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
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Website
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New Finnatics Edition
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Clinics
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CD rom Finn information
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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.
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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.
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To
limit the size of Mast Cranes.
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