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AGM Minutes 2008

Draft Minutes of Annual General Meeting 2008
21 August, 2008 at Kingston, Ontario, Canada

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Contender Class Rules 2008

An issue arose regarding the issuance of personal sail numbers. Ballot 2006 was written in such a way as to allow the issuance of personal sail numbers but the wording was vague. ISAF revised the wording to permit the change to allowing the use of the plaque number as the sail number. However, the sense of the revision no longer permitted issuance of personal sail numbers. Some national Contender Associations have been issuing personal sail numbers for a number of years and requested a change of the wording which permits personal sail numbers. It is also a recognized practice in other international classes.
The secretary undertook discussions with ISAF and with and interested sailors and the result is addition of rule Para 4.2 iv) which explicitly permits the issuance of personal sail numbers. The rules issued 4 August, 2008 include this rule change.
Below is the text of the Class Rule 4.2 after this change:
4.2 The sail number shall be as follows:
i) ISAF plaque numbers greater than 2380, the plaque number shall be the sail number.
ii) ISAF plaque numbers between 719 and 2381, the sail number shall be either that issued by the MNA or that of the plaque number.
iii) ISAF plaque numbers less than 720, the sail number shall be that issued by the MNA.
iv) The Certification Authority may issue personal sail numbers between 1-719. In the event of a conflict of sail numbers the race committee may require the boat to add an additional prefix or use the ISAF plaque number.
Below is the text of the Class Rule 4.2 before this change.
4.2 The sail number shall be as follows:
i) ISAF plaque numbers greater than 2380, the plaque number shall be the sail number.
ii) ISAF plaque numbers between 719 and 2381, the sail number shall be either that issued by the MNA or that of the plaque number.
iii) ISAF plaque numbers less than 720, the sail number shall be that issued by the MNA.
Ballot 2008 was distributed for world wide voting. Results from 158 ballots were tallied. All three measures on the ballot were approved and the ballot has been forwarded to ISAF for consideration.
Proposed rule 2.3 Passed with 75.3% approval. The effect is to permit amateurs to build glasfibre boats. 119 voted in favour, 39 opposed.
Proposed Rule 13.8 passed with 90.4% approval. The effect is to lower the tip weight from
2.5 Kg to 2.3 Kg. 142 in favour, 15 opposed.
Proposed rule 16.1 passed with 84.2% approval. The effect is to include the weight of the centreboard retaining fittings in the hull weight measurement of 83 Kg. 133 in favour, 25 opposed.
Ballot 2008 has been sent to ISAF for consideration. It will likely be considered at or before the ISAF Annual Meeting in November 2008. If the measures are approved, the likely effective date would be 1, January 2009.
Submitted 21 August, 2008 by Secretary Gil Woolley

Voting ballots
Joachim Harpprecht raised a question about whether the Secretary had the actual ballots in hand and questioned whether the votes recorded represented actual individual votes or representative votes actually determined by a small number of people. The Secretary promised to try to obtain the detailed voting records.



Business Arising

  • Support France. Budget Euro2000? Boat show has not worked. Euro 1000 per year per country? Proposal, ICA should spend up to Euro 2000/ year on promotion. Emphasis on requesting country should make a proposal before expenditure, obtain agreement with ICA. Proposed by Chris Sutherland, seconded by Frank Whittington. Unanimous.
  • Championship Rules should be modified to include rules on when the fleet is so large that the organizers will split the fleet into two or more fleets. Also specify the number of races per day.
  • Volunteers for committee to revise the rules included Mark Thorborg and Chris Sutherland.
  • Association Rules need del to Jan von der Bank. Committee












Election of officers

Technical Chairman: Greg Barrington had volunteered to take on the job prior to the meeting.
at the meeting, Marco Versari expressed interest in becoming Technical Chairman
It was voted to elect both Greg and Marco as co-chairmen. Vote was unanimous.
Treasurer: Jan Langendorf was put forward as new Treasurer. He was voted in unanimously.
President: Jan van der Bank was put forward to continue as President. The vote was unanimous.
Secretary: Gil Woolley expressed willingness to continue until the Worlds in 2009. He will
not attend the Worlds in Denmark but can deliver the minutes of the 2008 meeting so that the
new Secretary may be elected and take office at the start of the AGM in 2009.
Chairman:  Neil Smith agreed to stand for reelection to the office of President. The vote was unanimous.

Ron Duffield wishes to step down as International Measurer. He is in good health but is 81 years
of age. Peter Hixson is interested in training up to take on the job.



Upcoming Events


2009 Worlds are in Denmark are scheduled to use Travemünde Woche as the preWorlds.
Dates Wednesday 19 July to Saturday 22 July will be the preWorlds
Two days off to move boats to Denmark (2 1/2 hour drive)
Measurement for the Worlds Saturday 25 July and Sunday 26 July plus practice race.
Worlds from Monday 27 July to Friday 31 July.

2010 Worlds at Brisbane organized by Royal Queensland Yacht Club (RQYC)
The venue features camping and apartments on site.

2010 Europeans will be held at La Rochelle, France. 6 meters of tide will add spice to the mix.

2011 Worlds
will be in Weymouth, U.K.

2012 Worlds Discussion of a Worlds in the fall of 2012 in Southern USA giving time for Europeans to sail
their summer meetings and events and then ship their boats for some late fall sailing.



Proposals for Rules Changes


  • Propose that the rules be changed to permit multi-part masts. This may have been envisioned by the ballot a few years ago. We may not need to submit this to a world-wide ballot. Possibly ISAF changed the rule from multipart to two part masts. They may agree to change to multipart. Reason: to enable breaking down masts into shorter sections for more economical transport aboard aircraft and in shipping containers. Vote in favour: unanimous.
  • Proposal to permit modern electronic compasses which can display GPS, speed, Velocity made good. Only 3 in favour. Vote failed.
  • Proposal to clarify intent of rules to explicitly preclude chines. Exact wording to be worked out with ISAF. A few persons have expressed interest in building a Contender with chines. Gil Woolley argued that if such a boat was sailed by an extremely good sailor, it might appear that the new shape was superior. This would have the effectof making obsolete all existing hulls and hull moulds. The rule change or clarification would make it clear that a Contender hull may not have chines. Vote was unanimous in favour.



Submitted by Gil Woolley, Secretary, dated 7 November 2008

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