REPORT TO FLYING FIFTEEN NEW ZEALAND ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, 2 JANUARY 2008

Measurer’s Report

The really good news is that Brian Bennett has completed his first new Flying Fifteen hull off the Lifestyle Enterprises mould. I had the pleasure of spending some time with Brian & Hayden at their property in Wakefield south of Nelson after the YNZ AGM back in early October. The workshop set-up is impressive and Brian has put a huge amount of time and thought into the boat. He has brought his great experience and knowledge to the construction and I am impressed by his care and attention to detail. If you want to see more of Brian’s expertise, have a look at the Viper 640 Class Association website for a glimpse of a boat that he designed, which might be seen by some as a modern version of the now 60-year old Flying Fifteen! I continue to try and keep the Register of Flying Fifteens current, but there are still many boats that are incorrectly entered in the Register. As I say every year, I would appreciate advice of any changes of ownership and I am always interested in trying to track down the current owners of Flying Fifteens, wherever they might be. Even if boats have been destroyed I would appreciate being advised, so that the records can be made as current as is reasonably possible.

Technical

• Item 1: Carried: Headsail construction change, to allow a second window in the headsail, within the current window area limits;
• Item 2: Carried: Delete the deck thickness from the Rules, because it has been overtaken by the current minimum weight per square metre rule;
• Item 3: Rejected: Mast measurement limits for maximum & minimum boom & rig height controls above sheer level. They stay as they are.

Only twelve New Zealand fleet members cast their votes. The proposed changes under Items 1 & 2 are likely to come into effect in March 2009, but efforts are being made to expedite these changes through ISAF, so that the changes to the Class Rules may be in place before the Melbourne Worlds in January 2009. The next ballot will be an opportunity for people to consider putting forward proposals through their National Class Associations for any changes to the Constitution and Championship Regulations.

I am not aware of any issues relating to the Constitution that might require review, but, as I reported to the 2007 AGM, I am very concerned about the changes that were made to the Championship Regulations as a result of the last ballot. New Zealand is disadvantaged wherever future World Championships are held.

The FFI World Championship Regulations were reviewed at the 2005 Worlds Council meetings in Auckland and they were then amended thereafter, with quite widespread support from the Councillors. However, I think that there is now some concern amongst some nations and the Brits in particular that they might have lost out on a number of places in the recent 2007 Worlds, with the changes not proving to be as favourable to them as they had thought they would be. Past Commodore Nils Blumann was a forceful advocate of the changes & he was very anti any move to increase the number of entries and I think would have favoured a significant reduction, to 60 or fewer boats.

We have certainly been disadvantaged by the 2005 changes, because we now only get 6 (not 7) places in the Worlds and we no longer get any increase for championships in our Oceania continent (that gave us 11 places for Australia or NZ regattas). There are now 6 places available to overseas competitors (rather than 2 as before) via the pre-Worlds, but who really wants to take the risk of paying out a huge amount of money to travel overseas in the hope that nothing goes wrong in the pre-Worlds, or that not too many other foreigners turn up to try & qualify at the Worlds venue? There is also the incentive to have a 100+ boat fleet at a regatta – it is something of a magic number for publicity and in these times when sponsorship is hard to find, the more boats at an event the more chance of the hosts breaking even. If a Club can run racing for 100+ boats, then why not have them on the start line? We have tried to encourage the Silver fleet without any real joy at all – there weren’t enough boats at Pollensa to give out the trophies there & that was in a venue where there were any number of Silver boats sitting on the hard throughout the regatta! Even the Classic division is hard-pressed to get anyone to attend.

I suggest that the Championship Regulations might be amended to:

• (a) Allow for Open Worlds if the organising authority can host more than the current limit of 74 boats, perhaps with a total limit of 100+ boats; and/or
• (b) Allow an increase in the current limit of 74 boats if the organising authority can accommodate more boats, with the reinstatement of the previous allowance for 50% increases in numbers (with part numbers rounded up to the next whole number) for the National Associations within the continent where the event is to be held and, if this number is still less than the organising authority can accommodate, to allow a pro-rata increase in the allocations for all National Associations.

On that point, the Classics are unmodified boats on the Classic register, that includes all boats off pre-Sniffer moulds (i.e. pre NZL 3050 plus a few later odd-balls etc), while at the 2007 Worlds the Silver boats were up to 3200. We have no Classics & only three Silvers entered for the Nationals here! Should the Silver Fleet limit be raised to 3300, or even 3400 (which would be about 500 below the current new boat numbers)? I also want to formalise the proposal, that I hinted at when the FFI Council met during the 2007 Flying Fifteen World Championships in Port de Pollensa, Mallorca, that FFNZ would like to host the next Worlds in the Southern Hemisphere & I would propose that the Napier Sailing Club be the host club & organising authority. The 2009 Worlds are in Melbourne, 2011 is to be in Britain, either at the 2012 Olympic venue at Weymouth or at Hayling Island, so the next chance for FFNZ may be 2013, unless one of the other continents puts up their hand, although I doubt that Hong Kong or South Africa are quite ready or willing at this time.

Worlds 2009

Personal

Graeme Robinson

2 January 2008