The US SAILING One-Design Class Council met at the Adams Mark Hotel in St. Louis, MO on Saturday October 18, 2003. Chair Patty Lawrence presided and Secretary, Clark Chapin, was present. Others present are shown in Attachment I.

1. Call to Order and Introductions

Ms. Lawrence called the meeting to order at 10:00 AM CDT. The participants were asked to introduce themselves.

2. Meeting Minutes Approval – Clark Chapin

The minutes were approved as posted on the Council’s website.

3. Youth Dues Increase – James Appel

James discussed the proposed increase to the Youth dues. The Council passed the following resolution:

The One-Design Class Council supports a lesser, compromise increase in the Youth dues.

4. Attracting and Retaining New Sailors to Clubs and Classes – Patty Lawrence

Patty discussed the joint forum with the Council of Sailing Associations that was held on Thursday. A summary of the forum is in Attachment II.

5. Class Membership in US SAILING

Patty started the discussion about what constitutes a class association and which group can use the services of US SAILING, particularly the calendar. Of the 343 classes that have been identified, 127 are members of US SAILING and the Council. While some manufacturers classes have individual memberships for all of their variants (e.g. Laser, Laser Radial, Laser II, etc.), some have an overall umbrella organization that is a US SAILING member. The definition of “class association” in the ODCC Bylaws is “an association of owners of sailboats which normally race on a closed course without a handicap system.” The Council affirmed this definition with the additional interpretation that “race on a closed course” means “race against each other on a closed course.”

The Council affirmed the current policy regarding calendar usage and agreed to further pursue classes that are not now members, perhaps by differentiating on the calendar drop-down menu the member and non-member classes. The Council agreed to provide volunteer resources to track down these classes and solicit their membership.

6. Small Boat Insurance – Steve Prime

Steve described the new small boat insurance program by Gowrie, Barden & Brett that is being introduced to twenty-one classes in addition to the Olympic classes. The additional classes are shown below:

505	Snipe	Blue Jay	Day Sailer	Highlander
Lightning	Thistle	Bullseye	E-Scow	Ideal 18
Etchells	M-20	C-Scow	Flying Scot	JY-15
Sonar	A-Scow	420	Harbor 20	Rhodes 18&19
				Vanguard 15

The policy offers coverage while racing and includes liability coverage. If a person purchases the policy for their boat and then charters a boat in another location, the coverage transfers without any additional premium. Coverage while the original boat is chartered to someone else is available at an extra charge.

7. Staff Report – Lee Parks

Lee reported on the activities in the Portsmouth office.

8. C.R.E.W. Awards – Lee Parks

Lee described the C.R.E.W. Awards and urged the attendees to take the time to read the card and consider the nominees.

9. One-Design Awards

Patty reviewed the awards. The deadline for submissions is December 1.

10. Championship of Champions Regatta

The new co-chairs of this event are Jeff Johnson and Roger Brown.

11. Fleet Captain’s Handbook (Updates) – Patty Lawrence

Patty discussed the pros and cons of providing the Handbook as a Word document or as a PDF file. The Council believes that access to the Handbook should be restricted to members.

12. ODCC Elections – Stan Betts

The following persons were elected:

Chair	Bill Stump	ODCC Executive Committee (2006)	Dave Rosekrans Nat Siddell Tom Carruthers Bill Munster (04)
Vice Chair	Jerelyn Biehl	US SAILING BoD (2004)	Clark Chapin
Inshore Committee:	Bill Stump Jerelyn Biehl Nat Siddell	US SAILING BoD (2005)	Tom Carruthers Clay Mock
		ODCC Nominating Committee	Patty Lawrence Stan Betts Clark Chapin
		US SAILING Nominating Committee	Patty Lawrence

13. Ding Schoonmaker

The Council acknowledged the invaluable service of Ding Schoonmaker who has for 27-years served the Council as a leader, adviser, member of the US SAILING Board of Directors, and member of the Nominating Committee. His presence in the One-Design Class Council will be missed.

14. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 11:21AM. The next meeting of the Council will be on Friday March 19, 2004 in Mobile, AL.

Clark Chapin
Secretary

Members Present

Name	Class Association
Patty Lawrence	Thistle
James Appel	International Laser
Carol Barrow	Beetlecat
Stan Betts	Lido 14
John Burnham	IOD and Shields
Clark Chapin	Interlake
Susan Daly	International Lightning
Harry Foote	Barnnegat Bay YRA
Sue Epstein	210
Dick Goodman	Catalina 30
Dick Hanneman	International Soling
Clay Mock	J/105
Lee Parks	US SAILING Inshore Director
Steve Prime	Gowrie, Barton & Brett
Dick Rose	Rules Committee
Ding Schoonmaker	International Star
Bill Stump	International Star
Bill Munster	Etchells

The Council of Sailing Associations and the One-Design Class Council met on Thursday October 16, to discuss ideas on how to be successful in attracting and retaining new sailors.

What is successful for your club or class?

1.1. Junior Programs

Programs are successful, but a concern is to retain young sailors after college.

1.2. Adult Programs

Adult programs are also successful. A “Sailing 101” or “Sailing for Dummies” approach has been successful.

1.3. DRYA Promotion Program

DRYA’s promotion program has been successful, even at powerboat shows. DRYA is both organized and energized in promoting through non-traditional means, such as powerboat shows.

1.4. Team Racing

Wes Durant has seen a lot of success in team racing as a way to retain college sailors after graduation by offering a reduced-fee membership plus storage for the Vanguard 15 boats.

1.5. Linkage with Community Sailing Programs

This has been successful for Jolly Roger Sailing Club in Toledo.

1.6. Linkage with other activities

Ted Beir is organizing a joint hot air balloon/sailing event.

1.7. Weeknight Racing and Social Combination

In Newport, a weeknight social event after racing that involves the top sailors discussing techniques and success has led to growth.

1.8. Grand Prix Program

In Area A, a racing program that is focused on older teens but requires membership in a Junior Sailing program has retained many sailors.

1.9. Industry Involvement

Getting involvement with local marine industry or other interests helps provide resources and opportunities

1.10. Attracting Non-racers

1.10.1. Learn to sail in a weekend

1.10.2. Louie’s Last Regatta in Milwaukee

The event uses a lot of VHF chatter to talk people through the starting sequence, for example.

1.10.3. Dues Structures for young folks

Pay initiation fee over a three year period
Reduced dues (half) for sailors under 30.
Crew memberships

1.11. Simplified Seminars

Just “How to Get Your Boat Around the Race Course” is generating a lot more interest than the traditional racing rules or race management seminars.

1.12. Class Used Boat Web Site

For the Interlake Class, the Want Ads have been a good venue for post-collegiate sailors to purchase boats cheaply. In addition, a thriving used boat market has raised the value of all the existing boats.

1.13. Alternate Racing Groups for Beginning Sailors

Racing for older boats (<7000 Sail Number Stars)
Golf handicap-type handicapping

2. Problems

2.1. Dockage

This is a significant expense for sailors that are just out of college and often living in apartments with to storage space for boats.

2.1.1. Access to Water

Most folks don’t know how accessible that sailing is.

2.2. Retaining young sailors after college

There are often few venues for young sailors that compare with the opportunities in their collegiate programs.

2.3. Insular nature of one-design fleets

Often, fleet events are well attended, but there is little mixing between fleets.

2.4. Challenge Areas – Tom Hubbell

2.4.1. Sailors vs. Racers

Programs are focused on racers, but most sailors don’t race.

2.4.2. Emphasis on social events that often involve alcohol

Often limits appeal to sailors less than drinking age.

2.4.3. Gender Imbalance

Most of our sailors and skippers are male, but there are large opportunities to attract female members.

2.5. Bad Race Management

Regattas for juniors should be run well, not sloppily. The Race Management Team should not adopt an autocratic attitude.

3. Opportunities

3.1. Contact with Community Sailing Organizations

3.2. Crew Lists

3.3. Offer to teach sailing to anybody, not just club members

3.4. Teach race management

This tends to bring in other people.

3.5. Training materials for small boat sailors on the Training Committee’s web site.

3.7. US SAILING Membership

Can we get boat builders to bundle a US SAILING Membership with the cost of a new boat?

4. What Can US SAILING Do?

4.1. Reduced Cost of Membership for Younger Sailors

4.2. Boat Show/Regatta Visibility Program

A problem is finding a way to support the Regatta Visibility Program in a manner that does not have such a cost to US SAILING. The major costs were in shipping the exhibit materials.

4.3. Improve Race Management

Organizations can host US SAILING Race Management Seminars. This will help improve the quality of race management and better race management will retain sailors.

4.4. Quid pro Quo

PRO’s and Judges can urge Organizing Authorities to become US SAILING members, if not as a condition of managing or judging, then as an “appreciated gesture.”

4.5. US SAILING Materials for RSAs

Construct a package of all US SAILING materials for sale to RSA offices (for those RSAs that have offices).

4.6. Sailing 101

Stan Betts suggested that we create a simple set of materials be prepared for sale to folks that can be used to teach basic rules and “how to get around the race course” for new and neophyte sailors.

5. Promotion of Championships – Sue Epstein

Participation can be improved by getting more promotion out to the one-design classes. Patty suggested using the ODCC List Server.
A questionnaire that asks about participation in the US SAILING Championships or that asks, “Would you participate in a Championship if…” or “What would it take for you to participate in a US SAILING Championship?” would generate some interest.
Walter Chamberlain noted success by elevating the status of the event locally. If you make a big deal out of the Championship, you tend to get more interest. The Gulf Yachting Association gives a recognition certificate to anyone who represents GYA at any of the semi-finals or championships.
Challenge – Availability of Boats Several people noted how difficult it is to get commitments for boats for the various quarter- and semi-final events. Part of this can be alleviated if there are dedicated sails for these events, i.e. the owner’s sails are not at risk. Ed Thiesen noted a quid pro quo between clubs who hold championships and the one-design organizations can be based upon the need for boats vs. the need for regional or national championship venues.
Challenge – Entry Fee Whether or not meals and other “fringes” should be rolled into an entry fee is a challenge for some clubs, since if a lot of other fees are bundled, then the resulting total may be discouraging to possible entrants.
Opportunity – Club Competition Fund
Bill Stump noted that his club has committed to funding the entry fees, travel expenses, and damage deposits for sailors competing at semi-final or national events.

6. Radio-controlled Sailing

Dick Martin described his introduction to radio-controlled sailing. He decided to form a sailing club in Columbia, MO for RC sailing, since no other sailing venues were available.
The sport is growing. The American Model Yachting Association has grown from 2500 to 3500 boats since 2000.
RC Sailing is just like the other parts of the sport, except that although the boats are 1/25^th the size of regular boats, they move at roughly 1/5^th the speed, so on a relative basis, things happen at five-times speed.
A entry-level boat for the CR 914 is $450 including the radio.
The upper wind limit for the CR 914 is about 20-30 knots.

7. Pro-Start – Pete Capitian

Pete Capitian described the operation of Pro-Start, an automated race timing system. Glenn Schmidt and Clark Chapin reported that their clubs had used the device this year and were entirely satisfied. The unit was loud enough to be heard of the length of a starting line for 20 18’ boats and has been utterly reliable. The retail cost is $350.