The RFEV, in collaboration with the RANC, will be responsible for issuing all cruise ratings, including the RI, IRC and CIM

Even though on its website the Real Federación Española de Vela, a bombo and saucer announces its agreement with the Real Asociación Nacional de Crucieros... that they have reached a historical agreement to centralize the issue of all the ratings and certificates of the cruise sail in our country... it is simply not historical, nor is it new.

The RANC until the 1990s, was the authority of the cruise class, and with much patience and left hand the situation was taken away, more or less, until it broke out in the air in an assembly held in the heart of Barcelona's Nautical Hall (when the president of the Federation was Arturo Delgado and the general director Gerardo Pombo9, and even for a few years the Spanish was made with the control of the IMS certificates and the Catalan institution with national projection surprising its own and strangers, it was made with the issue of the CHS certificates (Channel Handicap System), which until the date was carried directly with the royal authorities in Paris or the Club.

Baiona under the convenience of which he was one of the most brilliant directors of the Spanish candle of the last century, had become very strong in the IOR... the precursor system of the IMS, in which he had a hundred ships measured annually... was such the prestige of Durán, that even the Monte Real, was authorized to issue IOR certificates of Club and in not a few Regatas the General Optica, the Gondomar and the Prince of Asturias, the very number one of the RANC, José de Vallés, was seen to Baiona to establish the RANC Office in the Galias.

But the cruise's discussion move was there, with a variable rating from the north that did not have the due rigour (the BOGA)... and a RANC rating that was something similar in the Mediterranean.

Baiona then took positions: and put in place at the same time three systems in the cruise class: IOR, IMS and CHS... in such a way that the races were offered in all three versions... and for a few months so was the story... until because of rights problems in different offices: Baiona asked for the Channel certificates to the RORC and the Royal National Cruise Association to Paris... and the one that was set up, because the ERAN DIFFERENTES certificates on not a few occasions... or it all sounded to an unscience... as said in Galicia: a cartilla.

And we returned in those days to the meeting of the Barcelona Nautical Hall, where Baiona was in favour of the RFEV taking over, as was the logical thing and here began a new life in which tasks were shared... because even the RFEV was in charge of issuing the ORC certificates and the sailing numbers while the RANC managed the minor ratings.

Now, and following the new agreement reached by both institutions, the Federation will issue all the certificates (ORC, RI, IRC and CIM) although it will do so in close cooperation with the RANC.... So we are trying to think about what will happen to the essential... with the Catalan institution... without executive power... I think we either have a lot of imagination and good will, or it will become a memory... which would not be good... but sometimes life leads us to these undesirable situations.

Manuel Pedro Seoane
Digital Nautical Editor
RANC number partner for more than 25 years