2005 IFA AGM - Minutes

2005 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

 

2005 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Kalmar, Sweden, August 7th

MINUTES

Present:

Executive Committee: Ali Enver Adakan, Vice-President Sailing; Corinne Rolland-McKenzie, Secretary; Richard Hart, Chairman Technical Committee

Countries represented: Australia, Austria, Canada, Croatia, Czeq Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, The Netherlands, New-Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Ukraine, USA.

1. National Class Associations

Voting cards were distributed to the National Class Association representatives based on the 2005 IFA dues received.

20 voting countries (Germany and Holland 3 votes each)

2. Minutes from the last meeting

The minutes from the 2004 IFA AGM were approved

3. Accounts

a.       The 2004 accounts will be distributed at a later stage to all the National Finn secretaries for approval. (Appendix A)

Summary: 5000 Euros loss due to Olympic year (ISAF conferences attendance by IFA Executives)

b.  Budget in Appendix B (Treasurer report)

4. Elections of Members to IFA Committees

a. Following the earlier resignation of Philippe Rogge, Balazs Hajdu has been unanimously elected IFA President.

b. Michele Marchesini has been unanimously elected as Vice-President Development and Clifton Webb as IFA development coach.

c. The other members of the Executive Committee have been reelected

5. Executive Committee Reports

Verbal reports were received from members of the Executive Committee (Appendix B )

IFA Technical Committee report (Appendix C)

 

6. IFA Championships

a. 2005 Finn Gold Cup: discussion and revision of the racing format and scoring system

b. 2006 Finn Gold Cup, Split, Croatia, dates 1st to 9th of July (update and confirmation of dates)

c. 2006 Finn Europeans: Palamos, Spain has been selected (dates: end of September 2006     d. 2007 Finn European Championship: Lake Balaton, Spartacus Sailing Club, Hungary, after the Holland Regatta.

Council asked the executive Committee to identify suitable racing venues and to be more pro-active
to generate bids.

c. Junior Finn Cup: the council accepted the idea to introduce a Junior Finn Cup prior to the European
or the Worlds Championship every year. This regatta should also be linked with a clinic.

7. Olympic format

ISAF has for objective to change the racing format at the Olympic Games in order to secure a winner
on the last race (and not before). A format and scoring system was presented by the Executive and
after discussions, Council decided to form a working group to finalise the details of the new format a
nd scoring system for implementation in a regatta before the ISAF Conference.

Detailed format and scoring system will be circulated to the secretaries once finalised.

8. Any other business

Quota at IFA major events: council asked the IFA Executive the possibility to raise the country quota. The Executive committee will look into a way to raise quota numbers to insure big fleet at Finn events and
as well securing the stability of country membership.

To be circulated to:       National Finn Association Secretaries

IFA Executive Committee

IFA Website

 

 

 

APPENDIX B

VICE PRESIDENT SAILING REPORT

The organisation of this year Finn Gold Cup in Moscow has been anything but easy and straight forward. Due to the characteristics of the venue we were not able to run the Gold Cup as stated in our Major Championship Rules which have led to some alterations of these Rules. There have been a lot of discussions on format and on the entry system. I would like to thank our Executive Director and our Chairman of the Technical Committee for the amount of work they have put in to this Gold Cup and I think that we have come up with a good solution after all. But the experience of the past year shows us how important our Major Championship Rules are for guaranteeing consistent Championships year after year without having to reinvent the wheel every time.

As you know due to the IOC Charter every Federation has to have some kind of representation of the athletes in their organisation. Recently the ISAF has announced that they will be founding an athlete’s commission. This commission will be formed by one athlete from each Olympic class who has to be in the ranking of the ISAF and not a member of the executive committee of the class. I personally am very happy that the ISAF has taken this decision and hope that it will help the direct communication between the ISAF and the sailors it governs.

As some of you may know there are many discussions going on how the next Olympic format should look like. And there are some radical ideas that in my opinion would be very unfortunate for our sport. Now, in the past two years we have had quiet good progress on our side by side work with the International Jury on the Rule 42 problem, and I think that we need to be constructively active in the format discussions as well if we don’t want our class interests to be left aside completely on this issue. As a result the class should come up with proposals that both defend our interest and the objectives of the ISAF at the same time.

 

VICE PRESIDENT DEVELOPMENT REPORT

The Finn Class has continued to grow with increasing number of Juniors and an increasing number of members worldwide, new countries have joined the Finn Class this year with sailors from Lithuania, Barbados and Bulgaria.

It is great for the class (if not the individual sailors) that we had such a huge response and had to limit the number of sailors competing at this year Gold Cup that will have supplied boats.

It is fortunate that we do not always have to do this, as there have been some fairly heated email debates about the methods used to choose the sailors to compete in the Gold Cup.

ISAF has put forward an idea for develop a scheme that will allow developing nations to get hold of second hand equipment much simpler.

One of the toughest parts of joining the Finn Class is getting to grips with the masts and sails. It is even tougher if the Finn is not sailed in your country to find out what is good or not.

The restricted sail idea is to further help the developing nations and the depth of the class in general. Finn sailors are amongst the best that there can be but what the Finn Class lacks is depth in talent and nations competing. This is mainly due to cost. Reducing costs can give more sailors from more countries and opportunity to compete at the very top level.

 

TREASURER REPORT

Finn invoicing and the majority of expenses are now in Euros, therefore the financial accounts has been reported in Euros for the first time. Considering the fact that the majority of Finn member countries report also in Euros this will make the accounts more meaningful to its members.

2004 had the characteristics of an Olympic year. Revenues were well up from 2003, showing off that the class has been active and that sailors were buying new equipment for their Olympic preparation.

The expenses also increased particularly due to travel and accommodation expenses for IFA Executives to attend the ISAF mid year and Annual meetings to defend the Finn’s Olympic status.

Key figures:

The net result for the 2004 year ended in a loss of 5,221 Euros.

Total cash in IFA bank accounts as per 2004 year end: 77,358 Euros.

Budget 2005

-         Website

-         New Finnatics Edition

-         Clinics

-         CD rom Finn information

-         Masters Administration fee

Vice President Masters report

Henk de Jagger spoke at the AGM on behalf of Rolf Lenarhd about Masters issues. The Masters fleet has been increasing in the last few years and it is common now to have 190 sailors participating at Masters World Championships. This a reason why the Masters have elaborated a way to sail in groups to allow maximum participation.

One of the problems generated by such a big fleet is to find a suitable venue to host the Masters World.  In 2007 the Masters World will  be organised in Murcia, Spain but the Masters are looking for other locations for the next years.

The VP Masters, Rolf, requested that the budget allocated be increased from 1000 Euros to 2500 Euros. It was noted that the budget also included 10 Euros per entry at Masters Worlds (estimated at 1800 Euros per year). The Executive requested that a summary of expenses be sent to the treasurer before approval of the budget increase.

 

APPENDIX C

TECHNICAL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN REPORT

The main task completed this year has been the drafting of the class measurement rules into the ISAF Standard Class Rules (SCR) Format. This was carried out within the time frame developed from time to time by ISAF, although final promulgation of the rules for web and paper publication was a few days late. The task was large: Your Committee processed 204 separately-identified comments and amendments, and we should be grateful for the inputs received from them and from others. For the record, I identified contributions from

Ben Ainslie

Rodney Cobb

Kevin Hall

Gilbert Lamboley

Walter Mai

Miklos Nemeth

Andrzej Ostrowski

Simon Forbes and Henry Thorpe of the ISAF Technical Department

Jason Smethwick and the ISAF CBC Committee (Chairman David Cooke).

Last year there was concern over developments in the shape of the Centreboard Arm. Following the instructions of Council, a Rule was devised to deal with this matter and has been incorporated into the 2005 Edition. I should record the helpfulness of Devoti Boats and of Pata Boats in dealing with this sort of situation.

Except with regard to the Centreboard Arm, we were given no instruction to alter the substance of the rules and hopefully we have not done so. The 2005 rules are just defining the requirements in a way that is more uniform across the various classes. A boat that was built and measured to previous rules continues with her existing paperwork, although owners should read the new rules, and in particularly the new “grandfather” instructions when buying new gear.

Four omissions from the new rules have surfaced so far, and the documentation (and website) will be revised accordingly, after approval by ISAF.

Last year I reported that the Template shape digitised by Gilbert Lamboley had been checked by Juri Saraskin and found to be good. More recently, Gilbert has been producing computerised information concerning the shape of the templates not related to the shape of the boat – the outsides, lightening holes etc, and Guillaume Florent has also assisted with this task. Unfortunately it is not yet completed, and the production of new verified templates remains a priority. Apropos of this, there have been suggestions that some boats do not measure, and that insufficient measurement took place, for example at the Olympic Games. It should be made clear that many of the boats used in the Olympic Games were checked by our Chief Measurer at the builder’s yard shortly beforehand, and that therefore rechecking of hull shape was not necessary.

There are ISAF submissions and directives regarding various matters to do with the expense of measurement and of development for the next Olympic Games. The procedure that was followed seems to be very much in line with ISAF wishes for the future. With respect to regatta measurement (now renamed Equipment Inspection), the thinking is that it is just not practical to make detailed checks on the hull shape of every boat at every major regatta, therefore the checks should be made at the manufacturer’s premises. The ISAF Equipment Control Sub-Committee is addressing the matter, and we can expect development of in-house measurement for hulls etc during this quadrennium.

It is interesting to note that these ISAF developments are very much in line with our own progress. For some years we have required that sails and masts be measured before the equipment leaves the manufacturer. In the 2005 Rules similar provisions are available as options for centreboards, rudders and booms, so further extension of these ideas should not require great upheavals.

In this context, if we buy a new mast or rudder from a specialist manufacturer, we want it to fit straight into the boat. The boat is now well developed with good agreement among manufacturers about fittings etc, so (depending on further discussion and approval from TC) I hope to ask Council for a directive

  • to standardise the Height of the Deck Ring on the Mast, and the Positions and Diameters of Transom and Rudder Fittings. Again, existing boats would be grandfathered and builders are being consulted, so nobody should lose by such a change.

Other changes that may be proposed, depending on TC discussion, are

  • to require a stop so that the sail can’t be hoisted above the Mast Upper Point (what used to be the Black Band). Theoretically you lose a couple of millimetres (for the latching process) if you have a halyard lock, but it should diminish the probability of on-the-water trouble with Jury Boats.
  • To change the centreboard position rule. Currently we measure from the transom to the aft edge of the centreboard. Following suggestions by Jüri Saraskin, we may propose an alternative: measuring to the aft end of the centreboard slot. A long slot would be filled-in so that the centreboard could never be too far aft.
  • To limit the size of Mast Cranes.
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