US SAILING
MULTIHULL COUNCIL MEETING
Thursday, October 28, 1999
9:30 a.m.
Hyatt Regency Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland

MINUTES

I.    Roll Call (attendance is for both meetings):
      Gordon Isco, Chairman; Tampa Bay Catamaran Sailors Inc.
      Art Stevens, Vice Chairman; King Harbor Yacht Club; Regional Training Director
      Glenn Ross, CRAC, Fleet 54, Tornado USA 814
      Chris Pastore, Staff Writer, Sailing World/American Sailor Magazine
      Chris Ford, CRAC; Tornado Class Association
      Darline Hobock, Portsmouth Numbers Committee; Windycrest Sailing Club
      Bill Doelger, Area A Rep; New England Multihull Assn.; Safety-at-Sea Committee
      Dick Tillman, US Windsurfing
      Pease Glaser, US Tornado Class; ISAF Representative
      Paul Ulibarri, Area H Area Rep; Hobie Class
      Laura Chambers, US Windsurfing
      Holly Macpherson, US Windsurfing, Executive Director
      Rich Brew, Rudder Club of Jacksonville; Training Committee
      Deborah K. Schaefer, Secretary; Hobie Div.Ten; Inshore Committee; Lake Erie Multihulls

      A quorum was declared.

II.    Minutes from the 1999 Multihull Council Spring Meeting were approved.

III.      Reports:

Chairman’s Report: Gordon Isco announced that Steve Leo is resigning as Alter Cup Chairman. Steve will continue to oversee the championships at Alamitos Bay, CA. The Multihull Council will be putting out a call for an Alter Cup Chairman on the US SAILING Website. Members of the council agree it would be good to get a chairman and a site situated on the east coast if possible. Northerly sites are not practical in the early spring months.

Gordon Isco is also looking to relinquish his duties as chairman when he can find someone willing to take over the reins.

The MHC is in agreement that, despite the overlaps in schedule, the main body of our meeting must be held on Saturday, as part of the US SAILING Meeting, so that we can get the best participation from multihull sailors and member organizations. Meanwhile, Gordon would like to encourage the use of email as a means to increase the communication with Area Reps and other members of the between meetings.

Inshore: No report at this time. This meeting will not be held until Saturday.

Offshore: No report.

PHRF: Jim Frederick could not attend the meeting, but Deborah Schaefer reports that Jim continues to field questions on how to set up PHRF fleets and or derive ratings for multihulls.

Training: No report.

Alter Cup: Steve Leo was not able to attend. Gordon Isco attended this event and reported that the US SAILING Multihull Championship held on Bluewater Bay at Niceville, FL. was a good event. Paul Ulibarri ran all windward/leeward courses with a gate, keeping the races in the 45-50 minute range. The first three days were a round robin event utilizing 10 Nacra 6.0 catamarans. The last day the fleet was divided into gold and silver. The racing was very good. Kirk Newkirk was the beach captain and he did a very good job. There were no complaints and all the sailors mixed well.

It’s a possibility that Hobie Cat would donate Hobie Tigers for next year’s event. If so, the Hobie Tiger is a Formula 18 catamaran with a spinnaker.

Restructuring the Championships: Dave Rosekrans, US SAILING Vice President and Chairman of the Restructuring Task Force, has submitted a proposal to re-categorize and restructure the Championships with the purpose of
    1) Eliminating confusion over so many events called Championships
    2) Improving participation in ladder events at Area and RSA levels.
    3) Better management of problems that may arise.
    4) Reduce the cost of staff support.
    5) Clarifying responsibilities and legal requirements to volunteers.
    5) Shift this responsibility away from area reps that seldom attend meetings.

As part of this restructuring, the Alter Cup would be re-categorized as an Open event. Dave wants to place Cups and Opens under the care of the Committee or Council that most cares about the event. Dave used the Alter Cup as an example of how this hands-on approach has helped to improve the event and has attracted sponsorship.

Dave wants to give Area Directors the responsibility for the Area Ladder events as he feels (as do the Directors) that they will be able to get the job done with the support and structure of the Regional Sailing Associations.

Dave does not feel that MHC will continue to get the basic support we have been getting from the US SAILING staff in the past. Dave also plans to publish a Championship Manual to assist chairmen in the task of putting on a Championship. Nor should we lose the $1,000 we get from Rolex or the funds to cover the cost of medals.

Portsmouth Committee: Darline Hobock reports that her biggest problem at present is how to define oversized spinnakers that are heavily used in distance races. She feels that classes need to come out with class rules that define the dimensions of these sails. Darline is requesting that the MHC make such a request. Gordon Isco will write a letter to the various class associations to that effect.

The Portsmouth Handicap Numbers for multihulls have been published in the Portsmouth Yardstick, on the US SAILING website and in CatamaranSailor Magazine. The material is copyrighted; however, Jim Muldoon, President of US SAILING, supports Darline’s contention that this information needs to be available to the public. Darline recommends that CatamaranSailor publish the numbers again next year.

Golden Anchor Program: Darline reports that she is getting a few Golden Anchor Memberships off the website. Again, the latest membership form does not show Multihull as a category. Gordon continues to urge new members to write Multihull across their forms in magic marker. Bill Doelger feels that we need to remember that US SAILING is a representative body and in order to serve our membership we need to know who they are. He will address this at the General Services Meeting.

IV. Election of Officers and Representatives: Tabled until Saturday’s Meeting

V.  Old Business:

Handbook: There was a discussion regarding publishing of the Multihull Handbook. The Council feels that the book would be a tangible benefit of membership in US SAILING however we have encountered many roadblocks to publication. We will continue to focus our efforts on the dissemination of information through the Website.

Web Page: Darline Hobock reports that Web site is working the way the task force envisioned it would. Darline is able to make changes to the site as she wishes within certain parameters. Ken Signorello, webmaster, is good to work with. If possible, the Council would like to put multihull specific advertising on our web page with the revenue going to the MHC.

In the future, Darline plans to have links on our page to all the classes and to some of the more exciting multihull sites, such as the Worrell 1000 or the Race.  We currently have about 8 pages on our current site.

Youth Program: Gordon Isco reports that the Hoyt-Jolley Foundation has agreed to buy 4, or maybe 5, Hobie Waves to be taken to junior events as a means of getting junior sailors some early experience on multihulls. The Waves may be based at Miami Sailing Program or at Rich Brew’s junior program at the Rudder Club in Jacksonville, FL. Art Stevens will investigate cost of shipping containers and the cost of shipping these boats from site to site.

VI.   The Multihull Council meeting adjourned to meet again at 2:00pm Saturday.

Respectfully Submitted

Deborah K. Schaefer
Secretary

US SAILING
MULTIHULL COUNCIL
ANNUAL MEETING
Saturday, October 30, 1999
2:00 pm
Hyatt Regency Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland

MINUTES

The Multihull Council reconvened on Saturday to complete unfinished business.

1.      Election of Officers and Representatives: The slate of officers was accepted as presented and approved by the Multihull Council . See attached.

2.      Beach Access: Gordon Isco received a letter from Blake Vaught requesting that the council address the issue of loss of Off-the-Beach access for beach cats due to the demands for beach front property and what he describes as the Personal WaterCraft backlash.

Mr. Vaught suggests that the Council get a report card of sorts, on a state by state basis. He also suggests that we develop a web site for all the legislation and regulation as well as a list of good access points.

Darline Hobock, our web site liaison will be posting a query on the web. Art Stevens will assist. Gordon Isco will follow up the US SAILING legal component.

3.      By-laws Changes: The Council will support the By-Law changes of the US SAILING By-Laws.

4.      Championship Restructuring: The members of the Multihull Council still have questions regarding how this restructuring will affect the Alter Cup Event:
     1) Does this mean we are no longer constrained by the current regulations on the US
         Championships?
     2) Are we going to get a budget out of this and will we still get $1,000 from Rolex?
The Council directed Gordon Isco to vote affirmatively if the answers are satisfactory.

5.       Inshore: Deborah Schaefer gave a report.

6.       Youth Program: Art Stevens has been appointed chairman to the program which the MHC has named “Fast is Fun Youth Sailing”. As part of this initiative 4-5 Hobie Waves will be purchased at the Hobie Waves National, Key Largo, FL through the Hoyt-Jolley Foundation in early December.  [Note: Program name was changed later to Fast and Fun to avoid legal conflicts.]

This will be a joint venture with US Windsurfing Assoc. who will be investigating the donation/purchase of Windgliders. Bill Doelger will be investigating sponsorship to fund the transport of Hobie Waves and Windgliders in shipping containers to various Junior Events. Art Stevens will develop a business plan for this project.

The rationale for this program is that we have an aging group of beach cat sailors and beach cat sailing has almost no exposure in the world of junior sailors.

The Multihull Council proposed a resolution for the program for submittal to the Board of Directors.

Respectfully Submitted

Deborah K. Schaefer
Secretary