Minutes of the NECRA Committee Meeting
THYC
Wednesday December 9th 2007.

Present:

Larry Wilkinson - Chairman
Harold Usherwood - Treasurer
Alan Cooper - Secretary
Nigel Robinson - WYC
Jimmy Carter - SYC
Rodger Bacon - SYC

The committee recorded their thanks to David Mathews for his hard work over his time on the NECRA committee and welcomed the new representatives from SYC. SYC will continue to have only a single vote, the same as other clubs.

1. Apologies

Jeremy Watson RNYC

2. Minutes of the previous meeting

Approved.

3. Matters arising

Harold informed the committee that ATF has agreed to provode sponsorship for the NECRA regatta. A 'Regatta Committee' comprising of the sponsor's representative (Harold Usherwood), a representative from THYC (Alan Cooper) and a NECRA representative, (Jimmy Carter) was proposed to organise the use of this funding. The NECRA regatta to be called the ATF Necra regatta.

4. Race programme 2008.

Comments received from members were read out. There seemed to be wide support for the provisional programme. However some concern was expressed at the balance between passage racing and inshore racing. Further discussion followed in which it became clear that representatives felt that some additional inshore racing should be incorporated into the programme. However, it was also clear that for Inshore events, the representatives were not in favour of 'Olympic style' courses and also wished to have the option of returning to their home port on the last day of the weekend without the necesity to race on that day to complete the NECRA programme.

A compromise was reached where it was agreed to ask SYC if they would be willing to run 2 back to back NECRA inshore races (bay or extended bay races) on their regatta Sunday. Naturally, it would be their decision as to whether or not these would be part of their regatta. At the same time RNYC was to be approached to see if they would be willing to run a NECRA 'bay' race on the Saturday of their regatta. It was felt that this arrangement provided the greatest encouragement for boats to take part in NECRA events whilst permitting those boats that wished to also take part in the club regatta.

The SYC reps agreed to take this back to thier club to seek agreement. At the same time the Hon Sec was asked to formally write to the clubs concerned explaining what NECRA was proposing and asking for their agreement.

The provisional programme was agreed and dates and times finalised, with the addition (subject to agreement by the clubs concerned) of 2 Inshore events at SYC and 1 Inshore event at RNYC.

EventHostRace_typeRace_dateStart_timeRace_desc
  Sunderland- HPool   THYC   O   24 May   09.30   Feeder for NECRA Regatta
  Whitby - HPool   THYC   O   24 May   08.30   Feeder for NECRA Regatta
  NECRA Regatta - 1   THYC   I   24 May   14.30   Regatta Series - 1 bay race
  NECRA - Regatta - 2   THYC   I   25 May   09.30   Regatta Series - 2 bay races
  NECRA Regatta - 3   THYC   I   26 May   09.30   Regatta series - 1 bay race
  Sunderland - Whitby   WYC   O   27 June   21.30   Overnight
  Whitby - Hartlepool   THYC   O   29 June   10.00  
  Scarborough - Imuiden   ScYC   O   4 July   19.30   North Sea Race
  Farnes   RNYC   O   9 August   06.00  
  Hartlepool - Sunderland   SYC   O   23 August   09.30   Feeder for Roker Regatta
  Blyth - Sunderland   SYC   O   23 August   10.00   Feeder for Roker Regatta
  Roker Regatta   SYC   I   24 August   ???   Roker Regatta - 2 bay races (TBC)
  Sunderland - Blyth   RNYC   O   6 September   09.00   Feeder for RNYC Regatta
  RNYC Regatta   RNYC   I   6 September   ????   RNYC Regatta - 1 bay race (TBC)


5. Registration procedure 2008

This remains the same as 2007. Application forms will be sent out with the 'winter' newsletter. A copy will remain on the web site for downloading.

6. Classes 2008.

It was confirmed that Class 1/Class 2 boundary is to be reduced to incorporate Sigma 33s and boats rating higher into Class 1. The Class 2/Class 3 boundary will be a located just below the Hustler 30 rating, otherwise Class 3 and White Sail will remain unaltered. If there are sufficent Sonatas registered, a Sonata one design class will be provided for the NECRA Inshore Series.

7. Scoring system 2008

For the individual Inshore and Offshore championships it was agreed to score each race in each of the series using the ISAF Low Points scoring system (RRS Appendix A).

Although there are 9 Offshore races, boats can only compete in a maximum of 7 of these.
Thus, for both Inshore and Offshore series, boats will count 4 out of a maximum of 7 races.

The scoring for the Club Championship will be discussed at the next meeting.

8. Review of NECRA prizegiving and dinner

It was felt that SYC did an excellent job of hosting the event. There was much positive feedback from those who attended.

However, numbers were quite small with the bulk of the attendees again comming from THYC and SYC. There was some discussion on why this happened. These covered the date (later or earlier? - as early as feasible after the end of NECRA racing), location (YC or hotel? - YC remaining the preferred option), type of event (music or no music? - no music) and cost (subsidized or not- next year will not be subsidized!). It was felt that more publicity was necessary. Hopefully this will be addressed in 2008.

9. AOB

Alan Cooper again raised the general issue of the lack of a communication channel with NERR. All other representatives present also expressed similar concerns. In an effort to overcome this problem from NECRA's perspective, it was agreed that the Hon Sec write to the Chair of NERR asking if they would be willing to have a representative attend the NECRA committee meetings on a regular basis with a view to keeping the committee informed of NERR's developments and future plans.



Meeting closed at 10pm