Report from TAUK to the 2003 World Council Meeting
Technical
Pursuant to a decision taken at last year's AGM. TAUK has reverted
to minimum hull weight of 68kg in line with decision taken by WTC
to continue at that weight. (In recent years, TAUK has applied
minimum hull weight of 66kg.)
Membership
Membership is fairly static - reached about 75 last year at the
Nationals (some people don't join until then). This year currently
sitting at about 65 but expected to go up to close to 75 again by
the time of the Nationals.
We had a stand at Sailboat (the UK dinghy exhibition) in March of
this year and it seemed from talking to people who visited the
stand that there are quite a lot of people out there sailing Tasars
who do not bother to join TAUK - primarily because they do not go
to open meetings. We are trying to find ways of encouraging them to
participate in the Association:
- we are planning to run a training event later this year,
possibly in conjunction with an open meeting.
- many boats which change hands are advertised through the TAUK
website. We are now following up with new owners and offering them
free TAUK membership for their first year of ownership.
- at this year's AGM we will introduce "crew" membership at
reduced rates (at present, only one person per boat needs to be a
member but this means the crew does not, get membership benefits
e.g. newsletters).
Open Meetings, the Nationals, the Worlds
Number of Open Meetings is slightly down on last year. We are
encouraging members to advertise other open events at their clubs
which can be included on the "circuit" as alternatives.
Nationals last year were at Brightlingsea in Essex (East Coast).
This year, they are at Pwllheli in North Wales - good open sea
sailing. We are joining up with the Kestrel fleet to run a joint
event. (Many sailing clubs in the UK now ask the smaller fleets to
do this - we are already booked in at Penzance (Cornwall) for next
year along with the Osprey fleet.)
Three current TAUK members have gone to the Worlds in
Victoria.
Liz Grist, President, TAUK
2003/06/21