21 April 2014
Fireball International
Open Forum 2014, Thailand
Present
Joe Jospe CAN
Maja Suter SUI
David Laing RSA
Ben Schulz AUS
Tom Egli CAN
Andrew Davies GBR
Representatives from SUI, FRA, AUS, GBR, RSA.
Rear Commodore Arica
1. Joe Jospe (JJ) introduced David Laing (DL) as the
new Rear Commodore Africa. DL has taken over from Peter
Colebank.
Future Championships
2. Andrew Davies (AD) reminded the meeting of the agreed
diary.
2014 European Championship, 26th July / 1st
August, Shetland.
2105 Pwllhelli, GBR 17th / 28th August
2016 Mossell Bay, RSA 4th / 16th December
2017 There is a general feeling in the class that
there needs to be a sufficient gap between events in the WC
schedule to avoid event fatigue and poor participation. In 2017,
there will be no Worlds, but there would be a large European
Championship.
2018 Barbados. April / May A return to this venue
was requested by many and in Slovenia, Council decided to go there.
It will be the 50th World Fireball Championship
3. The UKFA will officially launch the 2015 Championship over the
Easter weekend DL spoke very positively about Mossell Bay and how
good it is as a sailing venue and also as a safe holiday
destination. DL is going to encourage people to come early / stay
later to enjoy the surrounding area as it is a world class holiday
destination.
4. DL will be putting information together soon in order to
attract as many people as possible to attend the event.
5. Chris Payne (CP) ~ the Class needs to target an international
shipping sponsor to assist NCA's sending containers to
Championships.
Future European Championships
6. The following are currently proposed:-
2016 Lake Garda, suggestion from within the
Class. AD to check availability.
2017 Roses Bay, AD has visited the area last
October ~ a great venue although work needs to be done with
the Spanish Federation as they focus mainly on Olympic
Classes.
Election of Officers
7. JJ informed the meeting that elections of Flag Officers were
due this year.
8. The constitution reads:
"7.2 Council shall call for nominations for Flag Officers not
less than eight months prior to the expiry of the
current term of office. Nominations shall be closed
four months prior to the expiry of the current term of
office.
7.3 The Commodore shall be nominated by a NCA and seconded by
another NCA. The Rear Commodores shall be nominated
by a NCA in their region and seconded by another
NCA."
9. This time frame means nominations should be submitted from now
on.
10. RC Europe, Maja Suter (MS) suggested a representative from CZE
would be interesting. CZE is the fastest growing NCA in the
world at this time and a new young person would be good for
the FI Executive.
11. MS will continue to organize European containers.
Technical
12. Tom Egli (TE) explained there had been some good development
work on containers and framing inside to allow 10 / 12 boats
in 40' boxes. This should reduce the cost of shipping to major
regattas. The cost of shipping a boat GBR / THA / GBR with 8
boats in the container was £800.
13. Sails: TE is waiting for more information from the sail
makers.
14. Trailing: TE reported on the following trials of
equipment:-
Carbon Booms, Canada, Phil Locker. This will also mean loose
footed
mainsails.
Carbon Rudders, UKFA
15. The FRP spinnaker pole on TE's boat is now being sold
commercially in the UK.
16. The corrector weight of the boat will be reduced by 3kgs. This
had been discussed in Slovenia and again at this meeting and
has been met with general approval. The next step will be a
formal vote.
17. There needed to be further house keeping with the class rules
on sail measurement bringing FI more in line with ISAF and the
ERS. This will include measurement procedure for jibs.
However, unless ISAF provides a better jib measurement
mechanism, FI may need to specify how Fireball jibs
are measured.
18. There will be a data base developed for all NCA measurers. At
this time FI does not know who every Class measurer is.
AOB
19. Various topics were discussed;
Jack Fletcher AUS (JF) enquired about the use of short strand
carbon and when was its use OK. TE reminded the meeting that short
strand carbon was used in blocks. A general discussion took place
where TE explained in some instances eg. Compass brackets he saw no
problem with the material as it was in the market place as a
standard fixture.
20. The discussion expanded;
Nathan Bachelor, who works for Ovington Boats, said NO to Carbon
boats and NO to pure Carbon spinnaker poles as it would make the
pole too fragile.
Face book, membership has risen from approx. 560 to 600 in the
last two weeks.
There had been reports written by Cormac Bradley that were
appearing on Y&Y, ISAF webpage etc etc.
AD put the idea of an international Class sponsor. This
discussion developed into what a sponsor would get for their money
/ image. A media person was suggested whereby that person could
promote and market an event by short videos, interviews,
photographs, similar kind of idea to what Noah Perves-Smith did at
the 2010 World Championship.
Heather MacFarlane initiated a discussion about the "Oscar" 12
knot pumping rule. The feeling was to open the discussion to the
Class as a whole.
A Davies
April 2014