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2018 AGM Minutes, WPNSA

International RS Tera Class Association AGM Minutes

Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy

6^th August 2018

Present : Helena Barne, President; Robin Caiger, Treasurer; Emma Hawley, Secretary; Michiel Geerling, RS Rep; David Bailey, Technical Rep; Jon Partridge, MD RS Sailing; Emily Davis, UK Tera Class Assoc Secretary; Mireille Layland, Secretary RS Tera South Africa Class Association. Tera parents.

No apologies

Previous minutes - Talked about the EuroCup. Had hoped to run a Danish EuroCup event in 2018 but Tera Class organiser in Denmark, Peter Toft, felt it was too early for the Danish Tera Class to be hosting such an event, but class now working towards that in the future. Ctte reiterated its aim to build larger fleets beyond Britain.

Update on new RS Tera - since 2017 RS Tera World Champs in Carnac – Jon Partridge (JP) explained how last year’s Worlds were a low point for the Tera, but gave RS Sailing the impetus to look at the boat again and start discussions about the boat’s quality. The hull shape and rig has really not changed in the 12 years since the boat was launched and in that time RS have learnt a great deal about building roto-moulded boats so felt it was only right to implement these techniques on the RS Tera.

A decision was made to re-invest in the boat with a new tool costing £120,000 making the hull much stronger with a superb finish, to withstand the pressures on the hull as the boat develops as an international junior racing class. The mast step area has also been completely altered. In testing, RS & Seldon found the mast pot is now 30% stronger than before. Other improvements include a new back plate, a new hatch on the deck with storage, a bottle holder & better toe straps.

Jon Partridge admitted this is a period of transition for the Tera as there are still 3,500 hulls out there. Answering concerns that the new hulls make the boat faster, JP said the changes were not performance related but simply practical to improve the reliability of the boat. With the ever-progressing class status, RS felt this was the right time to make such changes to modernize and refresh the RS Tera to fully future-proof the boat for the years of class sailing and racing it has to come.

Financial statement – report given by Treasurer Robin Caiger

Class in good financial shape and will see us through next year if events do not break even. Bank will have £11,400 in it, including RS charter fees, but we use that to help with offering charters to others & paying admin costs.By end of year forecast is £6,672. Don’t pay a bookkeeper. Don’t believe our events are expensive. JP – what the kids get from the experience is utter value. We are a similar price to other international kids sailing event. As a spread sheet I look at Opi Worlds, Topper Worlds – Opi would cost you double, and that covers very little, just race management.

Election of officers – next year President & Secretary. Need parents to step up and volunteer. Emma & Helena have been will do 3 years (3 events) before stepping down – Carnac 2017, Weymouth 2018 & Sweden in 2019.

Progress report from President Helena Barne on 2019 RS Tera World champs, Ljungskile SC, Sweden (4-9^th August) – to be held at her home club. A working group consisting of sailing club members and members of the local community are meeting regularly to put together a plan for the event. The aim is to make it a really great and friendly event. Emma is working with Jon Partridge at RS to look at ways of transporting boats to Sweden as an alternative to driving there with a boat trailer. At our Swedish Evening on Wednesday, I have made a video showing the location of the Worlds next year and the various ways of getting to the sailing club.

At Worlds next year we have a really good race officer who runs a sailing school in the bay. We feel it’s not right to bring a race officer from another country to set up a race course in an area they are not familiar with. The Swedish sailing authority agree with this, but the International RS Tera Class Association has to approve this. Worlds sailing regulation changes often but believe it allows the event to be protested. When you have an international jury & international race officer, a sailor has the right to go to World Sailing and protest the race officer because there isn’t anyone internationally qualified. I believe there is that option.

The International RS Tera Class Association Committee agrees that the organising authority (Ljungskile SC) can appointment the Race Officer Bjorn Axel but an International Jury.

2018 EuroCup events – Michiel Geerling, Ctte’s RS Sailing representative outlined how the International Class Assoc had planned a Dutch Eurocup event for September but the club pulled out as they felt they only had enough staff to run a Feva & Aero event and they would be stretched too thin to add the Teras too. They did offer us a committee boat & rib but suggested the International Class Assoc organise its own race ctte. As a cttee, we felt this was too much to bring race ctte & volunteers to help from UK when it should be a Dutch run event. Event has been cancelled. UK Tera Class parent Gary Finklestein commented on how he’d tried to enter his son into the EuroCup in the Czech Republic but the organising authority ran it as a Czech event only.

Helena Barne mentioned the Harboe Cup in Denmark and how we had looked at this as an existing event every September that we could also call a EuroCup event but perhaps next year. the Danish Tera scene ianish Tera sailors have only recently come on board, attending – we looked at this but perhaps option for next year.

Danish Tera Class parent Tim Krat suggested that the Harboe Cup could be better advertised outside Denmark to try and attract sailors from further afield and that the Tera scene should be more committed to making new connections and inviting international sailors.

JP suggested rather than organising EuroCup events, which he noted were never that successful with the Feva fleet, it might be better to just have a list of other great Tera events abroad that sailors might want to consider attending just for the experience, but not making them part of a EuroCup series.

2020 & beyond – JP reports that the Fevas have booked Travemünde in northern Germany in 2020. The Feva event would be part of Travemünde Woche race week, a huge annual sailing event held in late July in the Bay of Lübeck in the Baltic Sea. Easy event as all infrastructure already in place. Get around 1,000 boats there every year. Local government closes for the week and all staff get involved in running the event. Positive feedback about running a Feva & Tera event together in one location.

From RS point of view, running Tera & Feva events together would mean we could throw more resources at it. It’s an 8 day event and we would need them to extend it by 2 days if they run it back to back. Michiel Geerling & Emma Hawley both pointed out that we have already promised South Africa that they would host the 2020 RS Tera Worlds. Emma suggested making the Tera event a shorter, perhaps 3 day Europeans so those sailors who sail both boats could do both competitions. JP says Travemünde could be a Feva Worlds but more likely to be a European champs. Open discussion about getting there – a ferry journey from Gothenburg, 7 hour drive from UK. Danish Tera parent Tim Krat commented how Travemünde would be an attractive proposition for the Danish sailors as many already go there & an easy enough trip. JP ended discussion by saying that the more boats you offer the Travemünde organisers, the more you get from them, so well worth looking at.

South Africa 2020 – South African Tera Secretary, Mireille Layland is already starting to work towards this with Mossel Bay Yacht Club hosting. Mossel Bay is a tourist area, 4 hours drive east from Cape Town. Unlike Pine Lake Marina, location for the 2014 RS Tera Worlds, Mossel Bay is a tourist area with plenty for sailors and their families to do for them to make it a great holiday too.

Mireille discussed how currently looking at an Easter event (Good Friday is April 10^th in 2020) as there are good winds for a junior sailing event that time of year. The winds are generally very light in July & August & are building up again in Sept/Oct. Some discussion about South Africa hosting the Worlds in 2021 but the Laylands pointed out how many of the current Tera parents wouldn’t have children in the class by then and would want to make it happen sooner rather than later.

UK Tera Class Assoc Secretary, Emily Davis, suggested we should look towards funding for people to go to these events.

JP suggested if we were to run it as a qualifying event then you would generate more entries and the class could find suitable sponsors to fund the travelling. Laylands added that South Africa is cheap once you get there.

Helena Barne asked whether RS Sailing could get some charter Aeros to Mossel Bay too to make it more attractive to parents.

Where next? Fevas are going to Italy for their Worlds in 2019. Lake Garda a possibility for the Teras in 2021? JP added that Fevas will be in NZ in 2021 with the Americas cup. USA suggested as Tera scene getting stronger & more organised. JP talked about his experience with the 2018 Feva Worlds in Clearwater Florida this year. Very different

approach to running events – clubs appoint an event director & they charge. Possibly look at USA for 2022. But idea is to hold an RS Games every 4 years so in 2022 talking about going to Medemblik in Holland where they can accommodate a lot of boats. RS would set it up & class associations would be invited to come. JP outlined how he is

hoping to go to Medemblik in September to look at possibility of the next RS Games being there. Some discussion about if held Worlds in USA in 2022 and made Medemblik a Tera European champs, majority of sailors would go to Medemblik as happened this year with more sailors choosing to enter Feva Europeans at WPNSA in UK than the Feva Worlds in the USA. Suggestion of a USA Tera World champs in 2023 – maybe we say to USA we give them the time to develop as a Class.

Tim Krat suggested Denmark could run a European event in the future but would need to make sure there’s a solid class in Denmark. Class getting there very quickly but perhaps in 2-3 years we could do it. Good international judges. Need to speak to Peter Toft, main Tera organiser in Denmark.