Minutes AGM 2019

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Please find the minutes following the 2019 AGM at Brixham YC
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting 2019

Brixham Yacht Club on Sunday July 6th 2019

Meeting commenced at 09:30

Attendees
John Heyes, Ray New, Martin Hughes, Richard Phillips, Peter Vinton, Simon Percival, Alex Atkins, James Skulczuk, Iona Dixon, Callum Dixon, Michael De Courcey, Lawrence Crispin, Simon Philbrick, Didge Everett, Simon Philbrick, Tim Harper, Hector Simpson, Adrian Pells, Andrew Wylam, Roman Khodykin, Chris Barbary, Fergus Allen, John Greenwood, Paul Brown, Ben Flower, Russell New, Robin Grange, Ian Frayne, Richard Crane, Peter McCoy, Tim Simpson, Allen Burrell, Martin Ibbotson, Graeme Mcdonald.

Apologies – Howard Sellars, Andy Denison
2018 minutes – (posted on the BFA forum 20 July 2018) no matters arising and the minutes were accepted as a true and accurate account of the meeting.

Election of officers
i. Chairman – John Heyes
ii. Secretary – Martin Hughes
iii. Treasurer – Ray New
iv. Membership Secretary – Richard Philips
v. Registrations Secretary – Rory Barnes
vi. Classic Rep – Peter Vinton
The Chairman asked to re-elect all officers on block Proposed John Greenwood, seconded Adrian Pells.

Chairman’s report
The dominating issue this year for all Finn sailors worldwide has undoubtedly been the voting decision at the November World Sailing Conference in Sarasota. The impact of the Finn being dropped as an Olympic Class for Paris 2024 has been particularly felt by British Finn sailors, with funding being withdrawn from the RYA for non podium squad sailors and a major drop off in Under 23 sailors. Whilst I have heard a lot of older sailors say the Olympic decision won’t affect the strong Master’s fleet I disagree. Not only is it vital to develop a healthy growth of young sailors into the fleet to replace those retiring, I believe much of the kudos and appeal for older members is to have the chance to race against the younger, fitter sailors and without them the class will lose much of it’s long held appeal.

In my report last year I passed on the message from the IFA that Finn sailors need to keep the lobbying of World Sailing positive, if were are to win the November vote and that the IFA Committee were quietly confident they had the job in hand. Sadly, this was not the case and despite frequent and insistent questioning of the IFA Committee and Executive over the last two years, we were told little apart from the fact that Committee were ‘hopeful’ and were lobbying hard – we were politely told to ‘leave it to them’. Since Tim Carver’s speech at the FWM and his request for help, we have pushed hard for the IFA Committee to seek professional advice to develop a proper and professional strategy for a final attempt to persuade the IOC not to adopt the World Sailings’ choice of Olympic Classes for Paris 2024.

We have identified an experienced expert who was involved in winning the bid for London 2012 and has since worked with numerous sports governing bodies to help them gain Olympic selection. We are strongly suggesting to the IFA that they should meet up with this consultant who has already given us some very useful advice which highlights the need to have a thorough and up to date understanding of the workings and policies of the IOC and WS, rather than rely on keen but inexperienced volunteers with little to no direct leadership. The cost of an initial workshop and strategy session is in the region of £5000, and I would like to put it to the membership if we feel that the BFA with £22k in the bank should put £1000 into a fighting fund to be spent on this professional advice. Marc Allain Des Beauvais, President of Finn France has offered the remaining £4000 from their funds, so this then removes any excuses from the IFA not to seek professional advice and expertise. A vote proposed by Paul Brown and seconded by Chris Barbary on providing up to £5000.00 to support the IFA was unanimously supported by the membership.

Our GAC Pindar U23 squad has continued under coach James Hadden and with a lot of hard work and organisation behind the scenes by Ray New. The squad is now reduced from 7 sailors last year to currently 3. For those remaining we are trying to help the sailors graduate to professional sailing in keelboats whilst still campaigning hard in the Finn, with the goal of the Silver Cup coming up next week in Anzio. We are pleased to see James and Callum fly back from their training camps in Garda to race with us this week and congratulate them on their steady improvement over the year on the European circuit. James made it into the medal race at Genoa and Callum had a strong result finishing halfway overall in the Europeans. We are thankful to GAC Pindar who has again sponsored the training camps for the Silver Cup preparation this year – as well as sponsoring our National Championships here today. At the Europeans in Athens Giles Scott was back on top of the podium and Ed Wright, the previous winner also finished in the top 10, with Henry Wetherell 2nd in the U 23 Europeans. Good luck to Giles at the Tokyo test event next month in Enoshima.

The Committee has been busy over the winter with lots of innovative ideas to boost attendances at our events, by investing in an impressive new series of perpetual trophies for each age category for the Travellers Series, together with a cash grant for each to attend their age group World or European championship. We have also subsidized the early entries for the Nationals by £25 a boat to try to boost attendances and get people to commit early, as a strong entry list for the nationals is one of the best ways to promote the class. Next year we will ensure it does not clash with other European Nationals, including the French Championships that will move back to its usual date of July 14th.

To develop new fleets at smaller inland clubs, we are planning a short Spring Travellers series of one day open events at Inland and harbour venues to try and meet the demand for time constrained sailors and those who may not have access to winter racing at their coastal clubs. We ask that you try and support this new initiative that will help build the fledgling fleets at clubs such as Bough Beech.

I would like to thank all the Committee for the huge amount of work they put in behind the scenes to maintain our class at the forefront of UK sailing. We have next year’s Nationals already confirmed for Hayling Island SC on the 10-12th July.

Finally, I would like to thank Martin and Sean for all their work in organizing this year’s championship for us, it has been an excellent and well-run event and we look forward to its conclusion later today.

Membership and PSN
Thirteen new members joined during the first 6 months of 2018, a further 4 re-joined after a membership lapse. Since the previous AGM, 3 new members joined in July 2018 and a further 6 joined in 2019, three were Classic Finn owners. If you know of any Finn owners who are not members, please encourage them to join, and remind classic Finn owners or those who do not own a Finn and borrow a Finn to race that they may become associate members for only £10 per annual.
One hundred and forty-nine members renewed their membership by email in January 2019. Thank you to all members who renewed their membership on-line by 1 March, this significantly reduces the time need to deal with membership matters. Regrettably, 17 members have not renewed their membership or made contact, so their memberships have lapsed.

A few members have continued to pay by direct debit or are honorary members and have not yet completed the online membership form. Please note that due to GDPR rules such members may not receive all communications from BFA/IFA. Please inform any Finn sailors who say they are not receiving any communications. The information provided by members on the subscription renewal form in respect of members Finn sailing plans is aggregated and the summary is made available to the BFA Committee.

Personal Sail Number (PSN) holders were reminded in February that they needed to renew before 1 March . The rights to use a PSN for four years can be ordered by full or U23 members (but not associate) and paid online via member’s “My BFA” account. PSNs are subject to terms and conditions as set out on the order form. The main conditions are that BFA membership must be renewed by 1 March each year and the PSN may not be transferred or used by anyone else. Members are invited by email to renew their PSN rights prior to the expiry date.

Classic fleet report to include classic with carbon
We are halfway through the new classics travellers series having chosen Bosham and the Inlands as BFA events and Clywedog and Roadford from the CVRDA events.

The Bosham event was attended by 3 Fairey Finns but sadly only one Finn attended the CVRDA event at Clywedog following a poor forecast. The series will continue with the CVRDA event at Roadford which is the 20th anniversary nationals and should see a good turnout of Finns, and then concludes with the Inlands at Oxford which will also be the Classic Nationals again.

I also receive many enquirers about classic Finns, most from the UK but in the last year I’ve also had some from the US, Canada, Italy and Switzerland.

Boat registrations
Four Finns have been registered in the UK since August 2018. The latest sail number is GBR 792.

Under 23 development squad
2019 is the fourth year of the U23 programme, but the decision by World Sailing had a dramatically negative effect on the UK U23 squad. At the start of they ear there were 5 sailors on programme but this has now reduced to 2 – Callum and James. In support of the U23s we created a ‘big boat’ programme to get them into professional sailing. This has worked for Dan Patten who is sailing professionally on a Swan 50 in the Mediterranean. James Hadden continues to work with James and Callum providing them with coaching support. Three sailors, James Callum and Cameron Tweedle have all entered for the Silver Cup in Anzio Italy.

We should congratulate Callum on his selection to British Rowing. The RYA now recognises the strength of our U23 programme and would have expected to take sailors from the U23 squad directly into their national Finn squad.

Accounts
Subscriptions to date in 2019 are was down by £329 on the previous year along with the income from PSNs. The reduction of the U23 squad has also reduced the turnover to support their campaigns. However the advertising and sponsorship income was in line with previous years with income from GAC Pindar £3,000, Petticrows, North Sails and Suntouched Sailboats
The annual fee payable to the IFA continues to be a substantial draw on our income costing members £4,395.
In summary our expenditure in 2018 exceeded our income by £827. The account balance at the end of 2018 was £21,809.

Events, 2020, 2021
Venues are sought for future years for open meetings and travellers trophy events. Members are asked to contact the Secretary if they can host a Fin even at their club. The programme for 2020 should be available as an early draft in November.

The nationals in 2020 are booked at Hayling Island Sailing Club for July 10 -12. The location for 2021 is yet to be fully confirmed but is likely to be the Royal Torquay Yacht Club.

AOB
The chairman encouraged members to email the RYA and the IFA with personal messages asking what they are doing to support the continuation of the Finn as an Olympic class.
There was no further business

The meeting closed at 10:40

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