NAVIGA Dear shipmodellers the world over,
As 2024 comes to an end it is custom to reflect a moment on the past year from my perspective. After the Worldwide spread Covid restrictions were lifted, we all soon realized that certain things had changed and nothing would ever be the same as it was before. This relects in all layers of society and combined with the political issues and wars all over the globe made the cost of living rise dramaticly, causing people to have less time and money for their beloved hobby. For the last 5-6 years we have seen the number of active participants in Naviga go down in several countries, not only because of people leaving the hobby for various reasons but also because there is very little new incomming people as well. The youth work is several of our member countries works well but it remains very difficult to attract new people to pick up interest in our sport. Despite this it is good to see that we still managed to find new or renewed interest in some classes in certain countries. Recently a new group of enthousiastic people from Hong Kong applied for membership in Section S and earlier on another group from the USA became members in Section NS as well. Only through hard work, promoting our sport in all ways thinkable will it be possible to survive these hard times still facing us.
At the 2023 Assembly General Meeting it was decided that every Section would have a 3000€ budget to spend for the next 2 year period and some Sections already made good use of that possibility. It has always been our goal to stimulate the work of the Sections and since financial support is the best way to do so we urge everyone to make use of that possibilty. Naviga does not need to have 1000’s of Euros in the bank, that money should be used to promote, stimulate and help the various Sections to make for instance Championships easier to host.
An oversight in the General Competion Rules was also fixed recently, since it came to our attention that a serious issue in regard to insurance for possible mishaps at official competions was not regulated. After discussing this within the Presidium we decided that in order to protect any organisation of World- or Continental Championship should have adequate insurance against possible injuries or even worse cases related to that competition. It is unthinkable that any member Country would not have adequate insurance for it s own competitions and members, so it is only common sense that in case of a major competition (eg WC or CC) this insurance should be extended to all participants to that event.
In 2023 i personally attended and supported the European Series in FSR-V and this proved to be a good way to revive the FSR-V Section who had been dormant for several years, unfortunatelly this was not repeated in 2024 because noone could be found to put their shoulders under such a project. For 2025 a new series of FSR-V races are planned throughout Europe with so far 6 events. In combination with some very fruitfull talks with the steering committee of IMBRA, i feel we are putting in a new step into bringing the split up FSR-V section closer to eachother again. In order to have someone guiding and coordinating this EU Series the FSR-V Section leader and the Naviga Presidium agreed to have Mr Razvan Olaianos as European coordinator for this event. Let s hope this works out and brings those with the similar interest in FSR-V together once more.
Personally i attended several events during this year and for 2025 i plan attending major events in different Sections as well, since we already received plans for major events to be held in 2025. Obviously those will be announced as soon as these plans become solid, so a big word of thanks to all those who work hard to realize such events in advance. One of the highlights of 2024 for me personally was our trip to China on invitation of the CMMA. This was the first ever official visit of a Naviga President to the Peoples Republic of China and once again i would like to thank the CMMA for the wonderful occasion to meet in person there. The M Section and S Section leader and myself, together with a few European competitors were invited to attend an invitational race in Shanghai China by the SMMA ,and after that event we met with officials from China’s CMMA with whome we spent some excellent days of visiting and discussing possibilities for the future. These talks are still in ealy stages, but i for one hope they would lead to some very interesting development in the near future!
I hope 2025 will bring us even more joy and possibilities to achieve all our goals and ambitions since only together we can reach this. Naviga is a solid fundament for our sport and i will do whatever in my possibilities to keep or communittee together through these difficult times.
My very best wishes for 2025 and may all your dreams come true,
Geens Walter
Naviga President