I Call
To Order: The Meeting was called to Order at 11:30AM.
II
Introduction and Special Guests
Art
Stevens
Chairman, Regional Training Coordinator, King Harbor Yacht Club
Bill
Doelger
MHC Vice Chairman, Safety-at-Sea Comm., General Services, Alter Cup
Comm., Area A Rep, New England Multihull Assoc.,
Darline
Hobock
Chair Portsmouth Comm. Website Liaison, Windycrest Sailing Club
Deborah K.
Schaefer Secretary, Inshore Comm., Alter
Cup Comm., Division Ten Hobie Class
Assoc., Lake Erie Multihulls/PIBYC,
Jamie
Diamond
Portsmouth Comm., US Sailing Judge/PRO, Ohio Catamaran Racing
Assoc., Alum Creek Sailing Assoc.
Jim
Frederick
Area E Rep., PHRF Comm., Alter Cup Comm., Farrier Class Assoc.,
Lake Erie Multihulls, PIBYC
Steve Leo
Chair, Alter Cup Comm., Hobie Fleet #3
Gordon
Isco
Nominating Comm., MHC Past Chair, Tampa Bay Cat Sailors, Gulfport YC
Kathleen
Tracy
Women’s Rep, NAHCA Women’s Rep
Paul
Ulibarri
Area H Rep, NAHCA Race Director
Mike
Grandfield
US Tornado Assoc.,
Vineyard Haven YC
Doug Camp
Area F Nominee, US Tornado Association
Roger
Brown
Nominee Area J, NAHCA
John
Williams
Presenter, The Key Team/Pensacola Yacht Club
Corrine
Isco
Tampa Bay Cat Sailors
Ernie
Bain, Jr.
Area J Secretary, Balboa Yacht Club
Participating
on line via the interactive Chat Room and simultaneous audio cast:
Tom
Korzeniewski NAHCA
Youth Program
Thom
Merrill
Catamaran sailor
“Fast
Sailor”
ARC 22, Dallas, TX
III Approval of
the Minutes
The minutes were approved as corrected.
IV Correspondence
Deborah Schaefer reports that there has been some
correspondence via E-mail on the Youth Sailing Initiative.
V Terms of
Reference for the Multihull Committee
The Multihull Council approved the establishment of
the Multihull Committee based on the Terms of Reference. See action item given to board of
directors for approval. (This was approved by the BOD at the meeting Sunday October 16th.)
VI Website and Chat
Room
Ken Signorello, the US Sailing Webmaster, made
himself available to the Council for questions. Ken estimates that there are 10,000 to
20,000 hits per month on the Multihull Council site. US Sailing tracks “Click
Through”. Statistics are public. Any paid up member can have a web page at US
Sailing. US Sailing is doing some marketing via the Web Pages, but it’s mostly word
of mouth at this time.
Chat Room
The Multihull Council, with the assistance of Rick White of Catamaran Sailor set up
a Chat Room with a simultaneous Audio Cast concurrent with the Multihull Committee and the
Multihull Council Meeting. Jamie Diamond facilitated the discussion over the Internet.
This was a second trial at giving a presence to sailors whom could not come to the US
Sailing meeting. The MHC is the first to utilize the Chat Room to do business at the US
Sailing meetings. The stumbling block to its wide spread use, according to Ken, would be
the cost. Very poor response was experienced again and consideration is being given to not
spending the money required to rent expensive phone lines at the host hotels.
VII Budget Review and Discussion
A. Membership Drive
It seems that many sailors in the Multihull world don’t see the value of membership
in US Sailing beyond the discounts at regattas or the Regatta Insurance Program. Many of
the ads that you see in publications don’t tell you either. Kathleen Tracy
volunteered to work with Darline Hobock to revamp the US Sailing membership ads to be
placed in the various Multihull publications and class association newsletters, to show
the benefits and to emphasize the fact that US Sailing makes it all possible.
This will be coupled with a Membership Drive. Council Members are urged to bring new and
renewing members to US Sailing through the Multihull Council Golden Anchor Program. Thus,
Darline will be better able to track Multihull Members.
B. Budget Request
The Multihull Council approved Steve Leo’s
request for $4,500. This request will go before the Board of Directors on Sunday.
VIII Reports
A. Chairman’s Report
Art Stevens thanked all the participants that came to New Orleans for the Annual
General Meeting. “You make US SAILING work as an organization. We have no where to go
but up.”
B. Alter Cup
1. Alter Cup 2000: Steve Leo reports that the Alter Cup Event held In
Aril 2000 at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club, CA was a successful event with 20 teams and 10
boats. They had tremendous media coverage of the event on the Internet and through
American Sailor Magazine, Sailing World and Cat Sailor Magazine. This coverage is
important when you are seeking additional sponsorship for future events. Therefore, Steve
is trying to collect any information in print pertaining to the last two Alter Cup events.
He will use these materials to approach sponsors and yacht clubs when planning future
events. Steve would appreciate any assistance he can get in locating these materials.
2. Alter Cup 2001: John Williams gave a
presentation on the Key Sailing Team and the Pensacola Yacht Club in their bid for the
next US Sailing Multihull Championship for the Alter Cup. The Pensacola Yacht Club and the
Key Team have joined forces to put on a premier event. The Multihull Council accepted
their bid. The next Alter Cup Event will be held April 22-26, 2001 on Inter 20’s with
spinnakers.
3. Alter Cup Committee: Steve Leo has chaired
this committee for 4 years and would like off as soon as a replacement can be found. Bill
Jolley would like to remain on the committee, as would Mark Hansen. Bill Doelger and Deb
Schaefer would like off. Darline Hobock and Mike Grandfield accepted an invitation to take
their place.
4. Race Format: Steve Leo would like to make a
change in the format for the 2001 Alter Cup. Based on discussions with the racers at past
Alter Cup events, Steve would recommend that the Alter Cup format is three days of round
robin racing with a cut on the fourth day. This would eliminate the Silver Fleet. The
Multihull Council supported this change.
5. Boat Rotation: Steve Leo offered the
argument that round robin boat rotation is not nearly as important as everybody being able
to race against everyone else an equal number of times. Data prove that there are no
“bad boats.”
6. Notice of Race: Michael Grandfield
volunteered to revise the NORs to reflect the way in which spots will be awarded, by area,
pre-qualified, and by resume.
C. Fast and Fun Youth
Art Stevens personally oversaw the introduction of the Fast and Fun Youth Sailing Program
to children at JO Festivals and other events up and down the eastern seaboard from Florida
to New Jersey last year. Art had five Hobie Waves and five Mistral Windgliders. Art
targeted children 8-12 years old who are not necessarily involved in a sailing program or
may never have the opportunity to be exposed to sailing. Art had 700 kids, and some of
their parents, sailing on Hobie Waves. Art utilized local volunteers to assist him. This
included volunteers from US Windsurfing who would work with the children on Windgliders.
Art would run his program, while the junior racers were out on the water, racing. At the
end of the day, the boats were available to the juniors to use. Art only had one rule:
Wear your lifejacket. Art presented a short video about Fast and Fun. This same video was
also presented at the US Sailing Board of Directors Meeting on Thursday morning.
Fast and Fun was fully funded with donations for the year 2000. Mr. Jolley committed
$25,000 towards this purpose last year but can only commit to $15,000 for year 2001. Art
already has requests from Texas, California, Cleveland, Ohio and Syracuse, NY. Art would
like to get 5 more Waves from Hobie Cat. The US Windsurfers know that we need new
equipment for the Windgliders. Art has already committed to send the trailer to
Rick’s Place in Key Largo for the Wave Nationals this December. Art will be accepting
requests for next year starting in November.
Art is looking for additional funding to support Fast and Fun through 2001: Grant
Proposals, Corporate Funding, etc.
Art is also looking for a qualified college person to administer Fast and Fun on the road.
D. Golden Anchor Program
Darline distributed printed copies of the Golden Anchor website and GA enrollment form.
Also see VII (A) above for more information regarding the Golden Anchor membership
program.
E. Portsmouth
Darline Hobock reported that the Portsmouth Handicap Numbers for multihulls have been on
line for 2 years now. Darline announced that all the Portsmouth Handicap numbers will be
on line soon. They will be moved to the Portsmouth Page of the US Sailing Website, with
links on the MHC site. There was one big change for 2001: a new modification factor for
the use of spinnakers for long distance races for boats that are rated without spinnakers.
The Portsmouth Yardstick is a performance-based system dependent on race data. Darline
urges race organizers to get their race results in before November 1st of each
year.
F. Web Page
Darline is seeking input for the Multihull Council Web Page. She will put up race results
and photos as they become available. Darline would encourage Multihull sailors to browse
through the site which includes the current news and links to the archives. She is working
on class links.
G. PHRF
Jim Frederick reports that in the Wind Tunnel Testing sponsored by PHRF, they’ve
begun some testing on asymmetrical spinnakers. These tests demonstrate that the bigger
spinnakers on the bigger bowsprit are not faster. They are slower. In wind conditions less
than 8 knots or above 15, the smaller spinnakers are actually faster.
H. Slate of Officers and Area
Representatives
Gordon Isco, Chairman of Nominating Committee
submitted a Slate of Officers for the year 2001. Additional nominations were submitted
from the floor. The following nominations were approved:
Chairman – Art Stevens
Vice
Chairman – William Doelger
Secretary – Deborah Schaefer
Area A – Mike Grandfield
Area C – Mark Santorelli
Area
E – Jamie Diamond
Area F –- Doug Camp
Area J – Roger Brown
Art expects that as people step down from their positions as Area representatives, that
they will continue to serve on the Multihull Council.
I. Inshore
Deb Schaefer reports that much of the Committee's time was spent developing new ideas to
make the activities of the Inshore Committee more relevant and useful to the small boat
sailors. We discussed ways to better promote sailing at the grass roots level of the
sport.
USSF Grants: Historically, Olympic Windfall Funds were used to finance programs at the
grass roots level. The Committee wants to restore access to the Olympic Windfall Fund so
that programs that support small boat sailing at the grassroots level can continue.
The Committee was very concerned about the state of the Association's finances and the
measures contained in the proposed budget. The Committee passed the following resolutions:
The Inshore Committee supports preserving the Boat Show and Regatta Visibility Programs by
means of staffing solely by volunteers and utilizing promotional materials from US
SAILING. The Inshore Committee supports that a means be found to publish a directory for
2001. The Inshore Committee supports the dues increase proposal with the renewal rate
discount as proposed by the General Services Committee.
J. Women’s Sailing
Kathleen Tracy has been appointed as the Women’s Representative to the Multihull
Council. Women’s Teams are making headway in the world of Multihull sailing. Paul
Ulibarri reports that in an open fleet of 100 boats at Hobie 16 Continental Championships,
a women’s team finished 4th overall. At the last Hobie 20 Continental
Championships, the women finished in the top twenty and even made the cover of Catamaran
Sailor magazine. And for the second year in a row, we’ve had a women’s team
compete in one of the most grueling races of all, the Worrell 1000.
K. Offshore
Bill Doelger reports that the proposed rule changes which would allow individual skipper
to put advertising on their boats may cause a greater division between the “Haves and
Have Nots”.
L. Safety-at-Sea
Bill Doelger reports that in the latest printing of the Recommendations for
Offshore Sailing and ORC Special Regulations, significant changes were made at the
ISAF level and printed without his input. These changes would eliminate most Corsair boats
from all categories of racing. Bill has been charged with making the changes needed within
one week so that they can be presented at the ISAF meeting in Scotland.
M. General Services
The consensus of the Multihull Council is that we do not support a dues increase. Our
members feel that it should be an aim of US Sailing to maximize inclusion and remove
barriers to the sport of sailing. However, if a dues increase were inevitable, we would
not want to see an increase above $45.
N. Training
Art Stevens reports that there is money available to pay tuition for someone interested in
taking the Instructor Trainers Course to be held in Niceville, FL. Thus far, we only have
one multihull sailor trained as an instructor. Anyone who takes the 4-day course and the
requisite First Aid and CPR classes, will be covered by the US Sailing liability insurance
at no cost.
IX
Unfinished Business
The Multihull Council
Handbook: It was the consensus of the council that we will no longer publish the handbook.
X. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at
3:57PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
Deborah K. Schaefer
Secretary |
