This is our first newsletter of EMYR2013 and we are sure that you are all conversant with the volatile political situation that exists presently in the Middle East. As a committee we are exploring all the possibility’s to make this year as safe and enjoyable as we can.

EMYR Rally has now been repeated for 23 years, the rally is still well supported in Turkey and N. Cyprus and our representatives in Lebanon, Israel & Egypt still work tirelessly to make our visit to their marinas / ports possible and enjoyable. Both EMYR committee and the EMYR2012 sailors are still enjoying very much looking at the photos of EMYR2012 and receiving and replying to e-mails of the participants. EMYR French sailors are organizing a dinner at Paris during the Salon Nautique on 11th December 2012 and the EMYR British sailors will gather at London for the traditional dinner on 14th January 2013. The EMYR committee will meet on 23rd November 2012 in N. Cyprus and will discuss a EMYR2013 Provisional Program.

; Kath & Dave are enjoying the mild climate of North Cyprus and the Golf Course in Girne – Kyrenia. Their yacht Mashona is already lifted out to their winter lay-up. They were happy to meet up with many past EMYR participants on their return leg from Israel. Their son Alisdair and his new wife Anna were married this summer in N.Cyprus . Hasan will visit Paris, London and Düsseldorf Boat Shows to meet the sailors planning to sail to Turkey and also that they may sail with next year’s EMYR rally. Umut is working hard to organize both marinas in Ayvalık and also in Mitillini. The Rally secretary for nine years, Faruk Günlü has been appointed as the manager of Doğuş Turgut Reis Marina Bodrum and had to cease being the rally secretary due to his heavy workload. We cannot thank him enough for his tremendous efforts over many years. He will be pleased to meet you if you visit him in his new marina. EMYR Rally has a new rally Secretary, Ebru Kahraman, she was the Rally Secretary many years ago. She is married Akbulut, Marintürk Göcek & İstanbul Marinas Manager and they live in Göcek with their year old son. Our Commodore Teoman Arsay is at İstanbul and keeping his yacht at new West İstanbul Marina where we had our first EMYR cocktail this year. West İstanbul Marina and the manager Faruk Çimen will host EMYR yachts again in 2013.

; The EMYR2013 rally will start from Istanbul as previous years; our commodore Teoman Arsay may join us for a few legs on SY Mat. Dave and Kath on Mashona will join EMYR rally somewhere en route maybe at Ayvalık or Cesme.

; The EMYR2012 was complicated as we had to cancel our visit to Lebanon and Egypt due to the political developments in the region. We visited new Turkish ports & marinas in south and all three harbours & marinas in N.Cyprus. Israeli marinas were very friendly and the welcome was as usual warm and hospitable. Although we had a night missile show from Gazza to Ashkelon area while we were staying in the Marina, we were all safe. We are planning to visit the ports of Tekirdağ and Çanakkale, as new ports in Marmara Sea then keep the traditional route from Ayvalık Marina till Mersin, the last port in Turkey. Hopefully our friends and representatives can organize our visits at Lebanon and Egypt. There is no hope that we can visit Syrian marinas and again it looks very difficult to be able to visit Lebanon in 2013. The tension between the political groups in Lebanon is increasing and although we hope there will be better political climate in the spring of 2013 it is still too early to be certain of a visit. Our visit to Port Said depends on the Israeli & Palestinian relations in next months. Muslim Brothers are in power in Egypt and they may not like to accept EMYR rally coming from an Israeli Marina/port.

;

The rally committee continues to monitor the political situation daily in Lebanon, Israel & Egypt.

We hope that our friends in those troubled countries remain safe and our thoughts are always with them.

Some of the problems that occurred prior to the 2012 rally are still present.

The marinas along the Turkish Aegean coast are virtually full and it is increasingly more difficult to secure berths for the rally yachts.

In North Cyprus the old harbour is full and we will have to use a small space in the commercial harbour & Delta Marina.

We will ask the assistance of Datça Municipality & Harbour Master for one night stay in Datça while sailing from Didim to Martı Marina.

There are different plans in Göcek and also we will announce the Göcek stay with our next newsletters.

The provisional programme will be announced at the end of next week which may change depending on the replies from the ports and marinas.

As we have already outlined that there is a problem with limited space in some ports and the committee has reluctantly decided that the size of any yacht including bow spit and davits must be less than 18 metres. We will also have to limit the amount of boats joining before Alanya (this will depend on the answer we receive from the participating marinas as to how many boats they can accommodate.

Please try and be accurate on your joining port this is very important to us when we are at the planning stage.

Each year we limit the participants to 80 yachts maximum as the ports & marinas have limited spaces for the Rally yachts. Already there are 48 yachts registered.

There will be more information with our next newsletter within 10 days.

Please see the news from the past years’ rally participants & the information for entire EMYR on the web page, www.emyr.org

With our best regards,

The Rally Committee,

Kath & Dave Gerard             Gönül - Hasan Kacmaz
SY Mashona                       SY Ibis II

 

Ebru Mete Kahraman
Rally Secretary