Welcome

Paul Taylor welcomed everyone to the meeting and presented the secretary’s report.   He felt that the dinghy show, which was the main expenditure for the year, was a great success and there seemed to be a lot of interest in the boat and a lot of literature packs handed out.   They managed to keep the costs down by sharing with Cirrus Race Boats.   The position of the stand meant that we did not need to hire walls.  

Event attendance has stayed generally high and in line with last year, which he felt was quite good considering the economic climate.   Warsash Open Meeting had the highest attendance, which was not really surprising as they have the most number of home boats but still attracted the most visitors.   There seemed to be a poor attendance to open meetings in the North but he is aware that there are signs of Northern Blaze sailors starting to travel.  

Constitution

The production of a Constitution was well overdue but the committee had addressed this issue and assured members that, in the future, this would be adhered to.

Treasurers Report

Paul Taylor confirmed there were sixty-nine members this year plus 7 who had joined at Bala this year.   This is one less than 2010.   Paul drew our attention to the fact that the Class Association has no other source of income apart from the subscriptions.   There are 300 potential Blazes in the UK and Paul feels that getting these Blaze sailors to join the association is one way of increasing revenue and existing members should encourage Blaze owners to join the Association.   He also thanked Peter Barlow who, for the last few years, has managed to get support from Hewlett Packard.   Their generous support helped to pay for prizes and T-shirts but that this sponsorship had now ceased.   He wanted to formally thank Peter for organising this over the last few years.   Paul also said that apart from the cost of the Dinghy Show managing the website was a major part of the expenditure this year.   Christian Smart had managed to organise a new Website with a new host, which would be considerably cheaper than the old one, which should make significant savings in the future.   Paul asked for the Treasurers Report to be agreed.   Mike Lyons proposed and this was seconded by Andy Witcher.  

Event Secretary’s Report

Christian Smart confirmed that the Nationals 2012 would be held at Brightlinghsea in June.   The Inlands would be at Queen Mary in October.   There would be a national travellers’ circuit, which would involve approximately 7 events to include the Nationals and the Inlands.   These are provisionally: -

Pevensey Bay

Paignton

Cardiff Bay

Warsash

Aberdeen and Stonehaven

Morecambe and Heysham

Mike Lyons of Cirrus Race Boats and a member of the Blaze Association Committee discussed the winter championships.   He announced that Cirrus would be sponsoring a winter travelling championship 2011/2012 and a summer championship 2012 and would be providing a trophy for both events.   The winter championship trophy will be what was the Burghfield Six Pack Trophy.     Both series will be at existing dinghy events rather than specific Blaze events.   The idea was to encourage Blaze sailors to enter these events and to bring the Blaze to a wider audience.

Peter Barlow spoke about Camel Week or Falmouth Week where Blaze sailors could attend with their family. They could race but still spend time with the family, which was a good way to combine a family holiday with sailing.  

Mike Bell from Burghfield Sailing Club said that they were keen to get an event for next year.   However, the club had a policy of not allowing 2-day events but he was still keen to get some sort of Blaze open meeting at the club, possibly in March 2012.  

Thanks were given to Tim Heaton for working so hard to get the numbers up at the Inlands this year.

Thanks were given to Mike Lyons for continuing to support the class.

Mike Lyons said that he was committed to the Blaze Class by buying the design rights from Isotech, which enabled him to be firmly committed to the future of the Class.

It was also announced that the new junior trophy at the Inlands would be the James Dyson Memorial Trophy.   Christian Smart had purchased a glass trophy for this purpose would require a wooden base to stand this on.   Matt Burnett offered to make a base for this trophy, which would accommodate a brass plaque.

Paul Taylor then explained that he and Peter Barlow had to be re-elected.   Christian, Ben, Martin and Nick did not need to be re-elected.   Paul and Peter were proposed by Mike Lyons and seconded by Simon Beddoes.   This motion was passed unanimously.   Paul Taylor concluded the formal business of the AGM.

Any other Business

Christian Smart spoke about the new Website and said that although the old website was attractive, it was expensive if any changes were required.   Therefore, with that in mind a new website has been set up which will cost £750 for 3 years.   This would look very similar to the old website but will include a forum so the Class Association can easily discuss topics on line.     He would expect this to go live before the end of October.   It would be a lot easier for any of the Committee to edit and add open meeting reports and also add videos via You Tube.   Christian was very keen for all members to look at this and he welcomed all feedback.  

Paul Taylor reminded the Association that Jonathan Saunders report from last year’s Inland Championships at Bala 2010 won report of the year in Yachts and Yachting.   He thanked Jonathon for continuing to produce such entertaining and interesting reports.

Miles Mence brought up the subject of carbon fibre masts.   He realises that this would be a big change for the class but would like it discussed openly and explored because he feels that in the future, all racing dinghies will have carbon masts and if the Blaze does not move towards these, the class will be left behind.   Mike Lyons said that the carbon fibre mast was not essential but would make the boat easy to handle in windy weather and by the more lightweight sailor.   However, this would be expensive.   He said that this had been discussed by the committee before and he seems to remember that the Committee decided that it should be considered again in the future and he thinks that this was discussed about 5 years ago.   Mike estimated that the cost of a carbon fibre mast would be about £1100-£1200 and he felt that the current sail could be utilised with this.   He feels that this will affect the performance of the boat and make the boat faster which will mean that boats with the aluminium masts will be uncompetitive.   He would expect an increase in insurance premiums to take into account the extra cost of a carbon fibre mast.     He also said that the lifespan of a carbon fibre mast would possibly be an issue.   However, manufacturers were addressing this issue and it would be difficult to predict what would be available in the future. There was an impromptu show of hands to gauge the view of the members present and the majority would not want to change to a carbon fibre mast.   Mike said that he has a carbon fibre mast that he is prepared to loan out if anyone wanted to trial this.   Mike proposed that one possibility could be that there could be two Portsmouth Handicaps for the boat to incorporate carbon fibre masts and those with aluminium masts.  

It was suggested that there was a shortage of second hand sails available and there must be a lot of these still around which still had the potential for use which members should make available to those unable or unwilling to buy a new sail to, perhaps, encourage young people to enter the fleet.   Paul Taylor suggested a sail sale, possibly at the Nationals.  

Peter Barlow wants us to evaluate unofficial sails and would it be possible to offer a cheaper training sail.   Mike pointed out that the boat had a well-engineered North sail and does not think that any thing could be gained by having a cheaper sail.

The meeting was adjourned.