MINUTES
of
Ajax Keelboat Class Association
National AGM
Held at
St Mawes Sailing Club on Thursday 19 July 2012
Chairman: Bob
Tate
Also present:
Julian Molyneux, J Maslen, Richard
Burnford, Roger Wood, Claire Wood, Doug Sharps, Charles Emmett, Alan Williams,
Dudley Kennett, David Kerridge, Mike Black, Mike Evans, Ian Reid, David
Mathewson, Cedric Thomas, Elaine Davey, Simone Kennett, Peter Nicholls, Richard
Bown, Jeannie Bown, Paul Scullion, Rob Geddes-Brown, Lindsey Thomas, Tom Hustler,
David Williams, Richard Beaman, John Williams, John Howard and James Skellorn
The meeting opened at 21:40
1.
Apologies
for Absence
Apologies for absence were received from Tony James, Philip Mayhew, Kelvin Douglas, Anthony Armitage, John Selby, Will Patten, Chris Brown, Gordon Sutton, Glen Litherland, David Liddington, Kelvin Douglas.
2. Minutes of last meeting
The minutes of the 2011 AGM were accepted as a true record.
3. Matters arising
John Williams circulated an updated list of boats weighed on the load cell, listing the weights of 13 SMSC boats and 20 RHYC boats. Bob Tate commented that the cost of the hand book was subsidised by the Association and by selling advertising space. On the question of upper fixing points for cap shrouds, David Mathewson asked that boats claiming grandfather rights for existing masts which do not comply strictly with the rules should declare them to their local measurer by the end of 2012.
4. Chairman’s
report (attached)
5. Treasurer’s report
David Liddington was prevented by illness from attending. The report and accounts were considered and accepted by the meeting (proposer: John Williams, seconder: Lindsey Thomas). Since 31 December 2011 £1,000 has been spent on the handbook and £600 distributed to each fleet. The East Coast Fleet spent the money on new racing marks.
6. Proposed Rule Changes
Bob Tate said the comments by the East Coast measurement committee in Appendix A should be ignored. He said the class needs a National Rules and Measurement committee to serve the whole class. It should comprise the measurers from both fleets and other members.
(f) Rule 10.5.2.3 (position of battens) John Howard explained that this arises from a difference of interpretation of the rules between East Coast and South West sail makers. South West Sailmakers position to top batten at right angles to the leach, and East Coast Sailmakers position it at right angles to the luff. The rule change allows either interpretation. It was proposed by David Mathewson, seconded by John Williams and passed overwhelmingly.
(a) Rule 10.3.5 (spinnaker boom) Cedric Thomas proposed that discussion of this can be deferred until David Liddington could attend a meeting to speak on the matter. David Mathewson withdrew the proposal.
Rule 17.1.12 (banning advertising on boats)
The RYA advised that if the class does not specifically ban advertising on boats, it is permitted. The proposal to ban advertising was proposed by Cedric Thomas, seconded by Richard Beaman and passed unanimously.
Rule 10.1.5 (swinging spreaders) John Williams said the original masts have a fitting which allows the spreaders to swing forwards and backwards. The proposal is that spreaders can swing or be fixed at right angles to the fore and centre line of the boat. The rule change is designed to prevent spreaders being fixed at a swept back angle, allowing mast bend to be induced by tightening the upper shrouds. David Kerridge commented that it was essential to preserving the mast that the spreaders could not swing forward. There was some criticism of the wording of the proposed rule change. It was proposed by John Williams and seconded by Doug Sharps. There were four proxy votes in favour and one against. In the room, seven boats voted in favour and five against, so the proposal was carried by eleven votes to six.
Rule 5.5.5 : increase minimum eight from 873 kilos to 900 kilos. This change was proposed by John Williams and seconded by Tony James. There was an extensive discussion.
Richard Beaman supported the proposal but did not favour putting corrector weights over the keel: it might encourage owners to strip weight out of the boats and centre it over the keel. David Kerridge said the extra weight of the heavier boats is water which has soaked into the plywood in the floors and the other plywood inside the hull. On the whole it was not water trapped in the hull through osmosis. Charles Emmett agreed with this. He said it was not expensive or difficult to remove this plywood and replace it with epoxy coated ply which does not soak up water. He said Kali was 60kg underweight after she was restored, a lot of which was attributable to voids in the keel which had been filled with filler rather than metal, as he understood he could not fill the voids with metal. She has now been reweighed and only has 20kg of correctors to bring her up to 873 kg.
Rob Geddes-Brown said that when he restored Persephone, her weight was reduced by 60kg through drying her out properly. John Williams said that when his boat was treated for osmosis, her weight only reduced by 25kg. He said that some boats (for example Widgeon) had always been lighter than the others, and he believed the differences in weight arose from the original construction.
Charles Emmett said that increasing the minimum weight would discourage people from maintaining their boats properly. There was support for this view.
Dudley Kennett said that Ajax racing results over many years showed no correlation between boat weight and racing success. It was acknowledged that in other fleets weight was critical.
Bob Tate suggested increasing the minimum weight, but reviewing where correctors were to be positioned.
Doug Sharps said we needed to know where correctors would be placed before we could note on the issue. It was accepted that the meeting could only vote on the proposal placed before it.
John Williams challenged those who thought hull weight was not a critical factor in racing performances to race their Ajax with 2 x 25kg bags of spuds in their boat,
Voting There were six proxies in favour of the proposal and two against. In the room, there was one boat in favour and fourteen against, so the proposal was rejected by fifteen votes to seven.
It was suggested that once the class rules and measurement committee was set up, it could come back with a new proposal.
c) Email voting David Mathewson withdrew this proposal and said he wished to refer it to the rules and measurement committee.
8. 2012 Championship
Lindsey Thomas announced (for clarification) that boats did not have to carry flares to the Championship.
9. 2013 Championship
John Williams said possible dates for this were 14th/16th June or 28th/30th June. Preference was expressed for 28th/30th June.
10. Election of Officers
The offices were re-elected en bloc
11. Any Other Business
None
12. 2013 AGM will be held at RHYC during the 2013 National Championship.
The meeting closed at 10.40