FICO PRESENTATION

PRESENTATION
The Emergence	FICO Mission	Key to Success	Structure

The Emergence of a Forum

From 1960 to 1978 races and their organisers were predominately British with the Single Handed Transat 1960, and Whitbread 1973.

In 1978 the French joined as organisers with the Route du Rhum and the Transat Le Point-Europe 1 Lorient-Bermuda-Lorient broadening nationality involvement and preceding the Canadians and Spanish races.

In 1980 AFIPOCO was created on the instigation of Michel Etevenon as the umbrella association for national race organisers. From this structure the four year World championship was established and with the continued increase in activity and interest this championship generated was borne the need to develop further strategies that would enhance the development of the sport.

In September 1986 Michel Etevenon, Gerard Petipas and Rene Rochat initiated this major development steering the takeover of AFIPOCO by the newly formed FICO with the specific remit to structure fully Oceanic Sailing within a non-profit making Forum based in Switzerland

The FICO Mission

FICO was born with the following mission; working in conjunction with the fédération internationale de voile ( ISAF), national federations and the major clubs :-

To promote - competitive oceanic sailing - competing skippers ( by establishing a world championship ) - boat sponsors ( by way of a world championship for sponsoring teams
To lend technical support to oceanic race organisers
To co-ordinate, over a period of time, all oceanic races based upon a two year cycle.
To simultaneously establish and enhance a calendar of FICO registered races.
Additionally Federation objectives include :-
The safeguard of maritime traditions and the respect of international rules and regulations
To assist its members in their relations with national maritime sporting authorities
The respect and defence of the freedom of information for the press.
To contribute towards the continuing development of a charter governing the communication means and techniques for events.

The Key to Success
The means employed by FICO to achieve its objectives focus on the following strategies:-

to unite all the promoters and organisers of oceanic races, irrespective of nationality
to internationalise oceanic racing
to present an administrative and financial framework to organisers so as to better structure open offshore racing
to take, if required, the initiative for organising such events
to ensure the organisers of oceanic races respect the terms and conditions defined by the forum
to offer technical assistance, should the need arise, to the organisers of oceanic races
to act as a substitute organiser, should the need arise.
to maintain relations with sporting authorities and national/ international federations
to ensure the sporting rules in place are respected
to establish a calendar for FICO oceanic races
to promote the FICO World Championship for competitors and sponsoring teams.

Guidelines to an innovative structure
With the dramatic post 1986 increase in competition oceanic sailing required a powerful ruling forum and FICO rapidly rose to the challenge. In 1989 FICO, in consultation with the skippers and boat sponsors introduced the following rules:-

Restriction of the length of multihulls to 60 feet ( 18.28m )
The mandatory requirement of a fixed motor on class 1 multihulls
Formalisation of financial and not time penalties for boats arriving at the departure port of a race later than the agreed time or date
The establishment of a set of safety regulations for multihulls ( in collaboration with U.N.C.L)
Creation of a technical committee with boat designers
Composition of a pool of FICO registered judges