Phil Holliday

This topic seems to have been debated ad nauseam in several threads on this forum with the conclusion remaining the same since the rule was adjusted in 2021? It may not be the best written rule but it is clear that if, after taking a penalty turn, additional turn(s) are required if there is still an advantage gained in the heat or race with no reference to the aggrieved boat.

Common sense prevails! How refreshing.

As usual there are posts here which do not reflect the truth and simply seek to knock others. When I was covering the role of International Offficer I requested that all notifications from IOMICA should be addressed to the correct MYA email address, i.e. international-officer@mya-uk.org.uk . When Lester volunteered to take on the role I informed IOMICA of the change in officer and reiterated the need to send notifications to the MYA email. Unfortunately this request appears to have been ignored or missed and notifications have been sent to my old personal email address which I do not monitor on a regular basis. When Rob Walsh contacted the MYA about this matter on Monday 5th I checked the old emails and found the original notification was on 18th October to my personal email and, incidentally, came from a personal email with no indication of its IOMICA origin. This notification did not include any motions. The next communication which included the motions was on 30th November, again from a personal email address. So I apologise profusely for not picking up on this and losing 4 days of debating time! It is also worth noting that there appears to be no mention of this AGM, at least anywhere obvious that I can see, its contents or motions, that I can find on the IOMICA website, which is surely the place where this type of event should be advertised to its members? So before implying to the world that the MYA Exec have deliberately "sat on" anything I would suggest a call or an email to check the facts would be a good idea, or better still, take the bull by the horns and do the job on behalf of the handfull of IOM skippers who actually give a damn and might possibly be affected by these motions.

I am in favour of this but am not sure what Brad is saying above. He seems in favour of continental skippers coming and in favour of it counting for the European Nations Cup but against them staying for an extra days racing amongst themselves. just to be clear, the proposal is that our M Nationals take place over a Saturday and Sunday as usual, the extra day (Monday) will only count towards the ENC with no obligation on any UK skippers to take part unless they wish to be involved in the ENC series. The club are happy to accommodate this and we would have an extra 4 to 8 participants in our Nationals as a result (educated guess), extra income for the club, additional quality skippers in the racing. surely this will improve an event that after the “high” of a World Championship earlier in the year could otherwise be rather flat.

With only two options to vote for I find that I cannot vote for either as both existing and proposed rules have errors and require changing. I believe that we (the Class owners) need a discussion to cover two very distinct topics. 1) Do the present rules require any changes? and 2) If so do we adopt the Standard Class Rules (SCR) format as suggested by the MYA TO or do we stay with our current format and update the content. The MYA TO has identified some parts of our existing rules that require updating and he has made suggestions in his preferred format (SCR) and only with positive feedback from ourselves will he move his position. The more 36 owners that get involved here the greater the chance of ending up with something that works for us all. It is simply unfair to leave it all to our Class Captain, Dave, to sort out so lets hear some more views on what needs to be changed and how we want it written.

Apologies to you all and thank you John for raising this. I sent our DCO an early version of the notice of AGM, not the correct one! Date and venue are OK but the correct version has more information. I understand that we have more space at this years venue and would hope that we can make the pre AGM show bigger and better than ever. New notice of AGM should be on the website shortly.

Using the IOM rule for radio channels doesn't work. We have overlooked the fact that the 36 class rule are Open rules whereas the IOM are Closed rules. Maybe if C.5.1(c) is changed to "Use of more than two channels of radio control are prohibited" would work?

I have picked up on this thread from the forum but I am surprised that, as a 36 registered owner, I have not received any other notification. How many 36 owners are actually aware of these proposals? John's comment re C 5.1c is interesting and could spark a whole new debate. The rule has been there for a long time and this version of that rule is no change from the existing rules . My reading of this rule tells me that "more than two channels of radio control are prohibited" to me this means that if I use more than two channels to control my boat then I am acting illegally. Whether my transmitter/receiver have 2 or 22 channels is irrelevant. How this is policed is another matter but with so much of the rules of sailing relying on honesty/integrity/self policing I don't see why it should be a problem. I agree with comments on C 5.1(d) looks like a typo Changing the requirement for an Official Measurer to a Class Measurer makes sense, especially as sail measurement does not enter into the certification process. As a competitor in several classes I support these changes to bring the 36 class rules format in line with other classes

IOM 2021 Class Rules, section C.7.4 lays it out for you. Deck limit mark to lower point (mast band) is between 60mm and 100mm (these are absolute limits) but more importantly this distance must be the same on all your rigs with a 5mm plus/minus tolerance. So if your A rig measurement is 70mm then your B rig must be between 65mm and 75 mm. Hope this is clear

It is not for the International Officer to comment or have a view only to put the information before the members and gather THEIR views (as has been made abundantly clear by some members on previous occasions.). You will note that the information from ITCA/IMCA was sent out on 19th Sept 2021 and was passed by me to the MYA DCO and the web operators of both the M and 10 websites the same day with a request to publish it to the membership ASAP. I can do no more. Once everyone has had an opportunity to air their views I will forward them to the IMCA/ITCA secretaries as a collective GBR view.

As you are in Southampton you have access to several very competent measurers living in your area (Gosport, Eastleigh) as well as several situated along the M3 corridor in addition to Tony as mentioned above.

It's always good to have knowledgable input into these discussions and this topic, with the exception of myself, seems to have generated just that. As a slight aside from the main discussion I am a measurer for the M (and 10R and IOM) class and was educated in the pre computer era and didn't gain a PhD and yet I have no problem at all with the measurement spreadsheet. Maybe I am just fortunate to have had excellent training from an experienced measurer and enjoy regular sessions with a couple of other local measurers where we check each other and compare notes. But then training is a topic for a whole new thread.

This discussion from the IRSA is about battens and not, strictly speaking, sail thickness. Not to disagree with John's engineering analysis it is worth pointing out that the term "soft sail" is defined in the ERS issued by World Sailing as:- A sail where the body of the sail is capable of being folded flat in any direction without damaging any ply other than by creasing. The discussion is laid out on the M Class website so suffice it to say that there appear to be 3 options available with regard to the current batten rules for M and A class yachts. 1) Do nothing and see what happens, but this could lead to further requests for interpretation and/or protests at a major event. 2) Change the rule somehow to prevent "soft sail" material being used as a batten and bypassing the rules. A potential minefield, especially for measurers. 3) Take away the rule altogether This discussion does not apply to the 10R class as they have no batten restrictions, and where no abnormal sails have appeared as a result.

I am sure that there will be as many solutions as there are clubs! At my own club we already have a system in place for the use of the clubhouse facilities by both ourselves and the dinghy sailors. For us radio sailors we will have fixed control positions marked out central to the course to maintain 2 metres minimum separation with a maximum of 10 participants/race/heat. Control positions will be allocated before the first heat/race and then everyone will move one place before each start. To avoid problems on the start line we will utilise a "gate" system with the gate boat being whoever has been allocated a control position on the start line. This way everyone will have the opportunity to be the gate boat and to race from each of the control positions. It may not be ideal but it will get us going again as soon as we are allowed to gather in groups greater than 2. There may not be many replies on this thread but I am sure there is not a club in the country that isn't considering their way forward once we are allowed more freedom than at present.

This discussion raises two questions in my mind, 1) the phrase "alters course" implies a conscious input from the skipper, should a gust induced lift be regarded as changing course? Without accurate observing from a third party this will always degenerate into an argument with no winner 2) at what point is the ROW boat too close to alter course whilst still giving room? Again this is a judgement call where both skippers involved will have their own (differing) opinion. The reality of the situation is that the give way boat has put himself in a very vulnerable position and is trying to use the nuances of the rules to get himself out! Moral of this story - talk to each other in plenty of time and if you are the give way vessel be prepared to tack or duck whilst you still have time.