Minutes of the LWA AGM 2010:

LWA Annual General Meeting

Queen Mary Sailing Club

13 February 2010

Present: Chairman / Treasurer – Paul Robinson

Committee – Rod Davis, Janet Pain, Andy Watkinson, Alan Jackson, Sandra Jackson.

Attendees – D & K Kinnerley, B Keeling, I Mitchell, R & A Kent, J Moon, C Flint, N Kidd, C Gibson

Minutes taken by: Sandra Jackson

Apologies received – Brian Tilbury, Dick Pratt, Paul Leone, Doug Starr.

Minutes of last meeting – AGM held on 21 February 2009, available on LWA website & distributed at AGM.

Proposal: These minutes are a true record of that meeting.

Proposed:  R Davis. Seconded: A Jackson

Outcome: Carried

Matters arising:

The light wind criteria has been adopted and is stated in the notice of race.

Weight class / Icebreaker – to be discussed in proposals.

Youth open class – has been adopted, intended to encourage older heavier young sailors with a sail limit of 8.5m. There are now 2 Techno sailors in that class.

Free training – still a challenge

LWA Young Windsurfer 2009: Congratulations to Andrew Robinson & Conor Wells.

Chairman’s Report:

Another year gone and it was again, I think, a very successful and interesting one.  Many thanks to all the competitors for supporting and joining in the racing and to the LWA Committee for all their hard work in putting together a very successful racing programme and coordinating and managing 7 good racing Summer events, 1 UKWA Inland series national events and the 3 Icebreaker team events.

This year we actually completed all the summer series events, some with a little less wind than we may have wished for, but enough to race in accordance with our new wind strength criteria, and others with a bit too much or really just the one – Brogborough.

It was a year of new toys. The advent of the new 2009 Phantom raceboard was unveiled at the Fisher Green event, the Tushingham race sail at Bough Beech and the prototype Mistral raceboard at Queen Mary SC (with the Mistral “takeover” and involvement of Anders Bringdal as development lead, it is not currently clear where this prototype work may end up). While all had their moments and are great developments, it is still clear that the biggest influencing factor is the sailor ability rather than a racing scene which is totally equipment led and long may this remain. The old kit is still very competitive and this will I hope encourage previous sailors to return to racing.

We have seen some very welcome old faces and excellent sailors returning and clearly enjoying their racing with some great raceboard publicity on the UKWA forum site.  Entries were almost comparable with last years, albeit with a reduced event average. This is slightly disappointing, but on the other side of the coin we had a comparable entry for the Inland event with an expected slightly reduced Techno entry (as the event immediately followed a very exciting, windy and exhausting World Youth and Master event at Weymouth) but made up by, I think, one of the largest raceboard fleets of the year, if not the largest.

Good news on the Icebreaker front as numbers were up and the Bewl event with 35 racers was the peak for this series and it was lovely to see a Hythe team there. Thanks must go to everyone who managed to get to the rearranged Oxford SC final event – sorry about the microwave and delayed soup.

The projected financial budget for 2009 was to absorb club racing fee increases and maintain entry fees at the 2007 level and potentially have a small financial loss.  This projected end result was achieved, in fact we made a small profit but this was negated by the outstanding Nov 2007 payment for the Icebreaker event that was agreed at the last AGM to be reissued.

Whilst we look forward to another great racing year, it would be good to look back on the worlds at Weymouth and record the brilliant contribution that LWA sailors made to the racing and podium positions – our own World Champion Annette Kent, and podium positions for Chris Gibson and Andy Lacy. Well done to all competitors, you all did us proud. Congratulations to our new 2010 European Masters Champion – Chris Gibson

Just a final note, let’s see if we can encourage more sailors to race with us and see if they can do that one more event and gain a unique LWA polo shirt and let’s especially focus on the youngsters from Team 15 and if you have any thoughts on how to achieve this please speak to Andy Watkinson.

LWA wish you all great sailing for 2010.

Treasurer’s Report: figures distributed at AGM.

Statistics: BK asked if there could be a check on attendance levels at events and have 2 events at high attendance venues. Why go to Fisher Green when not many sailors go there?  R Kent pointed out that lack of youth attendance might be due to dates clash, not the venue. AW – parents are reluctant to travel so more work on those parents is required. 

PR noted that there were few T15 sailors in the South East, lots in the Midlands and other regions. AW agreed and said that in the Midlands there were more youths than adults, which might cause a problem if there is too much emphasis on youth sailing. PR conscious of the need to protect ‘adult’ sailing requirements.

RD suggested there might be an issue with the loan of kit for T15 sailors and said that zone squad sailors affect attendance at an event. The RYA set zone squad dates without consultation with other sailing events. 
Action – to approach the RYA to get a training day at an LWA event: 2 benefits – a) increase LWA sailor numbers, and b) show the T15 sailors that it’s not so frightening. RK suggested getting Bewl, QM and Oxford SC to link with T15 and liaise with them to include them into LWA racing.

Action - Janet to email club contacts to see the level of interest in this idea.

AW pointed out the size of the LWA course and the number of sailors would be worrying for T15 sailors.  A general feeling of the floor was to try to encourage T15 sailors. RD suggested LWA sailors could go to T15 event.

Balance sheet:

Recommendation from the Treasurer to keep entry fees the same for 2010 because a) the prices are easy to remember, b) no float is required, c) it’s good value.

RK said that Bill Mason has IMCO money available but no project has been identified yet.

PR said that a top T15 coach was coming to QM at the end of March.
Action - discuss LWA and T15 joint event.

JP questioned if there was a need for CRB checking.

Proposal: that these figures represent a true record.

Proposed:  R Kent. Seconded: C Gibson

Outcome: Carried.

Election of Officers – the current committee is prepared to stand again.  No offers received for inclusion on the committee.

Proposal: to have the current committee accepted for a further year.

Proposed: N Kidd. Seconded: C Gibson.

Outcome: carried.

Proposals:

CF – to encourage club members sailing at home venue to join in LWA racing, could there be a free entry? RD pointed out that by being a member of a sailing club gives a sailor insurance cover. A poster is in production to be sent to the clubs the LWA is visiting, which can include an encouragement to sail – PR suggested “free to club members” might help. There has been a windsurfing revival at Bough Beech, but Fisher Green sailors are discouraged by the fear of humiliation.
Action - JP to enquire if clubs will waive payment for club sailors sailing with the LWA for the first time, and email Bough Beech to emphasise that club sailors are welcome to join LWA races.

PR pointed out that the LWA needs to break even on fees – where some clubs charge more than we charge on entry and some charge less, overall there needs to be balance so free entry can’t be extended too far.  DK noted that dinghy sailors would expect to be paying a fee at their home venue. RK pointed out that free sailing should only apply to newcomers.

PR would like Oxford SC T15 sailors to come to our events, and he is working with the QM T15 to encourage them into LWA events and hopes for some small successes as they are the future LWA sailors. 

Sail sizes/weight group – PR noted that in 2009 there were 2 regular sailors in larger than 9.5m sails and that the Unlimited class was originally supposed to encourage heavier sailors. Proposal to leave Unlimited as a outlier class and to put a heavyweight class into the 9.5m fleet, with a pilot trial for 1 year.  The weight criterion was agreed in general discussion to be set as 80kg +/- 2kg. RK suggested finding out the general weight ratio but CG was against a median idea as it discriminated against the ‘average’ sailor.  The heavyweight class would be self-governing (i.e. not required to stand on scales at an event, but the weight doesn’t include wetsuit. Sailor to remain in weight class for the year. Proposal carried.

Age class – proposal to have a new class of veteran for 60+ and rename ‘grand master’ at 50+.  Proposal carried.

Ice breaker format – 2009 saw increased attendance, perhaps due to the 2009 proposal agreed for a greater emphasis on individual results alongside the team results and with the need to sail all three events to qualify. The sail size will be limited to 9.5m, but there will be committee discretion for newcomers or irregular LWA sailors.

Any other business –

International Raceboard – RK reported that the website needs updating, and CG will change the front page.  AW took some excellent photos that can be used. RK said he will serve notice that there may be a weight class introduced.

DK suggested investigating other venues, such as Weir Wood or Datchet, following the success of re-visiting King George.  JP pointed out that Weir Wood availability is limited to early season. PR noted that the Datchet website is excellent. Grafham was felt to be too far for LWA regular sailors.  Hayling Island SC would be a possible venue.
Action CG is to investigate the possibility of finding a suitable date and researching the cost. 

Safety cover is always an issue at coastal events, but using a sailing club with good facilities should address those difficulties. RK suggested Hythe especially as their racing series has taken a downturn. JP suggested asking sailors by email if they’d be prepared to travel to these venues. RD said that Broxbourne had emailed him to ask if there was anyone prepared to race there.

RD noted that the anonymous donor of the £100 prize for Youth sailor of the year was prepared to donate again in 2010 and he had suggested LWA members could come up with a further £100 to make the prize up to £200.  J Moon, R & A Kent, A Jackson, N Kidd, C Gibson, D Kinnerley, A Watkinson, P Robinson, J Pain & R Davis all indicated they would be prepared to give £10 each.

Action - RD to include details of sailor’s kit when writing the report on an event. JP pointed out the entry form needs to have the information written on it.

Thanks were given from the floor to the committee.

The meeting ended at 3:20pm