2002
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
20th July 2002, Athens,
Greece
Minutes
Present:
Executive Committee: Philippe Rogge, President; Corinne Rolland-McKenzie
(Executive Director); Richard Hart (Chairman Technical Committee); 25 National
Association Representatives and approximately 40 other members of the
class.
Apologies:
Mark Hermann, Vice President Sailing, Martijn van Muyden, Treasurer and Rolf
Lenhert, Vice-President Masters.
1.
NATIONAL CLASS ASSOCIATIONS
Voting cards were
distributed to the National Class Association representatives based on the 2002
IFA dues received.
2.
MINUTES FROM THE LAST
MEETING
The minutes of the 2001
AGM were approved
3.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
REPORTS
Verbal reports were
received from the President on behalf of the Vice President Sailing and the
Treasurer.
REPORT OF
THE IFA
TECHNICAL COMMITTEE
Refer to
Appendix A
COMPOSITION
OF THE TECHNICAL COMMITTEE
In
addition to the existing members, Rodney Cobb from Pata Willetts has been
proposed by Richard Hart and approved by the Council.
4.
ACCOUNTS
(a)
The
IFA accounts of 2001 (previously circulated) were approved.
5.
ELECTION OF MEMBERS TO IFA
COMMITTEES
(a)
The
members of the Executive Committee were unanimously approved as follows
President
Philippe Rogge
Vice President
(Masters)
Rolf Lehnert
Chairman of Technical
Committee
Richard Hart
Secretary
Corinne Rolland-McKenzie
Mark Hermann sent his
resignation as Vice President Sailing. Ali Enver Adakan from Turkey was elected
unanimously to the post.
Clifton Webb from New
Zealand was elected unanimously to the position of Vice-President Development,
left vacant by John Callahan.
The Executive Committee
asked the council to include Robert Deaves in the Executive Committee for his
outstanding work and commitments with the Finn class. His position in the
Executive Committee is on an individual basis.
The council approved
unanimously this decision.
(b)
The
members of the technical Committee were unanimously approved as follows:
Richard Hart
(chairman)
Jan Björnberg
John Driscoll
David Howlett
Larry
Lemieux
Walter Mai
Andrzej
Ostrowski
Juri Saraskin
Miklos Nemeth
Tim Tavinor
Jan van der Horst
Rodney Cobb.
(c)
The
Marketing Committee were unanimously approved as follows:
Robert Deaves
(Chairman)
Corinne
Rolland-McKenzie
Gerardo Seeliger
Marc Blees
6.
IFA CHAMPIONSHIPS
(a)
Update on preparations for the
following IFA Championships:
(i)
2003
European Championship, Maarstrand, Sweden: dates suggested are from the
5th to the 13th of June. These dates have been chosen to
fit between the Spa regatta and the Scandinavian Championship.
(ii)
2003
Finn Gold Cup, Cadiz, Spain: dates are between the 13th to the
24th of September. The executive Committee advised the Council that
this is an ISAF event and that the Finn Major Championship rules may not be
followed in their entirety. The Executive Committee received permission from
Council to deal directly with the ISAF and the organisers in order to get a
Championship as close as possible to the Finn class rules.
(iii)
2004
Finn Gold Cup, Rio, Brazil: Mauricio Bueno, Brazilian Finn secretary gave a
report on the regatta. The FGC will held in Rio de Janeiro early February, one
week before Carnival. Organisers will provide special rate for container
transportation and housing for some sailors.
(b)
Bids
were received to host the following IFA Championships:
(i)
2004
Europeans
Bids were received from
La Rochelle, France and Balatonfured, Hungary. The council voted 23 to 7 in
favour of La Rochelle.
6.
IFA
RULES AND CONSTITUTION
7.
(i)
RRS
42: After extensive discussion, the Council voted to retain the existing rule
allowing free pumping on the downwind legs over 15 knots. TC Chairman was given
authority to make minor changes if necessary, in order to align our rules with
possible changes made to RRS 42 at the ISAF November meeting.
(ii)
Mast
weight. The Technical Committee and the Executive Committee recommended that no
drastic change should be introduced before the start of the next Olympiad. The
council approved and requested TC to make a comprehensive review of he mast
rules over the next 2 years.
(iii)
Following recent changes in the RR
of sailing, IFA would request that the requirement to carry a protest flag and
fitting be deleted from IFA rules.
(iv)
Conflict of interest: The
International Finn Association will apply in its Championship rule, the ISAF
rule forbidding a Jury Chairman to be of same Nationality than the regatta
organising country.
(v)
Ballot: The executive Committee
asked for the right to refer to ballot vote in case of important or urgent
issues. Authority was given by Council.
Appendix A
Technical Committee
Chairman’s Report 2002
1.
The Rule changes, which IFA Council asked for at the last AGM, were
passed by the ISAF Committee in November 2001:
•
In-house measurement to be permitted at manufacturers’ premises for
masts, booms, sails and rudders;
•
Mast bearing play to be measured using the simple method developed by
Jüri Saraskin;
•
Recommended standard dimensions provided for mast and boom bearings and
connection (so new equipment fits automatically);
•
Revised Mast Labels; and
•
The new pumping rule (when you go downhill in strong winds, the Race
Officer can let you get on with it).
Details are on the IFA Website, and
in the March 2002 Finnfare.
We deliberately left the pumping
flags in square brackets because we think that it is the prerogative of the
Racing Rules Committee or Race Management Committee to coordinate flag use. They
duly came back and said that they would like us to use a yellow (Q) flag as the
pumping flag, but don’t want to endorse a “Stop unrestricted pumping” flag, on
the grounds of complication. It seems permissible to include a “Stop pumping”
flag in the Sailing Instructions.
2.
The racing rules were altered last year so that yachts of less than 6
metres in length need not display a protest flag. We can, if we wish, remove the
requirement that we have a protest flag and fitting in the boat.
Approval needed to drop requirement to
have a protest flag.
3.
Peter Hinrichsen (who measured with Jüri Saraskin for the Seniors at
Marblehead last year) has taken a keen interest in the Lamboley test over many
years. At major championships we use the swing test apparatus that he
constructed. He has made some useful recommendations to promote uniformity in
taking these measurements.
Approval needed to insert requirements about test
details.
4.
Tim Tavinor has reported that a number of Devoti boat customers have
asked whether Tacktick electronic compasses can be fitted. At present they are
not allowed, and enquiries that I made last autumn suggested that Finn sailors
(being Finn sailors...) would opt for the large model used in the Star class. At
the moment, this equipment seems significantly more expensive than the present
set-up of spherical magnetic compass plus electronic starting timer. (If and
when this type of equipment is permitted, the “display heading only” version
would be required, having no other functionality except as a clock).
Endorsement needed for no
action at present.
5.
At present, there does not seem to be wide support for changing to round
booms. (They remain on my “wish list”).
6.
Discussions at ISAF last Monday (15/07/02) suggest that their Racing
Rules Committee may be considering substantial changes to the standard pumping
rule. Next year’s Olympic Classes’ World Championships will need Sailing
Instructions that are standardised as much as possible, which may make it
desirable for some rewriting of our own pumping rule (without changing the basic
ideas laid down by IFA Council (AGM).
Authority sought to make minor alterations, as required for
consistency with ISAF work in November 2002.
7.
Masts. Currently we have wing masts, which are expensive to build
because of the very precise positioning required for the reinforcing fibres.
They are also an engineering nightmare, because the wing shape is not good for
resisting torsion.
At the AGM last year in Marblehead,
the Technical Committee were instructed to look into the possibility of changing
the rules to encourage cheaper masts. In particular, Tim Tavinor told AGM that
he had been in touch with manufacturers who could sell circular section masts at
about half the present price. Any action that we take must be fair to the
sailors who currently own wing masts, and to the manufacturers who have spent
money developing today’s “best sellers”.
There are three main options:
1.
Do nothing.
2.
Nominate a standard design from approved manufacturers.
3.
Specify tighter restrictions on for-and-aft dimensions, so that the masts
would be somewhere near round. Review requirements for athwartship
dimensions;
Option 1
leaves us committed to masts, which seem un-necessarily expensive.
Option 2
would be very difficult to control, and against the practice of the class
developed over many years.
Option 3
could be worded something like “the fore and aft dimension of the mast shall not
exceed its athwartship dimension by more than 25 mm at any point along its
length”. A way to implement this option would be to allow the new specification
masts a small weight advantage, for example 7ּ5 kg. instead of 8 kg, and to
allow the wing masts to continue, but not for the 2008 Olympics and major
qualifying regattas from 2007 onward.
This year, I have yet again sought
opinion on the whole matter, and my chief conclusion is that opinion is very
varied. One potential supplier suggests that good cheap (round) Finn Masts could
be made at 6.5 kg, but a major manufacturer with a track record of 400+ masts
would like the current weight limit increased to 8.5 kg. Another major
supplier (200+) states that his current (wing) masts weigh 7.0 – 7.5 kg before
correction. Similarly a major supplier of hulls believes that the future of the
class is being jeopardised by the high cost of wing masts, while a mast supplier
writes “I was at the Paris boat show last December and the interest in the Finn
was outstanding. I believe that is because we have a truly modern looking boat.
When I watch people feeling the contours of the wing mast I realise that this is
one of the facets of the modern Finn. Now that the class has accepted the cost
of a wing mast I still see no reason to make a change; as they say ‘if it ain’t
broke don’t fix it’.” My own conversations with club sailors suggest that they
have not willingly “accepted the cost of a wing mast”.
In the light of the diverse opinions
expressed within TC and the class as a whole, I recommend that we make no change
until after the next Olympics. I seek support for further investigation of the
Option 3 outlined above.
Votes needed on submission.
(Netherlands Finn Association).
The class officials and TC members are very anxious to consider the views
of all members in major decisions of this nature: the AGM is held at the Finn
Gold Cup because this is the best international forum for all countries’
representatives, but there is concern that the opinions of “club sailors” or
“recreational sailors” may receive disproportionately less weight than those of
sponsored hot shots.
8.
The ISAF has now developed a standard class rules (SCR) format, which can
be seen on their website. They are anxious that Olympic Classes should adopt
this format and the Technical Department very recently sent us a basic draft for
our comments. Your Executive had queries about various matters, including the
proposed timescale. I had a most positive meeting with Simon Forbes (Head of
Technical Department) on 15/07/02 at which all our queries were satisfactorily
dealt with.
This
exercise is not intended to introduce rule changes that alter the Finn. However
the thinking behind the ISAF standard class rules is that un-necessary rules
should not be included. We could, for example, consult with sailmakers and
others about whether we actually need the rules concerning sail
reinforcement.
I am enthusiastic about this project
and wish to receive IFA Council endorsement for its development (by TC working
closely with ISAF). The proposed timescale would make a detailed draft available
to the class next year, and a final draft presented for your approval in Summer
2004, ready for final submission to ISAF in November 2004, at the start of the
next Olympiad.
Authority sought to progress as
outlined.
9.
A number of new ideas are being suggested by the sailors at the Europeans
and FGC. Most are related to measurement procedures and race format. The
proposed timescale for the rewrite should allow for good discussion and
agreement about these ideas. One matter directly concerning all our boats is
that a number of sailors (and Jüri Saraskin) would like us to have a stop at the
top of the mast, to make it impossible to have the sail too high.
10. I
would like to pay tribute to the work of our measurers during the last few
years, and particularly to the work of regatta measurers such as the team at
this regatta. Congratulations are due in particular to Jüri Saraskin, whose
leadership in this field continues to give us the foundation for fair racing in
a comparatively painless manner.
Richard Hart
TC Chairman