IM24CA World Council - Annual General Meeting 2020 - summary and voting results

November 10, 2020 - The World Council of the International Melges 24 Class Association held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) virtually on November 7. Here’s a short overview of the voting results and decisions made.

November 7^th 6 am PT / 9 am ET / 2 pm UK / 3 pm CET / 4 pm EET / 1 am (Nov 8) Sydney, AUS.

2020 IM24CA World Council' AGM website

The following IM24CA World Council members and Executive Committee members were present:

1. Laura Grondin – Chair and Treasurer
2. Miles Quinton - Vice Chairman of Europe and representing Great Britain with Proxy
3. Duncan Stamper - Vice Chairman of Americas
4. Kevin Nixon – Vice Chairman Asia Pacific, representing Australia with Proxy
5. Michael Tarabochia - Member Europe, representing Germany;  rep Slovenia with Proxy
6. Paul Krak Arntson – Member Americas
7. Michael Schineis – representing Austria
8. Dan Berezin - representing Canada
9. Soren Blume Svendsen - representing Denmark
10. Andrea Racchelli - representing Italy
11. Annette Haugsdal – representing Norway with Proxy
12. Michael Good – representing Switzerland
13. Megan Ratliff - representing United States

Non-voting participants:

1. Mike Gozzard - Technical Committee Chair
2. Branko Parunov - Chief Measurer and Technical Advisor
3. Jan Schmidt – Technical Committee Member Europe
4. David Bartol - Championship Coordinator Europe
5. John Abel – Championship Coordinator Americas
6. Arto Kiiski – Advisor
7. Josip Olujic – Observer, Croatia
8. Nicklaus DeWitt Fordham – Observer, Denmark
9. Soren Laugesen – Observer, Denmark
10. Piret Salmistu - Administrator, Media Coordinator

The number of votes were counted according to the membership numbers of 2020. Here is a link to the number of votes by countries.

Class Administrator Piret Salmistu introduced everyone on the call and Chair Laura Grondin welcomed everyone and made her report about the past year. She thanked all of the IM24CA officers and NCAs all around the world for their great work this difficult year.  She highlighted the tremendous work of the Technical Committee chaired by Mike Gozzard along with the group of people preparing the Class Rules and Constitution amendment proposals for the Open Technical Committee meeting first and then for the AGM.

All national class representatives made a short report about the Covid-19 pandemic affected year, where some countries have been lucky to hold regattas, while many could not. Annual class reports are available at the AGM website under tab “Country reports” and a longer overview will be given in the meeting Minutes..

Minutes of the 2019 AGM and 2020 EGM were accepted, both are available at the AGM 2020 website under the tab General reports and documents.  

Financial, marketing, technical and builder’s reports were presented and the budget for 2021 was accepted.

IM24CA’s new website launched in February;  a detailed review of the website and the high level of activity of the visitors was reported. Social media engagement increased mainly on Instagram by more than 3000 followers, considered impressive given the lack of events. All reports are available at AGM website under their respective tabs. 

Melges 24 events

The status of the organization was reported for the future events. 

2021 Worlds - Charleston, USA – April 13-17 - status

Regatta Director Randy Draftz was reporting from Charleston talking about the rehearsal event Melges 24 Charleston Open, which was held on October 23-25. A decision was made that the class will closely monitor the situation regarding the pandemic and a final decision will be made at the end of January 2021 as to whether or not the Worlds 2021 will be held in April. As discussed at the meeting, the unpredictable racing conditions and the approaching hurricane season would make it infeasible to move the Worlds to the fall in Charleston.  The organizers are working on the Notice of Race now to get that published shortly.

Randy encouraged any sailors participating in Charleston Race Week and the Worlds to replay TracTrac races of the Charleston Open to get a better idea about the course, the current and the sailing conditions etc. Also, he encouraged the teams from outside US to contact a very experienced event travel agent who was able to negotiate 100% refunds from the flights bought for the IJs and other officers for the 2020 Worlds. The information will be shared through IM24CA and event channels soon.

2021 Melges 24 Europeans – Portoroz, SLO – September 4-11 - status

IM24CA Championship Coordinator David Bartol reported from Portoroz saying that they are in a bit better situation having the event at the end of the season hoping that the vaccine will be available by then. According to him, the pandemic will definitely influence not only sailing, but the finances, too. Portoroz will continue their preparations  for 2021. In case there will be a need to postpone the event again, then Portoroz would be ready to host Europeans also in 2022, but we really do not want to miss title events for 2 years..

It was agreed to make the decisions closer to the event in case the pandemic continues. 

2022 or 2023 Melges 24 Worlds – Middelfart, DEN – last week of June

The Status report of the Melges 24 Worlds in Denmark, in 2022 or 2023, was presented by Soren Laugesen, the manager of GoSail in Middelfart, who was regatta director for the 2015 Melges 24 Worlds at the same venue. Together with the Danish Melges 24 Class Association the decision was made to move the Worlds from Aarhus to Middelfart for as it is a more favorable venue for the sailors and the class. The choice of dates at the end of June was made based on the less expensive hotel prices and availability, because the holiday season in Denmark starts in July. 

The organizers are interested to show the Melges 24 outside the class with extensive media and to promote the class and sport. That means they are going to share everything that is happening in Middelfart to the class  as we approach the event. The Danish class has planned a series of events in Middelfart for 2021 already. There is marina development going on right now with building work to end in the mid of 2021. The facilities for measurement were discussed as well. 

No reports were made about the following events, but the hosts are ready to postpone the events another year, as needed:

• North Americans 2022 – Toronto, Canada – September
• Worlds 2023 – San Francisco, CAL, USA (2023 is 30th Anniversary Year of Melges 24 boat) 
• Europeans 2023 & Worlds 2024 – ITA Intention to bid

Proposed Class Rule Changes

The following Class Rule Change proposals were accepted by AGM:

• • • CAN – C 11.7 - Crew location when racing – unanimously. 
  • • CAN – C.11.x - Crew location when racing – 24 in favor / 23 against 
  • • Tech Comm - CR A.6 House Keeping – unanimously
  • • Tech Comm - C.11.1 Boat Handling Rules (bowsprit) – unanimously
  • • Tech Comm - C.11.2 Boat Handling Rules (bowsprit) – unanimously
  • • Tech Comm - C.11.3 Boat Handling Rules (hiking) – unanimously
  • • Tech Comm - C.11.5 Boat Handling Rules - Revised submission (pumping) – unanimously
  • • Tech Comm - C.11.6 Boat Handling Rules (crew) – unanimously
  • • Tech Comm - H2 Boom - unanimously

Revised submission USA – C.2.2. Weights - Revised submission - to change current weight limit 375 kg to 390 kg was defeated, with votes 23 against / 19 in favor.

Check out IM24CA Technical Committee comments about 2020 Rule Change Submissions HERE.

Proposed changes to the Class Constitution   

All submissions to change the Class Constitution were accepted by AGM. It was agreed that the numbering in the Constitution will be amended as housekeeping updates according to the accepted changes. See all submissions at AGM website. 

Any other businesses

The World Council unanimously re-appointed Mike Gozzard from Canada to continue in the position of the Technical Committee Chair. Laura thanked Mike and everyone in the Tech Comm and other working groups for the tremendous work done during the past year.

The class has had much discussion regarding the regulation passed in 2018 around coach boats.  As Chair, Laura Grondin allowed a proposal to come forward at the AGM to correct the regulations so that this language that the class approved can be implemented. Mike Gozzard and Arto Kiiski explained the reasons behind the need to amend or correct the Coach and Support Boats Regulations. The language of the proposed regulation was accepted by the World Council.

Vice Chair Europe, Miles Quinton made his report about attending World Sailing Annual General Meeting on behalf of the Melges 24 class. 

The meeting was adjourned at 1:20 pm EDT