Got this report from Debbie Schaefer:
To: Multihull Council Members and Other Interested Parties
Fr: Deborah K. Schaefer, Secretary
Re: Multihull Council Report to the BOD, October 27, 2007
Date: November 8, 2007

Please review the attached Multihull Council Report made to the BOD at the US SAILING meeting held in Phoenix/Scottsdale, AZ in October. This report contains some very good news.

Most notably, the Olympic Sailing Committee re-submitted to ISAF, with US SAILING Board of Directors approval, a list of equipment for the 2012 Olympics which now includes 2 Multihull events, one for men and one for women. The delegates to ISAF will have the final say on the choice of equipment, but this change of heart shone by the Olympic Sailing Committee shows that US SAILING can be responsive to the their Multihull constituency. Please communicate this news to other Multihull Sailors.

Despite the low turn out for this meeting, we had a quorum and we were able to conduct business. Elections were held to elect officers and Area Representatives. Area B and Area G remain Vacant. Please contact Chairman John Williams if you are interested in serving as a Rep in these areas. John is a recent transplant to California. Check out the US SAILING Multihull Council Web Site for the correct contact information for John and all the officers and Reps.

Darline Hobock has graciously accepted the Chairmanship of the Portsmouth Handicap Committee and is already hard at work.

The Multihull Council is looking for someone new to administer the Golden Anchor Program. Chairman John Williams has been administering this program over the last few months. Again, contact John if you are interested: john.e.williams@charter.net

And here is the attached letter:
US SAILING
MULTIHULL CHAMPIONSHIP, MULTIHULL COMMITTEE/COUNCIL MEETINGS
Fall MEETING
Phoenix, AZ
October 27, 2007

Report to the Board of Directors:

1. U.S. Youth Multihull Championship for the Arthur J. Stevens Trophy: The 2007 Youth Multihull Championship was held April 2007 at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club, CA. 18 Teams competed on 10 SL16’s provided by Performance Catamarans of Santa Ana, CA. Winners were Evan Miller and Alex Stuart. They represented the U.S. at the SL16 Gold Cup in France. The Youth Multihull Championship Restricted Fund was utilized to defray costs of travel to this event.

The 2006 Youth Multihull Champs competed in the in the 2007 ISAF Youth Worlds in Canada, finishing sixth.

We will be welcoming Olympic silver medalist John Lovell as the new Chair of this Committee.

2. The 2008 U.S. Youth Multihull Championship will be held January 19-21, 2008 as part of
the ISAF 2008 Youth Worlds Qualifier Regatta at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club, CA. Ten SL16’s will be supplied by Performance Catamarans of Santa Ana, CA, at no cost to the competitors.

3. The 2007 U.S. Multihull Championship for the Hobie Alter Cup was held at Melbourne Yacht Club, FL, April 24-28, 2007, on 10 brand new Blade F16 catamarans with spinnakers. The boats were supplied by Vectorworks Marine of Titusville, FL. These boats are very fast and exciting to watch. Twenty teams qualified to compete in this event. 170 boats competed in the ladder event, touching 305 new and renewing members of US SAILING.

4. The 2008 U.S. Multihull Championship for the Hobie Alter Cup will be held at Gulfport Yacht Club, Gulfport, FL, in April 22-28, 2008. Fun in the Sun, Inc. will provide ten new Capricorn F18’s for the event. They will use On-the-Beach Justice and a ‘Round-Robin format. Competitors highly regard this event.

The Alter Cup Committee will be updating the Championship Conditions for the 2008 event.

Action Item: The U.S. Multihull Championship Committee is requesting that the US SAILING Board of Directors approve the Annual Disbursement of $5,000 from the Hoyt-Jolley Restricted Fund to pay the charter fee for the boats to be used in the 2008 Championship.

Multihull Council Meeting:

5. Golden Anchor Membership Report: The Multihull Golden Anchor Membership Program is one of the longest running membership programs at US SAILING. Memberships have been up every year and are up again by 40%. New members also get a year’s subscription to Multihull Magazine at a discounted rate.

The Multihull Council is looking for someone new to administer the Golden Anchor Program.

6. Portsmouth Committee Report: Darline Hobock has graciously accepted the Chairmanship of the Portsmouth Handicap Committee. Meanwhile, out going chairperson, Jamie Diamond has promised that the 2008 Portsmouth numbers will be coming out soon.

7. 2012 Olympic Games Events: The Olympic Sailing Committee has submitted to ISAF, with US SAILING Board of Directors approval, a list of equipment for the 2012 Olympics which now includes 2 Multihull events, one for men and one for women. The Multihull Council Members will communicate this news to our members and thank the OSC for their support.

8. Election. A slate of officers was presented and the following nominees were elected: John
Williams, Chairman; Robert Merrick, Vice Chairman; Deborah Schaefer, Secretary; Area Representatives 2007-2009 Term: David Ingram, Area D; Kurt Korte, Area K; Mike Hensel, Area L. Area B and Area G remain Vacant.
Mid-Term Appointments: Chris Titcomb, Area A

Members of the Multihull Council, solemnly note the passing of Joe Manganello, long time
Area B Representative.

John Williams
Chairman Multihull Council

Rick,

Looking at the current ISAF meeting today it seems that the Women voted against a cat class the the current position on cats is leaning toward a mens multihull instead of an open multihull. That is at least how I interpretted what came from the meeting. Here is a copy from scuttlebutt europe.

THE OLYMPIC BOAT DEBATE AT THE ISAF
The events for the 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition are the main focus of the day at the ISAF Annual Conference as the Event Committee meet in Estoril, Portugal.

The ISAF Events Committee is tasked with recommending to the ISAF Council the events to be used for the Olympic Sailing Competition. The events are selected five years ahead of the Olympic Games, so at this Annual Conference the decision is for the ten events for the 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition. The ISAF Council will make the final decision on the ten events in their meeting from 8-10 November - the Events Committee are affectively the experts and their recommendation will help inform the Councils decision.

The ISAF Council, at the 2007 ISAF Mid-Year Meetings, had decided on a split of six male/open events and four female events, and drawn up a list from which the ten events could be selected Like the Womens Sailing Committee yesterday, the Events Committee broke the decision on the ten events down into several stages. First up was the decision on the discipline of the womens keelboat event (if selected): match or fleet racing. The Events Committee mirrored the decision of the Womens Sailing Committee and decided on match racing.

The voting process went through several rounds. First of all the multihull option was rejected from the womens slate. Next up the keelboat (match
racing) missed out. In the mens events, the voting process ended with a choice between the two person dinghy and the keelboat to fill the sixth event slot. The two person dinghy won the day, making the Events Committee recommendation to Council for the following events:

Windsurfer - men
One person dinghy - men
One person dinghy heavy - men
Two person dinghy high performance - men Two person dinghy - men Multihull - open Windsurfer - women One person dinghy - women Two person dinghy - women Two person dinghy high performance - women

The Events Committee will now pass their recommendation on to the ISAF Council, who will decide the events for the 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition in their meeting from 8-10 November.

Well that was a nice thought, a least until the US delegation made its deal with the 470's. I did not know they were even in jeopardy of loosing their spot. I applaud the RYA for openly poasting their votes and would like to know who the cowardly individuals on the US delegation were.

Bombs away guys:

ISAF Executive Committee, Groups and Council Members



Executive Committee (Voting Members)

President:
Goran Petersson president@isaf.org

Vice-Presidents:
George Andreadis gean@otenet.gr
Fiona Barron fionabarron@rya-online.net
David Irish daveirish@irishboatshop.com
David Kellett davidkellett@compuserve.com
Teresa Lara tlara@cantv.net
Teo-Ping Low teo-ping.low@singaporesailing.org.sg
Nucci Novi Ceppellini nunocep@attglobal.net


Group A
Ireland, United Kingdom

Council Members:
Chris Atkins chris.atkins@sun.com
John Crebbin jfcrebbin@eircom.net

Group B
Central Europe
(Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Switzerland)

Council Members:
Rolf Baehr r@rbaehr.de
Helmut Jakobowitz h.jakobowitz@jako.at


Group C
East Europe
(Belarus, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, FYRO Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine)

Council Members:
Kamen Fillyov kamen@hic.bg
Tomasz Holc t.holc@wp.pl


Group D
South Europe
(Cyprus, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, Turkey)

Council Members:
Jean-Pierre Champion International@ffv.fr
Sergio Gaibisso sgaibi@ivg.it
Nazli Imre nimre@bline.net.tr


Group E
Iberian Peninsula
(Andorra, Portugal, Spain)

Council Member:
Gerardo Pombo info@rfev.es


Group F
Low Countries
(Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands)

Council Member
Henri van der Aat henri.van.der.aat@trefpunt.nl


Group G
Scandinavia
(Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden)

Council Members:
Kim Andersen krandersen@mail.dk
Carin Hildebrand carin@borking.se


Group H
Euro-Asian
(Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia)

Council Members:
Alexander Kotenkov , c/o Oleg Ilyin ilyin@roc.ru


Group I
Africa and Middle East
(Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Qatar, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates)

Council Member:
Saeed Hareb <dimcdxb@emirates.net.ae


Group J
East Asia
(China, Chinese Taipei, Guam, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Philippines)

Council Members:
Li Quanhai 2008lqh@sian.com
Takao Otani otani@cityfujisawa.ne.jp


Group K
South and Central Asia
(India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand)

Council Member:
Ajay Balram ajaybalram@vsnl.com


Group L
South West Pacific
(American Samoa, Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, New Zealand, Papau New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Vanuatu)

Council Members:
Joe Butterfield joe@footes.co.nz
David Tillett dtillett@dbh.com.au


Group M
South and West South America
(Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay)

Council Member:
Maximo Rivero-Kelly maxriverokelly@fibertel.com.ar


Group N
Central and East South America
(Brazil, Paraguay)

Council Member:
Harry Adler harryforjas@terra.com.br


Group O
North South America, Central America and Caribbean
(Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Columbia, Cuba, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Netherland Antilles, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago, US Virgin Islands, Venezuela)

Council Members:
Jane Moon janemoon@candw.ky
Eric Tulla etulla@riveratulla.com



Group P
North America
(Canada, United States of America)

Council Members:
Charley Cook chascook@comcast.net
Cory Sertl corysertl@rochester.rr.com
David Sprague Sprague@madvice.com


Group Q
Africa – South of the Sahara
(Angola, Kenya, Mauritius, Namibia, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Zimbabwe)

Council Member:
Ross Robson ross@rri.co.za



ISAF Class Committee Representative

Council Member:
Jeff Martin jcm@laserinternational.org


Offshore Representative

Council Member:
Philip Tolhurst pjt@tolhurstfisher.com


Women’s Representative

Council Member:
Fiona Kidd Fiona.kidd@designvision.com

We should also remember to send 21 Thank-You emails too!

Charlie Cook's son sails fins... wouldn't that be a so called "conflict of interest"?

The 2 Americans did not vote for multihulls, if US Sailing was supporting multihulls on the ballot shouldn't these Americans have voted for the multihulls? Bob... is there something wrong with this that US Sailing should own up to?

GBR followed through and voted for the multihulls.

Starting to think US Sailing wanting 2 cats in the olympics was a bogus release to get multihull sailors off their back... apparently US Sailing doesn't represent it's membership body. If it did it seems like the two US reps. should have voted for Multihulls.

Correction: there are three voting members from the US on that tally sheet - and none of them voted for multihulls.

Why didn't they vote for multihulls?

As cat sailors, on this forum, at our multihull specific regattas we might think we're something special. We're not. People that competitively race small multihulls are a speck in the pool of sailboat racing in general.

How many of you step outside of your specific class racing (Hobie, Aclass, F18 etc) and actually sail in open yacht club events. That narrows the field even more. (Some areas of the country are bridging the yacht club gap pretty well already, but there needs to be more.)

These votes aren't a vindictive swipe at catamaran sailors, it's just the way the numbers play out.

If you want to really do something about it other that piss in the wind with an email. Go join your local yacht club, start racing in their events, recruit some new guys to sail with you, then get them on a boat of their own, etc... Get some new people on the water. Start a multihull specific youth program at your new yacht club... get the parents involved...blah,blah...

We are the "odd man out" in the sailing community in general. The only way to really fix that is to get more boats on the water and show the hardcore, yacht club monoslug racer what an incredible competitive sailing scene we have going on here. If you've been in your own myopic catamaran world and haven't been doing your part at getting new people on the water. Then no complaining for you! These votes are a numbers thing, not a vendetta to shut down cat sailing.

I dont think it is quite so simple. One question begs to have an answer. How can the US Sailing representatives not vote for the goals publicly expressed by US Sailing?

About getting involved, becoming visible, joining clubs etc. No argument. This is a turning point and I hope we can move forwards to grow our sport.

Really? You don't think that if cat sailors were 1/3 or more of the entries in every local yacht club midwinters let's say, that the votes would be different?

I think it's all about exposure, and getting more cats on the water in a positive light. Yes, I think it's that simple.

What does the general yacht club racer think about small cats. I've heard, "pitchpole machines", "too dangerous","boats with training wheels" etc. You've probably heard them too. These are the stereotypes we need to change in the eye of the general sailing public.

If you had read the rest of that paragraph you would have seen what I did not think was that simple. The rest of my post was in support of you, so..

It was the first line that got me. Sorry

Why should "bloody" local yacht clubs matter so much ?

Is it that you are not a REAL sailor untill you've manage to acquire a membership to one and have a blazer to proof it ?

Cat sailors don't do YACHT clubs. They may be a member of a sailing club however.

Besides, did the yacht clubs feel that having 70% of all the olympic events wasn't enough for them.

Many many board sailors are members of a local yacht club ? Yet they have 2 events in the Olympics.

It is always the same story with the multihulls. They alway tell us that if we do another round around the field that they will consider us seriously. Suffice to say that there is always one more round to complete. And we are dumb enough to take it.

Hell, the biggest small boat sailing event for the last 25 years was the Round Texel (550 to 1000 boats). But somehow we never seem to have sufficient multihulls to matter.

Weird !

Wouter

Here in the U.S. we just don't have the numbers of active racers, and being part of our local yacht club regattas is a way to get exposure within the sailing community. It's an 'in your face' way of saying,'we're here and we race sailboats too'. Look at the model that Dan D. and those guys are using at the ABYC. That's the right direction to go if you ask me.



Not really. If you look at the demographic spread over on the Hobie forums, you'll see exactly what is "wrong" with catamaran sailing here in the sates (All I can speak to is sailing here in the U.S., it's different all over the world) we're getting old.

We need to 'get out there' and get some positive exposure for the sport, especially to the younger sailors, and get more guys on the water. Simple as that. And I think utilizing our local yacht clubs is the easiest way to do it. They have the infrastructure in place, so we don't need to reinvent any wheels.

While sending emails to the ISAF, US sailing and whoever else might help, actually getting more boats on the water is the real way to solve this problem. Low numbers and lack of exposure are the roots of their decision to drop cats in the first place. Sending emails is just a band-aid to try and stop a hemorrhage. It's going to take some REAL work.

As a member of a sailing club of mono's and multi's we both look at yachts, and the docks associated with, as the biggest and best source of income to fund a building with hot showers, bar and meeting room. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> I can survive quite well at a yacht club, thank you.

I have to add that the fleet I sail with, CRAW, though organizationally independent of other sailing clubs, would probably struggle to maintain our program without the support of generous clubs who host several of our regattas - Racine, Mendota, Kegonsa, Windjammers and Barnum Bay.

Hey Wouter! Don't get too upset when people talk about YACHT clubs. In some parts of the world Sailing Clubs are just called Yacht Clubs (even if they have never had a yacht sail there). In Victoria, Australia there are almost no Sailing Clubs at all - they all call themselves Yacht Clubs.

It's just a name.

After all ISAF changed their name from the IYRU and that didn't appear to make any difference to their outlook.

You have talked a lot about this particular club, seems like you have overlooked a very important part of its name. Wierd!
Gulfport Yacht Club

We need yacht clubs because we need water access.

In the USA

Look at the bad press and our screwups that we must overcome.
The R33 capsizes and subseuently gets tossed from the California race cirucit. Not good

The Hobie Tigers sticking it to St Francis Yact club and not showing up for the nationals that the club was hosting... Not good.

Years and years of talking about a junior training program..
Still no program. Not good.

We are quite happy to step outside the system and run our own regattas.

When we do go racing at YC...often our understanding of the rules is a little suspect.

The powers that be simply decide that beachcats just are not to be taken seriously... At my regional organization meeting this Saturday I wast told (Oh.. you will be fine... you just want to rip around and go fast...

There is enough truth in each of these points that allows the Powers that be to dismiss the multi world.