Note – This Skipper’s Meeting was held on 20th July during the ACO 12th Musto Skiff World Championship 2023 in Torbole, Italy.

Present

Most sailors who attended ACO 12th Musto Skiff World Championship 2023 were present.

In addition, International committee members and technical sub-committee members included:

• Danny Boatman (DB) – International Class Chairman
• Paul Molesworth (PM) – International Vice Chairman
• Jamie Hilton (JH) – International Class Treasurer
• Natalie Hilton (NH) – International Marketing & Communications
• David Annan (DA) – International Membership Secretary

Apologies for absence received from:

• David Rickard (International Class Secretary / Technical Liaison & Technical Sub-Committee Member)
• Chris Turner (Builders Rep & Chair of the Technical Sub-Committee)
• Rob Taylor (Class Measurer & Technical Sub-Committee Member)

Meeting chaired by Danny Boatman 

Meeting Agenda:

• A) IMSCA Committee Update
• B) Overview of Class Finances
• C) Membership
• D) New Mainsail
• E) Eurocup
• F) Marketing
• G) Major Events
• H) Small Mainsail Update
• I) Technology Update
• J) AOB

Meeting Minutes:

A) IMSCA Committee Update

1. Danny presented John Outhwaite who has taken the role of Event Manager for the Worlds. Much applause!

B) Overview of Class Finance

2. JH reports that the class finances are healthy.

3. The international class association was able to support the introduction to of the new mainsail by increasing the discount by £200 per sail for class members. This is an investment in the class of approximately £20,000.

4. Brennan Robinson asked if the discount would also apply to the small sail when available? There are no current plans, but the international committee will look at it.

C) Membership

5. DA reported that membership numbers were slightly up – most likely driven by the requirement to be a class member to participate in the mainsail vote.

6. To modernise and simplify the management of membership, the class will be implementing some proprietary software called WebCollect which many people, particularly in the UK, will already be familiar with since it is used my many clubs already. The intent is to have that up and running for 2024 memberships.

D) New Mainsail

7. Earlier in 2023 the class voted to adopt the new mainsail design. This was accompanied by a discount for orders in the first batch offered by Ovington/Hyde and supplemented by the class association.

8. Ovington report that approximately 130 new sails have been ordered so far. Some people have ordered multiple sails, but not many.

9. The first batches of sails are due to be delivered in September/October.

10. The first UK deliveries are aimed for end of UK nationals.

11. International deliveries will be run through the dealers. The dealers will contact the sailors who have ordered sails to arrange delivery.

12. Ovington currently have all the demo new sails that had been circulated for testing by the class.

13. Andy Rice asked about integration of the sail to the class.

14. There is no intention to ban the current sail. Both will be class legal, and this can only be changed by a rule change voted on by the members through the survey.

15. It was asked if sailors can choose which sail to use. A double check of the rules is required, but in the meeting the view was that a sailor can choose which sail to use for an event but cannot change mid-event unless it is damaged.

16. Sam P suggested asking the question in the survey to see how the fleet want to deal with it.

17. Andy Rice suggested a rule that to finish in the top 10 at a major event the sailor must be using the new sail, similar to how the 49ers manage their new rig.

18. Before next years worlds we need to make sure that everyone is clear what the rules are for the worlds around use of each type of sail.

19. Should we have in the NOR for the Weymouth worlds that you can only use 1 “TYPE” of mainsail i.e., new or old?

20. At the moment people do often choose to use their older sails on windy days to save the wear and tear on their “best” set. This is particularly common in the middle and back of the fleet. If a sailor’s “old” sails are the old style and their “best” is the new style, should they be allowed to change?

21. Andy Tarboton stated that he has seen the new sail to be marginally quicker in some conditions and suggested when the fleet finds the right settings it will probably be an overall improvement.

E) Eurocup

22. The committee want to reinvigorate the Eurocup series which was running pre-covid. There is a call for each European nation to suggest an event to be included in the series. Suggestions were:

• Travemunder or Varnamunder weeks
• A 3-day event in Switzerland
• Palma in March
• Dongo in May
• UK Nationals

F) Marketing

23. NH reported that the class has very healthy stats for social media. There have been lots of new followers this week and sharing/likes of the worlds articles.

24. Call for more reports from the international fleets.  There is a perception that all the focus is on the GBR fleet, but the simple fact is that they are just better at sending reports. Call for all countries to get better at sending in their local event reports and class updates.

25. ACO have renewed their sponsorship of the Worlds for another 3 years.

26. Musto have renewed their class sponsorship for another 5 years.

27. Class members – don’t forget you get a 20% discount with Musto as part of the sponsorship. Just get in touch with the committee for your personalised code.

28. We have started to nominate Musto brand ambassadors. These are typically younger members of the fleet who to help to promote the brand and the class. They will receive some Musto kit for the season to represent the class and Musto.

29. A new training video is in development in a similar style to those recently produced by the Waszp and 29er classes. The plan is to make this freely available to promote the class and encourage new sailors.

30. The huge amount of effort from Natalie on the marketing and media was recognised with lots of applause.

G) Major Events

31. The 2024 Worlds are confirmed for July at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy (the 2012 worlds venue).

32. Paul Newman announced that the Australian class are speaking to Woollahra Yacht Club in Sydney Harbour. The dates are likely to be the second week of January 2025 with the racing within Sydney Harbour. The event will be shared with the B14s. Confirmation is hoped to be made soon.

33. The committee are working on developing the long-term schedule of major events to help sailors plan ahead.

H) Small Mainsail Update

34. A small mainsail has been developed by Ovington Boats aimed at encouraging smaller / lighter weight sailors, youth sailors, and female sailors into the class.

35. Ovington has ordered 20 sails, which will be available in September.

36. How the sail is to be integrated into the class, or promoted as a separate class is still to be decided. But the small sail will not be class legal unless there is a rule change in the future.

37. It was asked if one of the youths could use the small sail on the last day of the worlds as a test. There were no objections.

I) Technology Update

38. The technical committee is looking at the advancements in technology and have written an article giving options on how the class could deal with some of the issues that technology can create. It is intended that the article will lead to debate and a vote in the survey at the end of the year.

J) AOB

39. It was suggested we book now to come back to Torbole in 5 years’ time.

40. The sailors and class need to ensure we feed back to Ovington how valuable it is that we have their support at events. The Ovington staff at this event have been superb at helping the fleet stay on the water.

41. There was a question whether we should reduce the maximum number of races that can be held in a day to three.

42. Sailors Forum meeting closed at 19:30 with some additional time added to view the prototype mainsail and small sail on a boat outside the social tent venue at the end of the forum.

END OF MEETING MINUTES