International Mirror Class Association of Tasmania.

IMCAT PRESIDENT’S REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED MARCH 2005

 

In summary, the year began on a disappointing note with a very small turnout for the 2004 state titles at KBSC, exacerbated by equally disappointing weather with a serious lack of wind. The lack of wind did however leave plenty of time for some healthy discussion on where the class was going and how best to attract and retain sailors, with many of the suggestions later becoming a reality.

A Mid Winter Madness event at Port Cygnet Sailing Club was a new feature to the year, with beautiful weather (well sunny, but not much wind meaning only one race was possible before millpond conditions set in), and a gourmet lunch featuring local produce (a mini Taste of the Huon). Eleven boats fronted up and all had a good time, thanks to Greg Pullen and PCSC organisation – every competitor went home with a trophy of some description. This fun event set the scene for things later in the year with many youngsters taking the helm from their regular skippers.

A nation wide photo competition was held to provide a high quality and enticing photo of Mirror sailing to be used for posters and other promotional materials for the association. The competition was advertised in both the Tasmanian Yachtsman and Australian Sailing and attracted entries from the mainland and across Tasmania. The $300 prize went to the Joyce family of Launceston for their shot of Andrew at the helm of Time n Tide, however to assist the association, they promptly donated the prize money back to us!

An idea coming out of the think tank last AGM was combined pennant races between MBYC and KBSC, this was accepted by the clubs with each club visiting the other for a day, not only for Mirrors but all classes. The first day at Montrose looked promising with a big fleet assembled on the lawn and the idea looking a real success however the racing was abandoned part way through the start sequence when winds up to 25 knots ripped through. The return visit to Kingston was more successful with a healthy fleet of Mirrors enjoying two races in breezy conditions. We will consider whether we want to repeat these joint club days next year.

The Macintyre Cup at Montrose was a hugely enjoyable event, with a good mixture of breezes from super light (which was abandoned with yours truly in stone motherless last and very grateful to the PRO) to full on with some more cautious boats leaving spinnakers safely in the chute on windy reaches. Although there was only one sub-junior entry, there were some sub-junior helms telling their parents where to go and we have more sub-junior entries for the current State Titles. Quite a few managed to obtain the “Montrose Pennant” as a result of capsizes in shallow water with a muddy river bottom.

The Nationals in Perth attracted only one entry from Tasmania, Mark Barrington and William Maher in Kamikaze II, who sailed well in the conditions to finish up third and qualify for the National Team to go to the Worlds in Sweden this winter. It is hoped that Tassie can get a larger contingent to Canberra next year to the Nationals.

IMCAT presented Toll Tasmania with a mounted montage of photos from the Queensland Nationals held 2003/04 and we managed to get some publicity for the class in the Mercury’s boating section.

An invitation to the Senior State Team members of the Sabot Class was extended to participate in a Mirror Challenge, with crews selected from the better performing Sabot Week senior crews. IMCAT thanks those owners who made their boats available for this event which was raced in excellent conditions with wind strength increasing to give a good demonstration of the Mirror’s capabilities in varying wind strengths. With only two races the finish was tight with a 3 way tie for first having to be broken on count back. The feedback from the kids was good, and from the DSS/RYCT officials also impressed enough to invite us to do similar things in future, possibly holding a pennant race on the same day, and an invitation to their combined clubs picnic day.

Neil Sheppard’s Star Bellied Sneetch was the Mirror displayed at the Wooden Boat Festival, with the occasional on water display of The Edge courtesy of Daniel and John who actually had to drop their mast to get under Constitution Dock and forgot to get some real tension on it before competing in the Royal Hobart Regatta. The Regatta was a mix of conditions with extremely light conditions on the Monday race giving the Cadets a first ever win in the Mirror Heron Cadet Challenge. It is considered there is an opportunity to provide photographs for the next program, and also for commentary on the day for next year.

With much patience shown by Quentin Hunt and Family, the Taroona Scouts were shown the basics of a Mirror in the back yard before venturing out the following Saturday morning. Unfortunately the weather was not particularly kind and the first impression may not have been that positive.

Greg Pullen and Andrew Roberts have been working on updating our display boards to provide a more enticing and professional looking display for use a Regattas and other events to promote Mirrors.

I believe a lot of the momentum we now have as a class is due to the enthusiasm and sheer hard work that Greg and Daniel Pullen have put into the web site. Looking at some of the other sites around, eg Yachting Tas., various yacht clubs, Sabot websites etc. our web site stands head and shoulders above them all, and the speed at which great photos with good captions appear is unbelievable. To those who haven’t checked out the Macintyre Cup reports and photos, you should do yourself a favour! We all owe Greg and Daniel a huge thank you for their ongoing efforts.

The work of the committee over the last year has been fruitful with a number of new ideas tried, the success of the Sabot Mirror Challenge has planted the seed for a “Mirror Legends” series for next year, the first step toward this will be to get owners commitments to providing their boats. To see the best of Tasmanian Mirror sailors back together competing in Mirrors should be something that will generate interest and give further credibility to our class. We need to be constantly looking for new ideas or variations on existing ideas to open up the class to newcomers while working to retain out existing sailors. It was interesting to read Julian Bethwaite’s report to ISAF which addressed the lack of spectator appeal in sailing, one idea was to ban white sails and white boats – we’re about 40 years ahead of him!

My thanks go to all our committee members for their work over the past year (I wont say hard work in case it scares off any potential new committee members.

Grant Atherton

IMCAT President