Welcome on board

It’s a pleasure for me to welcome you to the 10th edition of the Alumni Sailing Cup.
This 10th edition will be organised for the fifth year by the Solvay Business School Alumni Association (SBSA) after having been organised for two years by Hans Mariën and a number of alumni from Brussels based Vlekho.
Yet, the initiative is a 100% Solvay in collaboration with Sail & Sun Cruises and our new Event Sponsor Ebbinge & Company. I want to thank Stany Deruyver for his great work over the past years, and for his help again in the preparation of this year's edition and for taking the responsibility over the Racing Committee.

I would like to stress the importance of respecting the rules and to be fair play. Stany, Marc and Philippe are in charge of organizing the races and have full authority to stop races if necessary or disqualify participants. I count on all of you to avoid damage to the boats, and even more important, to ensure safety of all participants (on your boat as well as on other boats).
In order to encourage fair play, we introduce a parallel ranking based on sympathy. This ranking is only influenced by the respect for others. On Sunday afternoon we will award both the winning team on points and the one on sympathy / fair play.

For this 10th edition of the Alumni Sailing Cup we intend to increase the number of participants and will work on a broader European participation. We hope the sailing team of Warocqué (F) who won in 2003 and 2004, is going to take part this year, as it is a unique opportunity for other talents to reveal themselves.
I wish all of you good luck in the race! Enjoy the 10th edition.

On behalf of the Organizing Team,
Dave De Graeve.

History

Nine years ago, Bernard Wilmet, alumnus from Solvay Business School and currently CEO of DVD Post, took the initiative to combine sport, fun and networking in the annual Solvay Alumni Sailing Cup.
The first two editions (2000 and 2001) were reserved for alumni of Solvay ULB and Solvay VUB only. The first ‘open’ edition was organized in 2002 in Naarden. Universiteit Nyenrode (NL) and Vlekho Business School participated for the first time. This edition was won by newcomer Vlekho.
The 2003 edition, again organized in Naarden was the last edition organized by Solvay alumni. It also was the first edition in which the team of Warocqué participated. This team outperformed all other boats by far.
Since 2004 a group Vlekho alumni took over the project after Solvay Business School Alumni decided to discontinue the alumni sailing cup. The Vlekho alumni launched a dedicated web-site: www.sailingcup.be. The 2004 edition took place once again in Naarden and was won, once again by Warocqué.
The 2005 edition was the first edition with participants from 10 major business schools in Belgium. FUCaM, HEC-ULg, IAG-UCL, ICHEC, KU Leuven, Solvay ULB, Solvay VUB, Vlekho, Vlerick and Warocqué-UMH all have at least one boat in the cup. The 2005 edition is also the first edition to welcome an event sponsor with Deutsche Bank Belgium. This 2005 edition was won by Vlekho.
The 2006 edition was a transition edition. Solvay Business School Alumni took over the organisation of Vlekho. Due to circumstances, not all Belgian business schools could be represented. This edition was won by OFO Solvay ULB.
The next edition, organised in Naarden by Solvay Business School Alumni was won by Vlekho again.
The 2008 edition brought some major changes to the long established traditions:
- a new and very nice location was elected: Sint-Annaland in the Netherlands,
- a new fleet of comfortable Bavaria boats was introduced,
- as well as a new event sponsor, Ebbinge & Company.
We welcomed more than 60 participants from IAG-UCL, Solvay Business School, Vlekho, Vlerick and the German Business School, Mannheim Business School.
The 2008 edition was also the first edition supporting charity projects. That year’s edition was supporting the charity project ‘Water for Aoro’
(www.waterforaoro.be) that is financing and building a water-well in the school of the village of Aoro (Benin, West-Africa).

Some comments on the latest edition

"In naam van ons team "Omer Olyver" willen we u toch nog eens héél vriendelijk danken voor jouw organisatie van SBSA Sailing Cup.
We hebben er wederom enorm van genoten en zullen volgend jaar opnieuw van de partij zijn! "

"I just wanted here in a few words to thank you again for that very nice event of the SBSA Sailing Cup 2008 and the very good organization we have found during these two nice and funny days.
As the organization was perfect as the meeting with new people and the exchanges we have done with the “boaters” were very rich.
So, see us (and “sea us”) for the next edition !"

"Thanks for organizing this magnificent event.
We had a great time !"

"thanks again for the great organization, we had a wonderful time over there"