4 September, 1996 at Sandsfoot Sailing Club, Weymouth, UK
Meeting started at 18:00 hrs and ended at 19:40 hrs
The Meeting was opened by the ICA Chairman, Richard Buttner with 69 full members present.
Apologies have been received from Joe Rosler and Ab de Niet. Apologies also from the USA and Switzerland for not being able to send competitors to the 1996 World Championship. The US Contender Association expressed their thanks to all competitors of last years worlds.
A vote of thanks for the resigning Treasurer Ab de Niet was proposed by Richard Buttner, seconded by Tobias Abarbanell, and unanimously carried.
The Minutes of the 1995 AGM have been read by Richard Buttner. Approval was proposed by Nigel Walbank, seconded by Tobias Abarbanell, and unanimously carried.
Chairman's report
Richard reported from his and Tobias' attendance at the IYRU November meetings 1995 in Hamburg. There is a high pressure on International classes and the criteria we have to meet are tight. It is important to strengthen our small fleets in order to keep our status.
Treasurer's report
Tobias said that Ab had last reported a bottom line figure of 27,000 dutch guilders in the ICA accounts. Ab has recently moved to Brazil and would like to stand down as Treasurer.
Technical Report
Postal ballots regarding transom rake and vinylester had been carried out in 1995, the results being passed to the IYRU for their November meetings in 1995. The new rules became effective 1st March 1996.
At the 95 AGM in Rowayton a vote to modify the class sail measurement rules was taken so that when the method of measuring sails was brought in to line with the IYRU standard there would be no change in sail size. The agreed changes were an average of input from UK, Germany, and Italy as follows:
3/4 height 1210-1175mm
1/2 height 2020-2000mm
1/4 height 2520-2510mm
Back in the UK Ron Duffield tried the new measuring system out on new sails he was measuring and pointed out that current sails were well within these new dimensions and Graham Scott and Ian Simpkins (UK sails) felt they could redesign larger sails using these measurements that would outclass current designs. The technical committee represented by Nigel Walbank therefore proposed new measurements of:
3/4 height 1145mm
1/2 height 1970mm
1/4 height 2500mm.
This proposal was seconded by David Geal and unanimously carried. It will go out to a postal ballot this winter.
ICA Measurer's report
Ron Duffield reported he had measured 116 boats at the beginning of this championships and expressed his thanks to all involved in the measurement. He reported that the ISAF (formerly IYRU) will change the Racing rules in respect to clothing weight. This was caused by a medical report initiated by the IYRU which showed health risks through high clothing weight and weight jackets, especially in hiking classes. The new rule, which is currently in draft status and will be finalized in November 1996, will ban weight jackets and change the clothing weight so that only 8 kg will be allowed excluding footwear and trapeze harness. Our class rule stating 12 kg including footwear and harness will become invalid then and we should consider whether we need to take action. Chris Mitchell asked, how much weight would be actually used and Ron reported, he had measured 9-11 kg according to the old measurement, which would equal 6-8 kg in the new measurement and may not leave room enough for cold weather. A change of class rule cannot be effective for 1997 because we already missed the deadline for submission to the ISAF November meeting. David Davies proposed that Ron Duffield should prepare a suitable proposal after the ISAF Racing rules for 1997-2000 are published and this should be put to a postal ballot in time for the 1997 ISAF November meeting. This was seconded by Jan von der Bank and unanimously carried.
Ron expressed concern about the class rule 19.1 prohibiting hiking aids. He regarded the footblocks fitted in several boats as hiking aids. It was mentioned that quite a lot of boats have these devices, and Joachim Harpprecht proposed to change Class rule 19.1 to allow footblocks in the dimensions as in the existing Dinghy Sports boats. Seconded by Tobias Abarbanell and carried with 38 votes pro, 14 contra, and 5 abstentions. It was agreed that Ron would measure some boats the next days and propose the wording for the postal ballot.
Peter Dives proposed a vote of thanks to Ron Duffield which was unanimously carried.
President's report
Secretary's report
Tobias reported on the activities started to promote the class in the Internet. Email is used for communication within the Contender community and an automatic mailing list has been set up where currently about 50 subscribers can receive and send messages about Contender related topics. Participants of the mailing service are from 8 countries.
Publication of promotional texts, images, and race calendars has begun on the World Wide Web with about 10 readers every day. Surprisingly high demand was measured for pages relating to secondhand boats and amateur building of Contenders.
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