1. Call to Order and Introductions

The US SAILING Inshore Committee met at the St. Petersburg Hilton in St. Petersburg, FL on Saturday October 20, 2001. Tom Hubbell, Chair pro tem, presided and Secretary Clark Chapin was present. Tom called the meeting to order at 11:30 AM. The following members were present:

2. Minutes of the March 2001 Meeting in Charlotte. The minutes of the March 2001 meeting were approved as posted on the Inshore web page.

3. Women’s Sailing Proposal

The Committee passed the following resolution:


The Committee supports the Women’s Sailing Committee proposal concerning recommendations for the Women’s Representative to the Board of Directors.

4. Reports of Officers and Staff

1. Chair. Larry White was not present. Chair pro tem Tom Hubbell outlined the agenda.
2. Secretary/Web Liaison. Clark Chapin reported that the web site includes the minutes from the March meeting, a complete listing of the committee personnel, and a description of the Committee’s responsibilities. He envisions adding pages to address the major issues that the Committee will address at its next meeting to generate interest and visitors.
3. Inshore Director. Lee Parks described "Operation Hullspeed" which will improve the relationship between staff and volunteers and the productivity of the organization. In addition, she reported that the Youth Advisory Board has been given the responsibility or examining the Junior Olympic Festivals and recommending changes.

5. ISAF Issues
1. Limitations on Continental and World Championships. An ISAF submission requires that only ISAF classes can have continental championships and that a continental championship must have entries from a majority of the Member National Authorities. The US position is that there be no minimum number of represented MNA’s. In addition, the classes would be limited in the number of "world champions."

The Inshore Committee opposes the proposal and believes that the classes are best equipped to determine their own eligibility requirements.

2. Optimist Class Age Limit

The President of ISAF has written a letter proposing that the age limit for the Optimist Class be lowered from 15 to 13.

The Inshore Committee opposes the proposal and believes that the classes are best equipped to determine their own eligibility requirements.

6. Racing Rules Issues
1. Dispute Resolution (Protest Hearings).

The committee discussed ideas for improving or speeding up protest hearings. The following ideas were presented:
Include arbitration formally in the rule book, rather than material in the Judges Manual.
Make open hearings the norm. While open hearings have advantages, they create control problems for the judges. The Whitbread and America’s Cup are using open hearings.

John Burnham suggested a "mock open hearing" at the Spring Meeting. John and Rod Glover will summarize some of the issues regarding open hearings from the standpoint of hearing control.

2. Limitations on Coaches

The committee discussed whether coaching and parental activities need to be addressed to control "outside assistance." Mike Segerbloom noted that both collegiate and school sailing have procedural rules that pertain to coaches.

3. Changes for the 2005-8 Rule Book

Ted Beier noted that the Rules Committee has discussed whether the old starting system should return, at least as an option. The Inshore Committee can be a collector for experiences with the new sequence: How was it being implemented? Were problems just initial unfamiliarity or systematic?

7. Inshore Roles and Mission. Tom Hubbell solicited ideas for Inshore Roles and Mission. The Committee considered the description of its activities in the US SAILING Directory:

"The Inshore Committee

• examines the trends and needs of one-design and small boat sailors,
• develops policies, recommendations, and programs to strengthen small boat participation,
• interfaces with all US SAILING committees which relate to one-desigh and small boat sailing,
• works with the Olympic Sailing Committee to promote long-term development of class racers for Olympic teams,
• assists OSC in selecting US teams to Pan Am Games,
• selects US teams to ISAF Championships, (and)
• disburses US Sailing Foundation (USSF) funds for small boat sailors participation in international regattas"

The Committee also used as its basis a comparison chart shown below:

One-Design Class Council

Inshore Committee

Council of Sailing Associations

Class organizational isues

Issues of importance to class-racing sailors

Regional issues

Representative Body (classes)

Appointed membership (non-representative)

Representative Body (RSA’s)

Protection of classes

Broader issues about growth and pulling people into the sport.

An advocate forum for the one-design racer.

"What’s good for the class associations?"

"What’s good for small boat racing?"

"What’s good for the clubs?"

Class-specific viewpoints

Viewpoints that are not
class-specific