NECRA
Wednesday 16 May 2007

Present:

Larry Wilkinson - Chairman
Harold Usherwood - Treasurer
Nigel Robinson - WYC
Larry also noted that Alan Cooper was currently in hospital and the committee wished him a speedy recovery.

Apologies:

David Mathews -SYC
Jeremey Watson - RNYC

Previous minutes

Approved.

Matters arising from previous meeting:

Prizegiving - SYC was not available on the original date suggested. It has now been confirmed for Saturday 24 November at SYC.
Card fixture lists - these are currently being printed and 4 copies will be sent to all members. Additional copies will be available from the club reps.
Sailing Instructions - for the Bass Rock have been promised asap.

Registrations update

As of 10 days ago, there were 35 boats registered. This is comparable to this stage last year. The distribution of boats across classes also remains similar.

NERR update

Larry explained that the list of boats' ratings presented at the last meeting were temporary, being based on last years data. Apparently there have been a number of changes in the measurements of boats, which were only incorporated into the NERR system when the rating rule was updated on the website a couple of days after the meeting. This resulted in a number of boats ratings changing significantly from the list presented.

To date there has been no response from NERR to the letter from the committee.

NESS Update

The NESS chairman contacted Larry just prior to the meeting. He reported that the NERR Committee had met on Tuesday evening to discuss NERR standards and had decided that only minor changes were necessary from last year. These were detailed.

He asked that the NECRA Committee review the decision over safety regulations taken at the last meeting. He felt that the decision made by NECRA at the last meeting could result in 'dual standards' being operated on the coast, as well as having an adverse impact on entries to NECRA races.

The Committee felt that, despite requests by NECRA for early information, the NESS decision was made too late. NECRA have already gone into print with the 2007 Safety Regulations and the Committee were unanimous that they should prevail. The Committee wished to point out that the use of recognised International Regulations was desirable for a number of reasons. It brought NECRA more in line with other similar organisations, the use of such regulations was more defensible in the event of an incident and the regulations were clearly documented. In addition, THYC, WYC annd SYC were already using them for their club events!

Information regarding NECRA events

THYC reported that Hartlepool Marina had agreed to give a 25% discount to Necra competitors prior to NECRA events. They also reported that the club would be open and food available on Friday 25 May.

Whitby YC have arranged a 'Rock Band' for Saturday 26 May, together with food. They asked for provisional numbers for the NECRA event to facilitate moorings and catering arrangements. Currently NECRA has no way of knowing how many boats may turn up for an event, but agreed to ask potential entrants to e-mail Larry, who would pass on this information to WYC.
No sports boats had yet contacted Bill Uppingham to organise a lift. If there were no requests by this weekend, the lift arrangements will be cancelled!
Because of the lack of potential sports boat entrants, WYC was re-considering the need to have committee boat starts.

Photographic competition

Larry presented an outline proposal which after slight modification was approved by the committee. The system will now be uploaded onto the website.

Date of next meeting

Left open, to be confirmed later. Provisionally early September, baring problems. THYC, 7.30pm.

AOB

The meeting closed at 8.30 pm.