The Open Forum took place in Adelaide, Australia during the World Championships 2004 and was well attended by competitors from many different countries.

An overview of what had been discussed during the Council Meeting 2004 was provided:

Commodore’s Report

• 2003 had been a hectic year for Fireballs internationally with the World Championships in Kenya in February and the Europeans in the Shetland Islands in July. It was encouraging to see such a large number of boats in Australia for the World’s, but we still have some way to go to try to encourage Fireballers from other NCA’s to travel outside their own country.
• Accounts for 2001 and 2002 had been presented. Although FI was currently loss making, and cashflow was poor, it was hoped that advertising could be attracted to the relaunched website.
• The FI website was relaunched during the World’s 2004 and phase 2 would be launched in a few months time. The aim was to make the website more useful for sailors, with information on international regattas, boats for sale, a crew search etc. Phase 2 would see the introduction of Discussion Forums, more photographs and the capacity for users to upload information themselves to the site.
• The 2005 World’s are to be held in Teignmouth, UK. The aim of the UKFA is to ensure the event is inclusive, to welcome sailors at all levels of the fleet, together with their families to the event. A special website had been set-up for the World’s where information could be obtained: www.fireball-worlds.com and a questionnaire completed.
• Regions need to decide whether they want the position of Rear Commodores to be filled. Only Europe and Australasia are currently active but this position should provide a useful link between FI and the NCA’s.

• The FI office is as busy as ever and the number of new Fireballs being registered is between 40 and 50 per year.
• The 2006 World’s are scheduled for Vancouver, Canada in May 2006. The Europeans 2006 may be held in La Baule, France. The 2005 Grand Nationals will take place on Lake Bracciano in Italy.

• The reduced tip weight by 0.2kg, laminate sails and the tacktick compass were all introduced in time for the last World Championships.
• An Emergency Rule Change was introduced for the 2004 World’s to restrict the length of batten pocket patches to 320mm in any direction.
• Projects for the coming year are:
  • Sail labels ~ whereby sail manufacturers can measure their own sails and purchase a sail label from FI to attach to the sail to indicate that the sail meets all Fireball Class rules.
  • Spinnaker ~ the measurement criteria in the Class rules need to be updated to conform to ISAF terminology.
  • Class rules ~ as advised by ISAF, we need to update the Class rules to make them prohibitive ie “anything not included within the rules is not permitted”. Innovation could then not take place without FI being aware of it.
  • Increasing the length of time an amateur builder has to retain a boat from 6 to 12 months.
  • Trials on carbon spinnaker poles and tiller extensions will be trialled by the UKFA and the Swiss NCA may also perform trials on split masts.
  • The measurement booklet needs to be updated to incorporate the Emergency Rule Change and the introduction of laminate sails etc.
• ISAF changes:
  • ISAF are looking to be able to select the PRO’s and the jury for National and International events. Although this is currently only for Olympic classes, Italy may introduce this for all classes.

In addition, the following points were raised and discussed during the forum:

1. Future World’s/European Championships

The following locations were proposed as future venues for championships:
• Thailand for the World’s in 2008
• Europeans in the Czech Republic
• Ireland

The point was raised that as a class we should be looking for venues which fit the strategy of the class, either by promoting the class when a large number of competitors can be attracted to the event, or by visiting locations which will encourage the local NCA and strengthen the class.

By holding events in holiday locations, it was felt the event could attract sailors who combine the event with a sailing holiday and who might otherwise not travel to international sailing events.

The point was made that a major consideration when running an event is the affordability of the food at the venue itself, and the cost of tickets to the social events organised by the host club.

For sailors coming across to Europe, a major consideration is the timing of the various events across the Continent. To make it worth while coming to Europe, it is advantageous if the events can be carefully timed to enable competitors from abroad to compete in several events in succession.

2. Technical Matters

• Tom Egli advised he would like to see the rules clarified to introduce a maximum volume for the windows on dacron sails.
• Previously it had been discussed whether we should reduce the weight of centreboards by say 0.5kg. TE advised this would be difficult to introduce because of the number of old Fireballs there are sailing, given that centreboards are kept for a long time. Chris Payne reminded the class that the original idea of increasing the maximum correctors to 7.5kg was so that the weight of the boat could gradually be decreased via the corrector weight.
• The suggestion was raised of adopting an all-up Fireball championship weight to ease measurement time at championships.
• Richard Wagstaff requested measurement guidelines so all measurers would know how to measure Fireballs. TE advised the latest set of rules with the recent rule changes were now on the FI website in PDF format. When the rules are amended to use standard ISAF terminology, this will be easier for any approved measurer to measure a Fireball. In addition, the rules now need to cover both plastic and wooden boats.
• Bryan Inns raised the issue of whether numbers on spinnakers could be dispensed with. This may be acceptable if we always finished on a beat, but Dave Wade advised other fleets in the UK had adopted this change and had experienced many problems with it.

3. General Issues

Ideas for attracting new sailors to the fleet were exchanged:

• Canada had adopted a system of running organised weekly races where a more experienced sailor was teamed with an inexperienced sailor.
  • Adelaide had introduced pairings of boats, where the winner was the first pair to get both boats across the finish line, so the faster boat spent the race encouraging the slower boat along.
  • The UK had introduced a buddy system at the Nationals, so a faster team assisted the slower team to set their boat up and give general advice on racing.
  • The UK had also introduced a Classic fleet competition and prize. This was also adopted at the Europeans in the Shetlands.
  • The UK introduced small local circuits which later encouraged sailors from this circuit to move to the national circuit.
  • Personal handicap systems and gold/silver/bronze fleets were other ideas that had worked across the world.

Other items...

• Laydays were discussed and whether they should be fixed or flexible. A fixed layday allows sailors to spend time with their families, whereas if the layday is abandoned due to poor sailing conditions on other race days, then this time could be lost. Perhaps a flexible layday system could be introduced whereby a layday would be on day X as long as 6 out of 10 races had been sailed, for example.
• Ideas raised for future World’s were to introduce a handicap system and gold/silver/bronze fleets. The benefits would be to encourage slower sailors so that everyone has something to race for. Apart from the fact that it would be extremely difficult to calculate a fair handicap system for a one-off event, the floor was reminded that we were talking about a World Championships where we were searching for the fastest Fireball team at that time and any handicap system was questionned as to whether it was deviating too much from this main aim. Other ideas raised covered having a Grand Masters champion at the World’s.
• The cost of championships was raised and in particular the value for money of social events laid on by the host club. With a family in tow, one night could prove to be very expensive especially if insufficient food was available.
• The matter of the courses was raised and whether we should have more windward/leeward courses as the reaches were less tactical. This was not favoured by the floor as reaches were considered tactical and also a great part of the fun of sailing a Fireball.
• Chris Payne advised NCA’s that when they were finalising the dates for their championships, they should consider the timing of other classes’ championships so as to enable sailors from other fleets to participate.
• The comment was made that the fact that the World’s in Adelaide had been an open event had done more to encourage the fleet than anything else.
• There was general applause for the FI webmaster team of Marcas O’Duinn, Ewan Stirling and Donal Sweeney for their work on the FI site.

The meeting closed with sailors thanking Adelaide Sailing Club for hosting the event.

Penny Gibbs, Commodore, Fireball International
Open Forum Meeting – January 2004