In July 2022, Manrico Iachia, Commodore of the Gstaad Yacht Club, accepted the challenge of Gonçalo Esteves, ICOYC Vice – President Europe, South America, and Africa, to host the International Council of Yacht Clubs (ICOYC)’s 9th European Conference in Gstaad. After many meetings and a long preparation time, the three-day conference took place from the 9th to the 11th of March 2023 and surpassed all expectations of the organization. As the registration period went on, it was starting to be clear to everyone that this would be a highly attended conference by ICOYC members. What began to be prepared as a regional European conference rapidly escalated into a Worldwide meeting, accounting for a record number of participants and originating destinations.
Overall, almost 60 delegates and partners from 27 clubs and 20 countries from different Continents, traveled all the way to Switzerland to finally meet their peers after a long absent period. These conferences are the ideal platform to promote access to knowledge and an important base to exchange critical information from clubs that face many common challenges or to provide a “roadmap” to prepare others for future situations that may rise at some point and the perfect opportunity to learn what are other clubs are doing and what results are obtaining from those actions.
On the first day of the conference, after a welcome lunch to all Delegates and their partners, it was time to go outside and perform the solemn Flag Ceremony to officially open the Forum and welcome the new Club Members, Monte Real Club de Iates de Baiona and Salinas Yacht Club (Ecuador). The ICOYC organization is developing and growing at a remarkable rate.
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