our members.
We have worked with our partners over the years, World Sailing, the Olympics, the Star Sailors League, the Legacy Foundation, the Boat Loaner program and even our longtime partner the Bacardi Cup. The unique relationships take cooperation,collaboration and open communication while at the same time remaining steadfast to members’ core principles. I have worked with each of these entities over the years and look forward to the next partnership and collaboration that will help propel our Class for the next 100 years.
Q2 - What is your vision for the future of the Star Class, and how would you realize that vision?
Growth and Balance
To preserve the Star Class, the most important issue is growing our membership. We need to encourage participation at all levels and include new members around the world. We must grow within all demographics: young and old; male and female; big and small; and, most importantly, feed all regions of our international footprint to keep the Class vibrant.
As Chair of the IGC, this principle has guided our decision to award World Championships to
Sardinia (2019), Kiel (2021), Marblehead (2022), Scarlino (2023), and, hopefully, San Diego (2024), and South America (2025). I have traveled and raced in six World Championships around the world, including Argentina, Italy, and Germany as well as the United States. Sailing at Kiel this year was truly a highlight. I witnessed 85 boats show up to race during a pandemic. The Kiel event clearly underscored the growth and passion for sailing on the Baltic.
My crew asked me, “what is your favorite part of the trip to Kiel?”
I said, “I am amazed to see the fjord and bay filled with thousands of sailboats… and zero power boats (opposite of home), and the surge of young sailors which was the direct result of our members stepping up and helping them put a program together.”
As Class President, I will focus on growth. I believe that with cooperative effort we can put more than 100 boats on our starting lines in both Marblehead and Scarlino. I was part of the discussions creating the Legacy Foundation, which has done so much to assist our young sailors. I want to expand cooperation with our partners in the Legacy Foundation and encourage more communication and coordination with our fleets and districts. Like the effort in Germany, I want to challenge all of our Districts and Fleets to send U-30 teams to future World Championships.
To achieve this objective, as Chair of the IGC, I recently created the U-30 Development Committee. I am excited to see many of these efforts grow and succeed.
I want to market our World Championships and Continental events as a package for multi-year sponsorships to strengthen our financial stability, raise our profile and make these events more accessible. The cost of sailing can be made more manageable and I am aware of efforts for more creative boat financing. As President, I plan to publicize and encourage new and current sailors to take advantage of these opportunities to get into new Star boats.
Growth must come from all regions of our international community, all ages and skills levels, and all shapes and sizes. Positive movement on these fronts will create the momentum needed to propel our Class forward and keep it vibrant.
Finally, our Class needs to be more transparent and communicate more effectively directly to our members. Leadership doesn’t always have the answers. Many times, solutions come from within the Class. The more leadership communicates directly with members, the more important feedback we will receive in return. I promise to do my best to keep members informed and listen to your ideas and guidance. Please visit tomlondrigan.com for more information.
In summary: I will work to grow our Class, strengthen our financial stability, lower cost barriers to international events, maintain our independence, provide transparency, communicate effectively and prioritize our worldwide footprint.
You will be receiving a ballot in a couple weeks. The ballot is for you to personally vote on many issues which affect our Class and your membership. One of those issues is who will be entrusted with the Presidency of our International Class. I would be honored to have you vote for me.
