Dear participants,



Now that we did our first race together and have shown that we are more than just a hype , the time has come to make a few steps up the ladder.



I want to keep the very relaxed feel that the class has right now where the techies and recreational sailors meet and welcome onanother and have fun. Just like how the spi enthousiasts and the spi-less enthousiasts sailed and raced together at Spring Fever. I will take much care to keep this welcoming feel when making the chances.



First on my list is to transfer the free website to a more capable website.



First the why's :



-1- our data transfer rate limit is more and more encountered which causes the pageto be unavailable from time to time. This is not good PR



-2- I expect our pictures of the SF regatta very soon and because we have alot of other classes too I fear that our website will be offline in the first hour and stay that way for a while till the transfer rate drops. This is unacceptable in my eyes.



-3- The added functionality allows me to support the local class heads better with password accessible webpages. With respect to the participants : I want to work towards group purchases in order to make buying spis and such more inexpensive and optimized for our out of the mainstream lightweight boats. I want this to feature to be easily accessible BUT still very confidential and private. For this I need the extra functionality.



-4- I also want a search engine on the website to help navigating. I expect an increase in Tech pages. And a search engine is especially helpfull with these.



-5- I want to get rid of the advertisements on our page



-6- I want to able to remotely link to pictures on our webpage



Before the formum crashed I asked the participants to contribute what they feel is appropriete in order to support the class and allows us to do more in the future. I had put a vote on the forum as to who might be the best choice to act as our threasurer. Kirt Simmons was the clear winner of this poll. I will ask Kirt wether he is willing to take this up.



Sadly I, myself, have forgotten to ask Kirt at SF and to hand over my promised contribution of 25 USD.



However, I will put in my contribution , next to the contribution in time and effort, in the following way.



- Upgrading the website now (before the SF picture transfer rate boom) = cost USD 15,-



- paying the first month = USD 11,95



- Paying the remainder of the monthly fee when the budget is not sufficient.



- being able to have multiple sub domains on the website. This way the F16 class can support the US Taipan 4.9 webpage but keep it totally independent of the F16 class. I want to support the T4.9 one-design class in the US; next to my F16 project.



So the contribution is not compulsory and even non-paying members are still welcome to participate and vote on issues.



The deal that I'll make with the group is that WE, the class officials, have to earn your contribution. Earning it as we did but representing the group at SF. Remember the short course long course discussion at SF.



AND that YOU will reward us with your contribution when you feel that we are worthy of it.



I hope that we Kirt, John, Phil and myself have done enough the last year to earn you support for the coming year.





AND not to the vote.



I want to upgrade the account as soon as possible BUT I need a decision on the domainname / URL under which we be linked to the web.

Wouter

wouter

Wouter

Wouter,



Are you thinking of dropping the HP part of the class name, I think I read somewhere that we might do this. if we are then it would be best to use a site address without the hp



John

John-

Since there would be (apparently) a conflict by dropping the "hp" and going to "F16" (since these domain names are already taken)- I would think we would NOT want to do this right now-

Just my opinion-



Kirt

just checked seems somone has taken but isnt using the f16.*** domains... When I have time will find out who..

This link is also easy to remember and probably one of teh few that people will try when not knowing the exact link.



Wouter

WOuter

Registrant:

domains 2000 (F586-DOM)

www.domainstaken.com

Montreal, QC H2X 2x4

CA



Domain Name: F16.ORG



Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Billing Contact:

Mirweb Technology Inc. (BC4043-ORG) hostmaster@BESTSHELL.COM

Mirweb Inc.

1100 Laurier Est

Montreal, QC H2J 1G7

CANADA

(514) 272-1688

Fax- (514) 272-4787



Record last updated on 18-Mar-2000.

Record expires on 18-Mar-2010.

Record created on 18-Mar-2000.

Database last updated on 11-Apr-2002 00:31:00 EDT.



Domain servers in listed order:



NS1.BESTSHELL.COM 66.199.147.201

NS2.BESTSHELL.COM 66.199.147.202





Registrant:

ORIGIN Systems, Inc. (F11-DOM)

5918 West Courtyard Drive

Austin, TX 78730-5036



Domain Name: F16.COM



Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:

OWO Hostmaster (OH219-ORG) hostmaster@OWO.COM

Origin Systems Inc

5918 West Courtyard Dr

Austin , TX 78730-5036

US

512-434-4263

Billing Contact:

Kwast, Kevin (KK5380) kevin@ORIGIN.EA.COM

Origin Systems Inc.

5918 West Courtyard Dr

Austin, TX 78730-5036

(512) 434-6741 (FAX) (512) 794-8959



Record last updated on 05-Apr-2001.

Record expires on 25-Mar-2003.

Record created on 24-Mar-1996.

Database last updated on 11-Apr-2002 00:31:00 EDT.



Domain servers in listed order:



DNSAUTH1.SYS.GTEI.NET 4.2.49.2

DNSAUTH2.SYS.GTEI.NET 4.2.49.3

DNSAUTH3.SYS.GTEI.NET 4.2.49.4

GATEKEEPER.EA.COM 159.153.88.2

Isnt there an asn domain coming out or is out?



if so we could use that.. is F16.asn? However someone more familiar with the release of new domains would know more about releases..

It is clear that the



www.F16HP.org



Got the most votes :



However halve the votes were cast onto others. So in order to get the true majority vote, and not disentfranchise anyone, we'll let everybody vote again.



The results clear show that the interest is in the *.ORG domains, so I will exclude all others.



It is also quite clear that the F16HPclass and Formula16class domain names are not favoured by any of you so we'll drop those to.



The final vote on the domain that I will claim for us in 5 days will be determined by your ballots in :









Wouter

Wouter

With votes to www.F16HP.org



and both 1 vote to either www.F16.org and www.Formula16.org



and none to www.formula16HP.org



It looks like the domain name :



www.F16HP.org will be the one. Just for the simple reason that there probably aren't 8 votes uncast anymore and that is the amount that at minimum the others need in order come equal to www.F16HP.org.



So the group has decided Our domain name will be :



www.F16HP.org



I will upgrade the site and claim the domainname immdiately.



Regards,



Wouter