Minutes of ATC Members Meeting – 17 March 2011

Meeting commenced at 8.00PM (EST) as a conference call

Members in attendance:
Michael Paynter   ATC (President)
Adrian Nicholson   ATC (Secretary/Treasurer) (TASA)
Fiona McManus   (TANT)
Trevor Hilliard    (TANSW)
David Rose & Nicole Kidman  (TASA)
Cary Pedicini  & Alistair Murray (TAV)
Kate Best & Ian James  (TAWA)
George McGuire   (TAADF)

Apologies

Previous Minutes and Business Arising

The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted as correct. 

1 Vic - News

Completed 4th Training Day – very successful, did a Youth Grand Prix, with cash prizes to sailors and Clubs. Had 27 boats at State Titles – Ridgways won all the Races. Have a Yellow Jersey competition, which is going well.  Bethwaite regatta also held.

2 NT - News

Sailing has stopped as it is the rainy season, all boats tucked away. Good attendance at AGM, have a few Tasar sailors away.  Fiona will be both President and Secretary, great effort.  Doing the Tasar book for Liz, and holding a BBQ soon as season starter.

3 SA - News

Have just had state titles, Stuart & Nicole, welcomed to the state. Had 18 boats at Somerton Yacht Club, 8 races all sorts of weather.  Have sourced rope from a supplier and offering ropes to members at a cheap price, also some Training Sails options being put forward.  Have 2 regattas coming up – Port Pirie and Billabong Regatta.  Have a fledgling fleet of Tasars starting at Wallaroo.

4 NSW - News

About to have the final Travellers Race this weekend, strong Club participation and interest from 2 new clubs. Did a demo day at these clubs.  Port Stephens and Prince Alfred Clubs. States at Easter is planning is also underway, Tuesday also holiday so very easy travelling for interstate people.  Will have dinner for States Presentation at Pippi’s at the Point. 

5 QLD - News

States titles being organized with assistance from ATC, Tshirts being developed, coming along very nicely.

6 WA - News

Had a Labour Day regatta, with Long Races, went wine Tasting on the windy day instead. Will have the States at Mandurah over 3 days at Easter.

7 NT Tasar Nationals 2012

Progressing slowly, doing a logo at the moment with Angela Cummings from Canberra, hope to have finalized in next couple of weeks. Also chasing up a Major sponsor.  Accommodation information put on Website, Fiona to check for Grotty Yachty T Shirts.
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8  UK Worlds

UK Containers – around 23 entries so far so will need to finalize numbers and where 2 containers will load from. Grotty Yachty want to sponsor again with event T-Shirts – Adrian to Liaise with Nicole Douglas.

9 ATC Carbon Fibre Mast

It was reported that the ATC has had an exploratory meeting with Frank Bethwaite and the WTC. FB was very helpful in describing the process and reasons for moving away from Aluminum Masts as a medium term possibility.  The ATC will issue a ‘For and Against’ paper seeking initial reactions from the district executives and sailors. The matter will be discussed more fully at our June members meeting. Some comments from the members were:

TAV…General feeling is positive so long as introduction carefully staged. Have a concern re Alloy supply – need this actually verified, what are some facts. How will the mast perform?  How will it react to compression, bounce on the bottom? Carbon Fibre is not a recyclable material, CF Mast is tied to petroleum pricing – so this will go up just as much as Aluminium?  Generally positive outlook. Also Mast would be lighter by 3 or 4 KG’s – what impact would this on a class weight – would WTC move to ALL UP Weight rule rather than just Hull Weight.

TANSW – G Hanna is experimenting with an All Up Hull Weight concept.  CF masts are nearly double the cost of an Aluminium Mast, have concerns about different sail shape, general feeling more on negative side, people don’t believe it will be cheaper.

TAWA – what are the time frames for this introduction, has to do mock ups models and WTC process so looking at 3 – 5 years as a minimum.  What is the reliability of CF Masts – 14’skiffs are notorious for CF Compression failures.  Cost of Tooling of CF mast will be expensive for the first few years.  Performance is not an issue as this is a one design class.

TASA - Concerns about the cost and new entry people into the class, how would they react? We also are redoing OLD boats and putting them back into the fleet so this would be an additional cost.  Would a rebate to the ATC be formalized for the development and sale of these spars?

TANT – General opinion was more expense, still have people talking about buying Mylar Sails.  CF Masts are not mandatory – can choose Alloy OR CF Mast.

TADF – Have a small fleet of racing Boats – concerns re the number of masts they would have to buy.  Need proof that this issue is actually necessary.  Issue depends on the availability of sourcing of Aluminum.

ATC (Sec) – Could ATC run with the dies of the Aluminum product in to the future while Bethwaites run with the CF Masts?

Will put forward a discussion paper shortly.  It is important that AUS regions support any motion which might be put to WTC. The manufacturer will work with ATC on this issue and visa versa to make sure both parties happy with the progress of the issue.

10 ATC Nationals Venue Selection

Need to address timing and locations coming up.  We have Darwin in 2012 and then what do we do next and where do we go?  ATC would like the states to focus on the Event Guidelines for running National Championships.  ATC will be seeking expressions of interest from the Districts in running the forthcoming championships.

TAWA – would be keen to do 2015 AUS Worlds in WA. Would like to put up Fremantle as a Worlds location, could also offer Busslteton and Bunburra – but will have to drive to these locations.
TAV – like the camping holidays and like Metro vs Country locations, like to go to totally new locations – could do Bay of Islands in NZ and Hobart for sailing. Would like to put forward the idea of the states running Nationals in venues away from their states.
TANSW – Need to really look at regatta guidelines carefully and look at club capabilities to ensure successful event.  Also have to look at accommodation options and wish to keep the rotational notation by states, need to keep variety in the mix of exotic vs metro all the time, very much need a balance.
ATC – need to ensure all districts have an opportunity
TASA – would like to put forward the running of the 2013 Nationals, would like to offer Port Lincoln, Adelaide Metro, Victor Harbour. Would like to do Robe but venue may not quite be big enough to run a Nationals.  ATC could provide 0 to 100% support in running nationals at say Robe or Victor Harbour. If we have it in a rural location some state will have to travel further.
ATC – will have to provide WTC with an expression of interest as to where to hold the AUS 2015 worlds. 2013 will be hosted by TASA, 2014 no offers (but TAV or TAWA will do if they miss out on 2015), 2015 TAWA would like to host, TAV would also like to host a worlds also in 2015
TANSW – can we run a Nationals in an overseas country? Does the ATC constitution allow this?
TANT - would like to host an event at Lake Argyle – would TAWA like to host an event at this location in the Kimberleys – half way between Darwin and Broome ?
        
11 ATC Website

Bandwidth error and CPU usage are causing problems and the ATC web site to crash, this is because our website is basically too big for the server that it is being hosted on. Should we reduce the size and features that our website offers? 

Comments that the web site is a brilliant ATC tool and needs to be kept working so if we need to upgrade to a larger hosting pack then we need to do this and find out how to pay for it.

12 States Program

Districts were urged to consider the states next door try to promote multi state events for greater participation.

13 A Strong Wind Gust at TAV
Comments from the TAV from their recent state titles:

Many yachts were unable to drop sails in very strong winds.
Make sure that the Centre Board is tied in and does not float away – make sure that this is fitted – do a state check to make sure people have safe boats. What do the class rules say as compared to the Blue Book – why is ours different?

       
14 Next Meetings

• 15 June  8.00 pm AEST
• 31 August  8.00 pm AEST
• 14 December  8.00 pm AEST

The meeting closed at 9.30PM (AEST)