THE ORIGIN
In December 2006, a catamaran regional association is founded in Morges: AM3 Association.
Their goal was to promote catamaran in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, around Lake Geneva, Lake Joux and Lake Neuchâtel. To do so, they were organizing a championship around those lakes: the M3 Championship. It was only regional and for catamarans with daggerboards.
In October 2012, a group of catamaran addicts decided to found a new association, dedicated to sailors from all over Switzerland but also that would include catamarans without daggerboards.
RACES.CH was born!
They organized a national Championship with 5 events around Switzerland. Everyone could participate, from the 11 years old junior on a polyethylene catamaran to the adults on a carbon one. Depending on their SCHRS (Small Catamaran Rating System) rating, they were assigned to a category to make racing fair.
THE EVOLUTION
In December 2018, both associations decided to join forces. AM3 Association merged with RACES, giving even more weight to small sport catamaran ! In the same time, the F16 class and the Nacra 15 class became ordinary members of SUI Sailing, having thus their say during the General Assembly. RACES as a whole is still an associate member of SUI Sailing.
Races is an associate member of
Swiss Sailing
Since 2018, RACES has also reached the milestone of 100 members, half of them being juniors. The association welcome every sailor, owner or not, who want to race in catamaran, as well as clubs who want to support the association.
OUr PHILOSOPHY
According to our statutes, the association notably aims to:
a/ Promote and develop the practice of catamaran in Switzerland for all generations and all catamarans ;
b/ Standardize and simplify the system time offset for racing catamarans. To do this, the Association will implement international rules approved by the World Sailing and the rules approved by the SCHRS (Small Catamaran Handicap Rating System) ;
c/ Establish a schedule of racing catamarans in Switzerland (the RACES championship) and neighboring countries.
You will find more informations in the following sections:
