14 March 2014
The highlight of the 2013 season was a highly successful World Championship in Porto Roz, Slovenia. Seventy-nine boats competed in a variety of wind conditions, representing ten countries. Our hosts did an outstanding job, providing excellent race management in addition to wonderful hospitality. It was especially gratifying to see so many Slovenian boats competing for the first time at a major international event. As we have experienced in the past, world championship events held in Europe enjoyed considerable support from European fleets, but representation from other parts of the world was scarce. The two Canadian boats, and one South American crew on an Italian boat, were the only visitors from abroad.
Fireball International is struggling to find the right recipe of timing, venues, sailing and non-sailing attractions, cost, logistics, and more to ensure that our international events are well-attended by sailors from fleets around the world. We are acutely aware of the high costs involved in travel, boat transport, and racing, and we welcome suggestions to ensure dynamic and attractive choices.
One interesting initiative currently being implemented allows for reengineering the traditional racking arrangements to allow up to twelve boats to be shipped in a container. The twin advantages of lowering the unit cost and accommodating more travelers are real and attractive. Pictures of the Australian container are available on the website.
Our planning horizon includes the upcoming 2014 worlds in Pattaya, Thailand, and the 2014 European Championships in the Shetlands. We have committed and we are looking forward to the 2015 world championship in Pwllheli, Wales. The following year, our world championship will take place in Mosel Bay, South Africa. Planning our schedule well in advance provides the necessary time to market the events, and attract competitors and sponsors.
Our FI facebook group continues to grow. We have 564 members of the group, and requests continue to arrive. Content is always welcome, both on facebook and on our website.
Fireball activity is being resurrected in New Zealand. There is one committed sailor launching a New Zealand Fireball facebook group, and on the hunt for boats and sailors. It is always impressive to see what a determined individual can do. One of our strategic goals is to expand our international scope, and we are excited and very supportive of this initiative.
Our industry partners continue to develop and enhance what they do for the Fireball class, and their efforts are highly appreciated.
Our recently adopted constitution calls for elections to be held later this year for every elected position on the FI Executive. Candidates are welcome. If you are interested in serving as a Rear Commodore or as Commodore, please consider putting your name forward.
Finally, I would like to thank the FI Executive and the NCA Executives for their continued efforts and support this year.
Respectfully submitted,
Joe Jospe
Introduction
1. It has only been a few months since our 2013 World
Championship, so this will be a short report.
Slovenian World Championship
2. Gosailing was appointed by Fireball Slovenia, they were
experience at putting together sailing championships but had
limited experience of the Fireball Class and what was required to
deliver a world class Fireball championship. I worked with them to
fill the gaps in their knowledge and together we produced what I
know the sailors considered a great event.
3. One minor issue was a shortfall in the budget which meant that
whilst all the sailor facing requirements were met and all the ISAF
race officials had their expenses paid. I made a personal
contribution to ensure the budget balanced.
2014 Worlds Thailand
4. Selecting and confirming the venue for the 2014 WC was the most
troublesome I have ever encountered.
5. Following extensive research I had secured a venue in Turkey
after a request from sailors.
6. This venue choice did not meet with approval from certain
quarters who suggested several alternatives which I investigated.
They were:
Busan, South Korea I had visited the city for an ISAF
conference. It is a former Olympic sailing venue. It is a heavily
industrialised city which did not tick the boxes as a holiday
venue.
Langkawi, Malaysia Whilst this ticks the boxes as a holiday
venue the prevailing wind speeds max out at around 8 knots. This
was not going to provide the exciting sailing the Fireball fleet
expects.
Phuket, Thailand This was considered as an alternative Thai
venue as the Tasar Class had held an event from a hotel there. The
winds in March are unreliable with the best winds occurring in July
which is right in the middle of the European season and when most
NCAs hold their Nationals Championships. There were logistical
issues and cost implications with getting containers to the venue
and transferring the necessary infrastructure from the RVYC.
Ho Hin, Thailand Similar logistical issues and cost implications
as with Phuket.
7. Fortunately the RVYC, which has become a good friend of the
class since 2000, was happy to step up to the mark and provide a
venue.
8. It is lucky that we are working with such a friendly venue as
this year's small fleet has presented budgetary challenges. The
RVYC has worked with me to ensure we deliver a great event for
the sailors despite the budgetary constraints. Not all clubs
would have been that accommodating.
2014 Europeans Shetland
9. I was invited to attend the launch of the event at the Shetland
Boat show in 2013 and have been assisting Fireball Shetland on all
aspects of the event ever since. All matters are on track for a
fantastic event.
10. This is a superb sailing location and the Shetland hospitality
is second to none. Please do not be put off by any
moody atmospheric Nordic TV dramas you may see; the only similarity
is the wide open spaces.
2015 UK Worlds
11. I have been asked by the UKFA to head up their delivery team
for their 2015 Worlds.
12. After an extensive search Pwllheli Sailing Club have been
appointed as host club. They enjoy probably the best sailing
waters in the UK and coupled with their new club house, which I am
assured will be ready in April 2015, and the stunning local scenery
they provide a perfect venue for UKFA to host a world championship.
The club is welcoming and enthusiastic which just adds to the
attraction.
13. Promotion of the championship was started at the UK Dinghy
show in March, however the UKFA have decided to formally launch the
event at Easter 2014.
14. You should have all received flyers for the event with the
2014 stickers and membership cards. Please put the dates in your
diary, as this is sure to be the biggest Fireball event since the
2005 UK worlds.
15. The UKFA are keen to attract sailors from all the Fireball
NCAs and to assist with this they are ensuring the 2015 worlds web
site will have multi lingual functions to make entering as easy as
possible for those who do not use English as a
1st language.
2016 RSA Worlds
16. I have had several Skype meetings with Anthony Parker and
David Laing and a face to face meeting with David in Manchester.
Initial preparations are well in hand.
2017 Europeans
17. After requests from the class at the Slovenia worlds for a
major event at Roses Bay, Spain I did a site visit in October.
Roses appears to tick all the Fireball boxes.
ISAF matters
18. My regular contact with the Secretariat continues to ensure
when I contact them on behalf of the Fireball class the matters are
always dealt with promptly and effectively.
19. As usual the ISAF International class returns for Fireball
were submitted in accordance with the regulations.
20. This year I have needed to keep ISAF informed of the size of
the fleet at the 2014 Worlds in Thailand as the numbers are so
low.
21. As a class we currently continue to meet ISAF's requirements
for holding a World Championships but we must not become complacent
and allow some of our smaller and more remote NCAS to
disappear.
22. On this note I have recently intervened to ensure that
Fireball Kenya continues as part of Fireball International.
23. I have been able to assist a Fireball sailor who had the
misfortune to be threatened by a fellow member at his local club. I
contacted ISAF's legal department for advice and was able to put
the sailor in contact with them. They have assisted in clearing his
name and ensuring action is taken against the perpetrator.
General Admin
24. I continue to administer the ISAF plaques on behalf of ISAF,
the Sponsors and the Builders. Numbers of new boats remain steady
the latest being 150112.
25. David Winder has confided in me with his ideas for options to
improve the deck mouldings and thus move the class forward once
again.
26. There continues to be a constant stream of requests for plans
to self-build a Fireball. These are from all around the globe and
include countries where we have no record of Fireball
sailing.
Andrew Davies
International Secretary
March 2014
The web site is still working well but information coming in from the NCA's has dried up a lot over the last 8 months.
Communication is still a large problem with our class. Few of the NCA's are making contact regarding marketing and publicity. Many don't respond to emails and some I don't have contact details for such as France, Germany and Belgium.
At a world level, Cormac Bradley has been working as the fleet's publicity officer, getting articles published on a number of web sites and in magazines. Again lack of supply of information to try and get published is often the problem.
The 2015 worlds in Wales has been announced. We need some information from the event organizers so we can build the web pages and start promoting this event.
The 2016 worlds in South Africa require the same as Wales - information so we can build the web page and market the event.
A training session on how to post to the web site will be held in Thailand so NCA's can feel comfortable posting articles and information themselves.
I have decided to step down as Marketing Officer as I believe the role needs to be performed by someone closer to the action - based in Europe. I will continue to oversee the web site and am happy to contribute where I can.
Ben Schulz
As Ben has stated in his report, under the Marketing portfolio, the perennial problem with trying to promote the Class is sourcing material. Facebook is helping to a degree, but the material that makes its way there isn't always going to warrant the writing of an article for website consumption. There were technical difficulties with my attempts to report from Slovenia, but on Day 3 of the Worlds, when I did get a report out, to Y&Y, it was read by 2894 people.
Since Slovenia there have been two limitations to publishing material from the Class itself;
a) The agreement that promoting of events should be limited to the next event on the calendar, and
b) The small turnout for Pattaya.
Frankly, once we made the announcement that Pattaya was proceeding, in a posting to Yachts and Yachting and our own website, the "air went out of the balloon" when it became apparent that we were going to have such a small turnout. The Y&Y website announcement was read by 1043 people.
The plea for material from NCAs via Rear-Commodores hasn't seen any significant traffic directed my way, though there is an international flavour to what is posted on our website. A report from me on 6th January 2014 to Y&Y which started off with the abandonment of Frostbite racing in Dun Laoghaire and concluded with results from the Australian Nationals, a reference to Anthony Parker winning the GP Nationals in South Africa and Fireball participation in the Sydney to Hobart Race attracted 610 hits on the website. The Frostbite reports have attracted between 230 and 656 hits, even on those days where the report was to the effect that racing had been abandoned. It has got to the stage that even reporting that there has been no racing warrants a posting to their website - evidence that people expect to see it there on a Monday morning!
As part of the Yachts and Yachting promotion of the RYA Dinghy Show in London over the weekend of 1/2 March 2014, I was asked to write a piece in my capacity as the Irish Fireball Class correspondent, so assuming every Show visitor got a copy of the Show Guide, they would have read a Fireballer describing his home waters in Northern Ireland as being his version of a sailing paradise……….when the sun shines! The photograph that went with my piece took prime position in the article to which there were five or six contributors.
I did have some preliminary contact with Pwllheli Sailing Club and Jez White in the context of the "Wales Worlds" in 2015, but the PSC guys didn't follow through with material. At the time of my initial contact they were in the middle of a run of three major events and were under severe pressure. I have had nominal contact with Anthony Parker in the context of Mossel Bay, but this is less critical given that it is a 2016 regatta. John Manson has been pushing the Shetland event via Facebook, so once Thailand is concluded I can work with him on that promotion.
Our Skype conference calls have also dropped off the radar (though I am the last one to talk about those given my difficulties in contributing to them), which means that communication within the Executive has been on the basis of one-to-one and E-mails.
From an Irish perspective, our downturn in numbers last summer has not carried over completely into the Frostbite Series. Numbers have been under pressure, as few as eight on a couple of Sundays, but we have also had a few turnouts of 13 boats which is probably all bar one or two of the boats registered for the Series.
We have just concluded our regatta planning for summer 2014 with five regattas on the schedule again. We have also just confirmed a weekend's training to be provided in early April, using one of the UK's top Fireball practitioners. At this stage we expect to have 4 or maybe 5 boats in the Shetlands.
I have spoken to Ben this week about making a plan to get results from Thailand onto the various websites and given the time difference between Thailand and Ireland, we think a plan can be made, subject to broadband/internet access at his end.
Cormac Bradley
Profit & Loss Account
Income has increased by £3,100 in 2013 compared to the prior year. £1,800 of this increase relates to fewer sales retentions having been raised against old debts, as predicted. In addition, the well-attended European and World Championships in Slovenia raised a large levy for FI (£3,177), compared to slightly lower overall levies in 2012 from the Worlds in Australia and the Europeans in Italy (£2,665). Plaque sales and plan sales have also been strong in the year, with 17 new boats being built in 2013 compared to 14 in the prior year.
Overall expenditure in 2013 of £9,719 is £400 higher in 2013 than the previous year. Cost of sales (which includes plaques, membership cards, discs and plans) have increased in line with sales, although the new membership cards have added £200 to our costs. Administrative expenses are marginally down in the year.
The overall result for the year is a net profit of £780, compared to a loss in 2012 of £1,956. This is mainly due to larger amounts of sales credits being raised last year to sort out the poor debtor position we had been in.
Balance Sheet
Debtors (amounts owed to us) have decreased yet again in 2013 to £1,522 from £3,700 in 2012, due to resolving further debtor issues. Many NCA's have paid their subs within 2013, so many thanks. This makes the treasurer's job much easier. Some debtor issues do still remain and should be resolved shortly, but we do have a bad debt provision of £1,250 remaining at the end of the year, which leaves us in a healthy position. In particular, one NCA has processed a payment of £642, but this money has never arrived in our bank account. This is under investigation by the NCA's local bank. Cash at bank has remained broadly in line with last year at £18,000. Creditors have decreased by £3,600 in the year to £7,700, due to monies owed to Andrew Davies having been settled. Creditors now comprise an accrual of £6,500 relating to plaque commission due to Norris brothers, plus normal trade creditors.
Budget 2014
The budget for 2014 predicts a loss of £1,400 for 2014. This is due to an anticipated loss on the Thailand Worlds of £1,000, plus the lack of any levy arising from this event.
Penny Gibbs
Day-to-Day Business
As usual, there have been rule interpretation questions from NCAs, sail makers, boat builders and individuals. Most of these questions were forwarded to the Technical Committee by the Class Secretary, but a significant number were raised on the various worldwide websites, and some were addressed directly to the Technical Committee Chairman.
Examples of questions brought up since the last World Championships include:
- The legality of different spinnaker pole construction materials;
- The legality of certain electronic compasses; and
- The use of "soft" rigging.
Rule Change Proposals
The following rule change proposals will be forth for voting so that they can de implemented before the next World Championships:
- Defining additional sail reinforcement dimensions (e.g. batten pocket outer dimensions, tabling widths…);
- Allowing a mainsail flattening reef point;
- Updating the spinnaker measurements to be fully compliant with ISAF terminology; and
- Reducing the weight of the boat (concurrently with the corrector weights) by 3 kg.
Development
A review of the measurement methods for the jibs is still underway as the current method set out by ISAF doesn't really work. ISAF is looking into whether their jib measurement methods can be modified to improve the repeatability of measurement, but it might be required to introduce additional measurement points in the jib over and above the ISAF requirements.
The identification of NCA-nominated measurers is still a problem. Basically, FI does not know who these measurers are, and it makes sail measurement and compliance very difficult at international championships. A database of measurers and signatures is needed to make sure things go smoothly at future championships. Various options, including FI-supplied measurement stamps; sail buttons; Web-based sail registration; and in-house certification by the sail makers are all options that are being considered.
Phil Locker (CAN) has been given permission to trial composite booms.
The technical committee has designed a steel shipping rack that allows for the transport of ten boats (eight on their trolleys) in a high-cube 40' container. This approach will make it easier, and much quicker, to pack and unpack containers. The Australian fleet (Ben) have designed a steel dolly/shipping system that allows for the transport of twelve boats in a high-cube 40' container. Plans will be made available on the FI website for those interested in building either systemm.
Thomas Egli, Fireball International Technical Committee Chairman
The Australian Fireball fleet has remained steady since we last reported in Slovenia. Numbers across the country remain the same with small fleets in Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. South Australia has seen a number of boats change hands with some new young sailors entering the fleet which is very encouraging and numbers around 20 boats.
The downturn of juniors coming up through the Australian fleets is a bit concerning as lower numbers in the junior classes will lead to lower numbers in senior classes in the future. This is already having an effect on our three smaller fleets who all struggle to find crews and get juniors to buy boats.
Again Australia has provided a strong fleet for the Thailand worlds with 11 boats attending. The numbers would have been higher again if we had gone to a new fresh venue - probably around 20 boats.
It still remains hard to encourage sailors to attend regattas in Europe as the cost to get there and lease a boat make it a bit prohibitive. We do expect to have a strong turnout for the South African Worlds and aim to send a container.
Exciting news for the region is the increased Fireball talk in New Zealand, brought about by the return of Greg Bryom after a spell in Australia. Greg has started a New Zealand Facebook group and is hunting down old sailors and boats across the country. It would be great if we can come up with a way to support Greg and build a fleet in new Zealand - perhaps a future worlds is an option.
Ben Schulz
As long as I know, there is no active fireball in Asia except for Japan.
(I guess there is few boat in Thailand but that is for navy training)
Status summary
・fleet boat size is stable. 13 boast joined 2013 national championship.
・5 open regatta is held by fireball in 2014
(Many people may not know the fact since posting the report to Japanese media only)
・No international regatta attendance since 2012 Mandurah, next chance will be
2016 in South Arica if held post Christmas season.
・A few eager team want to join the worlds every 2 year but company position and family
stuff makes it difficult/
Future Perspective
・In order to open the door to every sailor, trial sailing is available at any time
・To enhance the class attractive as open class,
subsidiary program is available when school sailor join worlds championship
For FI
・We would like to hold future Worlds in Japan, but it is difficult to lead big event by 10+ size fleet people.
Considerable is FI lead Worlds like Thailand, in that case candidate venue is Wakayama, Enoshima and Hayama.
・Tokyo Olympic sailing venue is not good place for sailor ( less wind / not clean water/busy traffic of commercial boat)
It's better not choose for amateur class.
・Successful class in Japan is Moth (though it is extreme class), their success background is promotion by boat distributor
and Worlds in Japan 2016(also lead by distributor).
Their strategy is simple and worth to learn, just keep on advertising at weekend: sailing club At night: bar and
Workingday by facebook/blog.
The racing scene in Europe is active. The Europeans and Worlds in Portoroz, Slovenia, last September were a full success and attracted 62 boats from 8 countries, and 79 boats, from 10 countries, respectively. All sailors enjoyed the excellent racing in varying wind conditions, the friendly atmosphere and the hospitality in the Slovenian town. For many Europeans originating from North of the alps, it was a welcome prolongation of the summer.
A few Fireball fleets throughout Europe are growing while many are stable. Worldwide the boat numbers have exceeded 15100. To mention is the CZE fleet with many young and highly enthusiastic members. They have reached a momentum with their lively and joyful young group that allows them to attract new members to the fleet. Furthermore, it is the CZE and to a lesser degree the Swiss that actively travel to other national championships giving those events an international flavor. Lately also the SLO fleet is requesting new boat stickers. Has last year's Worlds revived the class? We hope so. New boats are also sold in the UK.
The Europeans this year will be held in Shetland, July 26 - August 1, and we hope that it will attract a good number of competitors. The upcoming Grand National is the CZE National Championship in Lipno, July 4 - 6. The Swiss-Italy Cup will take place in Maccagno at Lago Maggiore June 28/29. I am convinced that these events will provide good sailing and great company.
Maja Suter
With the last World championship in Slovenia taking place after the end of our summer season, I will try to concentrate on some of our future plans for 2014 and 2015.
We have had the 49th annual NA Fireball Midwinters this month in Tampa with competitors from four of our widely distributed fleets attending. Thanks to Pat Crump for arranging this competition. 2015 will be the 50th Anniversary of this event and we are extending an invitation to Fireballs from North America and the rest of the world to join us for a combined week of US Nationals and Midwinter Championships during the March Spring Break. Look for information in September on the FI, North American, and Davis Island Yacht Club web sites.
Our 2014 schedule includes NA Championships in Alberta in July, US Nationals in Cascade Locks, Oregon, in early August, and Canadian Nationals in Montreal. Our season in Victoria will get under way in April, with later starts across Canada as the ice recedes. Clay Poulson has early season sailing in Arizona in between his world odyssey in search of indigenous art and Fireball regattas.
We are at the point of having good competitive boats distributed throughout North America and our main concern now is to overcome the logistics of getting a large number of us together in one place. There is some enthusiasm for the 2015 Championships in Wales, and I will do my best to promote a good attendance there.
Robert Thompson
