1 – President’s Report


Our class continues to gain momentum, great US turnout at SF NAs (38) and Worlds (54), current World Champion, 13 active fleets, this year’s NAs has teams from all corners of USA, ## boats headed to the Worlds in Denmark. Reputation as the top non-olympic dignhy remains strong.

As a class we continue to support the NAs through travel grants. We also coordinate the schedule of events across the different regions and provide means to communicate with other class members through the web site and email lists.

This winter we updated our supplemental rules which hadn’t been touched since 1984. A ballot related to the changes was sent out with the membership renewal packet and passed by an overwhelming majority. The supplemental rules can be found on the class website.

Our relationship with US Sailing is strong, as a class we benefit from their work establishing a fair set of rules, training race officers, supporting Olympic hopefulls that often join our class after campaigns, and finally providing monetary grants to ecourage two of our top teams to attend the Worlds.

Related to the US Sailing grants, we esablished a set of guidelines this year to objectively select these team. Our goal with these guidelines was to take any subjectivity out of the process and set up a repeatable and known set of rules. In short, the grants are awarded to the top two teams previous years NAs that are sailing as a team at the upcoming Worlds. The guidelines have been posted on the web site. The receipents this year were Mike/Carl and Ramsay/Drew. Note that this years NAs in Chicago will be use to select the recipients for any grants from US Sailing for the 2011 Worlds in Aus.

we do face challenges however, cost of entry is extremely high for our target, this is ultimately a factor of the price of a new boat which leads to high asking prices for used boats, I am 100% convinced that if we could lower the price of equipement and therefore used equipement that new teams would buy into the class.


2 – VP’s Report


none


3 – Secretary/Treasurer’s Report


We have about $14,000 in the class bank account.


4 – Class Measurer’s Report


none


5 – Information Officer’s Report


We are working to utilize the international website more. There was a concern from the members that it is hard to post articles on the international site. We will continue to work on this.


6 – Regional Reports


Region One – Congratulations and good luck to everyone at the NA’s. Region One is seeing continued strong activity in Fleet 9, and a rebirth of Fleet 25 in Newport. We have also added a series trophy to highlight some of the major events in the region. The region is looking forward to hosting the NA’s in 2011, and bidding on the 2013 Worlds.

Region Two – Hampton continues to grow due to Tyler Moore’s effort and generosity. Other fleets in St. Pete, Miami, West River, and Annapolis. In addition, Dave Burchfiel continues to put in efforts to start a fleet at lake Jordan in NC. (Two boats so far) and Charles Smith continues efforts for a spring regatta in Wrightsville Beach NC CYC Ocean course in 2011. Dave as well as Fleet 8 in Hampton are targeting strong High School stars to hookem into the class before college sailing takes over.

Region Three – NA’s in Chicago has been great in generating interest.

Region Four – none

Region Five – In need of a regional coordinator.

Region Six – Active fleets in San Diego, Long Beach, Santa Cruz, and San Fran.


7 – Election of President


Andrew Buttner was nominated by Henry Amthor, the nomination was seconded by someone, and Andrew was elected by majority.


8 – Election of Information Officer


Mike Renda was nominated by someont, the nomination was seconded by someone, and Mike was elected by majority.


9 – 2011 NA’s Progress Report – American Yacht Club


Everything is in place for a great NAs in Oct of 2011 at American YC in Rye, NY.


10 – 2012 NA’s Bids


San Francisco YC put in a bid for the 2012 NAs.


11 – Vote on 2012 NA’s Location


The San Francisco YC bid was accepted by a majority. Congratulations to San Francisco YC!!


12 – 2013 Worlds bid


American YC in Rye, NY is going to put in a bid for the 2013 worlds at the International AGM. This bid will be for a worlds to be held in Oct during 2013.


13 – New Business


A: How can we better support our class members that do not travel? We currently support travelling teams with our NAs travel grants. What else can we do to benefit local members and those that are less experienced?

Larry Ehrhart (via proxy) suggested commissioning someone to write a number of one page articles explaining how to solve common boat work challenges. For example:

– how to install a new rudder – how to rig up the double pole system – how to repair a hole in boat – how to establish the base tuning metrics – how to straighten a bent mast

These articles could be posted on the website in a dedicated section and thus made available to those that are new to the class or less familiar with these topics.

Members in attendance suggested mining the current web site for articles and making those more accessible.

B: USSF Grant Guidelines

Mike Martin brought up the USSF Grant Guidelines and asked if we could revisit these. His suggestion was give the grants to the top 2 American finishers at the Worlds, as opposed to the current system that gives the grants to the top 2 teams at the previous year’s NAs.

Andrew Buttner said he would ask US Sailing if this is possible, and then start discussion within the class about possibly changing the guidelines.

C: Website

The website continues to be a source of frustration. As a class, we really need to find a way to improve the site and make it easier to find things.

D: Tank Talk Editor

There was a desire to bring Tank Talk back. JB Turney volunteered to produce and issue. The class will follow up with him.

E: Gate Start Rules

The members in attendance would like to see the class gate start rules modified to establish the start when the rabbit rounds the mark, instead of when the starting gun goes. In addition, having class rules will make things more consistent as they can be shared by all of our events.