Apologies for Absence: John & Gill Ellis, James Moon, Nick Kidd, Peter Ash, Bill Keeling, Brian Tilbury, Chris Gibson, Colin Flint.
Minutes of last meeting: Accepted as a true record. Proposer: David Kinnerley, Seconder: Rod Davis.
Matters Arising: Club members sailing at their home venue - not many sail with us when we visit. PR trying to encourage on an ad hoc basis, sailors worry we’re too good for anyone starting out. Representative from Bewl is to spread word around Team 15.
Chairman’s Report:
Finances are reasonable tight – more in the Treasurer’s Report.
Inland Series – LWA Committee is working with the Midland Region to try to do regional team 15 cup to encourage a team 15 on 5.8, 4.5, & 3.5 using our junior course. Champion’s Cup is 2-day one-off event, so instead separate North region, Midlands, and South events to create an understanding of where racing can lead to. No change from existing championship series but encourage more association between racing Team 15 and other racing. Proposal is going to RYA for their support.
Weight classes have happened successfully and will be incorporated into the UKWA. Lightweight under 80kg, +/- 2kg. Age classes 50 & 60 also happening within the UKWA as a result of the LWA.
Other venues – JP: difficult finding other venues. She has asked but no one has come forward. Dave Kinnerley suggested Datchet? JP: day sailing fees same as here. PR thinks the regional mix is good, need strong reason to go somewhere.
Chairman’s Report - see below:
Request for additional help at events and on the committee. Summer series all completed, enough wind. Seeing second-hand Phantoms coming through, seeing old sails.
Entries comparable to previous years. Only 2 ice breaker events, too cold. Budget for 2010 was to keep prices to previous years which would have meant small loss. Entry for QM will be raised for this one venue to £15 adults/£10 youth. Elsewhere all £10/£5 = breakeven point. 2010 was the 2nd deficit year. JP says why should club member pay again to sail – PR raised this at Burghfield on how to get member’s refund of fee. PR will ask QM.
Rob Kent summer series winner. Thank you for expertise with kit & training. Junior sailors have done us proud, with all their successes over 2010.
Treasurer’s Report - abbreviated:
Net income on summer series was 8% increase - good. 165 entries. Inland event was disappointing due to light Techno fleet, and was the weekend after going back to school, general weariness. Our event is the last one of the year and JP pointed out that this might help our attendance as the prize-giving will be at our event.
LWA icebreaker, low due to loss of event. Deficit of £228 on the year. Projection – to increase the QM fees will turn this around. We have a surplus of a reasonable amount so no worries. Aim is to break even and encourage sailors. If we need to invest money into something then we will look at that. Observation from Rob Kent – average attendance is higher than since 2004, very encouraging. PR agrees, fleet stabilised. Key point is not enough junior sailors still.
Proposer: Robert Kent, Seconder: Alan Jackson. Unanimously carried.
Election of Officers:
Existing committee have all agreed to stand again with the same posts. Proposer Dave Kinnerley Seconder: Annette. Unanimously carried.
Proposals / Motions: nothing received in advance.
PR – will get the junior cup series up and running with Bob Ingram and others. This may require some investment, e.g. trophy. Potentially 20 team 15 clubs.
Want to get the Techno to move into Raceboard. Techno was trying to promote techno with 8.5 metres sail as open class. Target is the 20-30 sailors who stop sailing. Want to gather them in to raceboarding. PR how to deliver. LWA would like to do training as it is what junior sailors are used to, always going on training weekends. Robert Kent will try to run a Farmoor training session in the summer. PR wants to give the opportunity for training. RK suggests hire a race boat from Calshot.
PR - how to get Seavets back to sail with us? John Ellis says LWA is more competitive. Seavet sailing is more relaxed and not worried about rules, e.g. don’t often do 360’s. Most are still sailing 7.5, have got Unltd class, that’s what Seavet gripe is plus start line issues. JE will talk to Joe Coulson. PR suggested a split line either time/length. Seavet program is reasonably full, are sailing with Midland who are normally junior and youth oriented. RK suggests look at their timetable to see if we can encourage more closeness. JE thinks courses may be too big, couple of short races, more social. PR will be willing to be flexible. RD pointed out they are most welcome to come to LWA events.
AJ – what stops us having AGM at Farmoor? Fee for QM is too high. Suggestion to have next year’s AGM at Farmoor. General agreement on this.
PR – last year we put an addition into the Young Windsurfer of the Year prize fund, extra £10 from members to boost sum to £200. Several people kindly donated £10, received gratefully.
Any other business: none.
Thanks from David Kinnerley to all committee for their efforts.
Many thanks to all the competitors for supporting and joining in the racing and especially to some “old” new faces who gave some very positive feedback on the standard, quality and enjoyment levels. Many thanks to the LWA Committee for all their hard work in putting together yet again a very successful racing programme and coordinating and managing 7 good racing summer events, 1 UKWA Inland Series National event and 2 Icebreaker team events.
Again this year we actually completed all the Summer Series events, some with a little less wind than we may have wished for, but certainly enough to race and with no need to reference our new wind strength criteria. It started very cold and windy at Bough Beech and ended in a light balmy King George. It was pleasing to be sailing in sufficient water all year, unlike last year at King George, albeit Bewl‘s water levels were again well down for the Icebreaker leaving a small non muddy launching area.
It was a year of stability with the spread of the Starboard Phantom as “the” raceboard. However the older styles still held their own and again it was the skill of the sailor rather than the equipment which was the deciding factor. Development of sails continues with Demon and Tushingham going head to head. Alan Jackson’s old Demon ( ex Doug Starr) still showed its mettle though with some devastating wins. However the inability of the Raceboard International class to accurately reflect and record the 2009 AGM decision regarding the allowance of the oversized RSX sail ( up to 2009) and the introduction of a +3 % allowance of measuring has resulted in confusion regarding the legality of sails of maximum size of 9.8, as now appears to be allowed in the International class rules. This situation has now been clarified by the statement issued on 15th November as: (This section has been abbreviated to:
CR C.8.1.(b) - the maximum sail size for Men is 9.5 sqm ( not - 9.6 , 9.7 or 9.8 !) and for Women/Youth is 8.5 sqm ( not 8.6 , 8.7 etc )
We have seen some very welcome old faces and excellent sailors returning and clearly enjoying their racing. The raceboard revival continues but at a rather slow pace. However with fleets of up to 30 on the National circuit things are stable and the challenge remains to get those Techno sailors leaving that class to continue racing either on RSX or Raceboard or Formula
Entries were very comparable with last years with highs of 35 for the LWA one day part of the Inland event and ranged from 28 to 16 for the other one day events.
It was a shame to lose the final Icebreaker event, perhaps we are getting soft in old age but the conditions were pretty horrific and it would have been very much less than enjoyable to sail in these situations. Congratulations to the overall winning team – Farmoor Flyers from Oxford Sailing Club
The projected financial budget for 2010 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 but was distorted by the loss of the final Icebreaker event. To continue sailing at QMSC we will need to raise entry fees as we make a loss per person by paying more to the club than the entry fee we receive. This increase here at £15/£10 will enable the other venues to remain at the standard £10 / £5 for 2011.
Congratulations to our overall Summer Series champion, Rob Kent and for all his helpful advice and support throughout the season especially if you forget the right mast or sail! Also many congratulations to those LWA sailors gaining national awards.
Our junior sailors have done us proud this year, both regionally but also nationally with RYA 3.5 National Champion Rebecca Kent and 3rd Inland 3.5, 1st and 2nd 3.5 Inland Series Champions - Alysia and Emilia Gibson and to our Series Champion and LWA Young Windsurfer of the Year - Emily Kent
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 any thoughts on how to achieve this please share with your Committee
- LWA wish you all great sailing for 2011
