Last night we held the meeting for the formula women who participated this week in European Championships in Lake Garda. Later on, there was a Formula Windsurfing class Committee meeting at which very important issues concerning women were discused. This is a brief review of what we’ve talked about and also about significant changes that take place this year on women’s formula circut.

The Women’s meeting was run by Dorota Staszewska who is their representative in IFWC Committee.

At the begining the newcomers were welcomed, among whom Australian Allison Shreeve in particularmade incredible debut this week and suprised the whole formula World with the outstanding performance at her first worlds’ top level formula event.

The discussion about 2004 racing followed.

Dorota Staszewska explained the idea of Women Cup, which started in 2002, was to built up the solid base for women racing. It role was to create consistent e-mail communication, encourage the discussion regarding womens issues and to organize the women in which events to participate in and also to establish them on one ranking list.

The Women Cup ranking reached a total of 52 women in 2003. With 20+ women arriving at main events in 2003 it is expected to reach even higher number of sailors this year at major regatta’s. Due to events cancellation and generally yet unconfirmed event list both for PWA and Euro Cup circiuts it was agreed not to create a specificlist of 7 events this year (as was done in 2002 and 2003), but to rely on close e-mail communicationand keep the women sailors community informed about the most attractive events, so they can be present in a big number of events.

Women decided that they will not race in slalom at the events in 2004, as there is to fewer number of women at the momentwho could afford doing both disciplines. Slalom racing however had the strong applaus from all women gathered at the meeting and will be most welcomed in one or two years time, depending on the pace of women’s racing development.The Euro Cup and PWA tour managers are informed about this position of women racers.

Apart from the Worlds and Europeans, PWA events are considered to be the most popular regatta this year. However, the PWA racing event list is not confirmed yet and the PWA management board has not yet responded to the proposal of prize money split presented by Dorota Staszewska (attached below). These issues will be crucial in getting the supportof women for PWA events. As there are still few Euro Cup regatta possible this year itis also optional that women decide to support those events at which the organizers will emphasize theirinterest in having women fleet. Also it was suggested to contact the organizers of national championships andfind out their position towards welcoming Worlds top women at their homecountry events.

It was agreed that the results of Worlds, Europeans and PWA rankings was the most prestige and valuable results of performance throughout the 2004.

Dorota Staszewska emphasized the importance of close e-mail communication and this waystrengthening the power of the women’s fleet, which united and speaking with one voice had much moresignificance in the male dominated windsurfing world. She also stressed the importance of having TWO women representedon IFWC Commitee and announced that she was going to step down as the sailors represenative on the current commitee, but would like to be elected as a regular member of the Committee. Lucy Horwood was elected by women to be the next Women’s representative. Dorota Staszewska expressed her hope for being appreciated as the active memberof the iFWC Committee and get support by the National representatives during Committee elecions in Leba.

The Women’s meeting ended.

Later in the evening Dorota Staszewska took part in formal Formula windsurfing class Committee meeting at which among many desicions it was agreedto implement the newly designed prize money split for the Worlds in Leba that increased significantly the prize moneyfor women as well as granted it to the bigger number of the sailors according to their number at the event. Please check the table below. This prize money split is to be ratified at AGM during World Championships.