Letter from EurILCA

Members.

Please read the below EurILCA letter:

“Dear District officer,

As you may know, in response to new requirements under World Sailing’s Olympic Equipment Policy, our class has recently welcomed six new builders of class-legal equipment. Due to existing trademark restrictions, these builders are selling new boats, sails and other gear under the ILCA brand name.

Although no one wanted to see this change, it is an inevitable result of opening the market to new builders and has allowed our Class to remain in the Olympic Games for both men and women. Overall, this transition to an open and competitive builder environment will be a huge boost to our class and EurILCA is excited about the future.

Although the Class’s legal representatives advise the Class maintains a strong position with respect to the use of the LASER brand and the sunburst logo, EurILCA is committed to spending its time and money on promoting great events and bringing more people into our sport rather than engaging in legal disputes.

The transition to ILCA is already well underway with increasing numbers of ILCA branded boats and sails appearing across Europe. Again, this transition was not our first choice but, in the end, it proved to be inevitable. In order to avoid any unnecessary disputes over trademarks, EurILCA is now changing over from the old names and sunburst logo to the new ILCA name and logo for all our events. In addition, EurILCA has started an immediate review of the website, logos, Notice of Race(s) and other communications to remove the sunburst logo and word Laser ahead of the forthcoming season. This should become apparent over the coming weeks.

We expect ILCA to issue further guidance on this topic in the near future along with advice for naming events and proper usage of the ILCA name and logo on your District website and documents. EurILCA encourages you all to follow our lead for the transition to the ILCA brand now and take proactive steps. Velum Limited is using the sunburst logo and Laser name for its boats and the breakaway class, The Laser Class. Our combined transition will help to identify us, the World Sailing recognised Olympic single-hander and to distinguish us from the new non-class legal boats.

2021 also marks the 50th anniversary for the ILCA Class Association. The boat was designed in 1969 with factory production in 1970 and the International Laser Class Association founded in 1971. Over the years our boat has been named the TGIF, the Weekender, the Laser and now the ILCA. Rebranding in line with the 50th anniversary will accelerate our transition and growth as we start to see a way forward from Covid-19. Look for more news to follow on the anniversary celebrations. The EurILCA team is looking forward to the opportunities ahead and we hope to see you all out on the water soon.

 Kind regards,

The EurILCA team