IMCA Forum

No decision was made at the AGM but a heated discussion took place with strong polarized views about evenly mixed. Most anti wing sentiment came from part of the majority AUS attendees. An informal vote was taken of the country reps present and again the vote was balanced evenly. AUS and GBR voted against I think.

There is strong sentiment about cost, durability and convenience of storage and transport. But there is also strong sentiment about the moths being an open development class and this is why they have become so great in 2011.

If wings are to be accepted though, a significant number were against the two or three element design as being outside the one sail rule and tradition.

Mark announced that Adam May has formed a committee of measurers and techno nuts who will be drafting rule proposals for members to vote on two issues. What the committee are considering doing is offer two proposals for voting.

One will be to revise the existing rules and measurement procedures so that all rigs, including boltrope, pocket luff, wing/sail combos, and full wings can be measured equitably. This most likely will mean that the some definitions will change, eg the luff length rule will also cover leading edge length of wing masts and wings. We will need to address how we treat the bits between the wing section and the deck, or any other spars which do not work as sail area. it has to be spelt out. The ISAF Sail Area Measurement Manual (SAMM) is the best starting point but we need to add things about what gets measured and how big it is allowed to be. This is needed not to allow wings to be measured but also to allow a lot of other rigs to be measured equitably with what we know as standard rigs now. Revisions like this have happened every couple of years and Adam initiated discussion on this subject in the middle of 2010. It was however put asside to allow the wing issue to be handled by the limited resources and time available.

The second proposal will be to decide if the class wishes to ban wing rigs, even if they can be measured under proposal 1. This has been necessary because of the strong fore and against sentiments expressed by members since late 2010.

The class has always been an open development class which allows everything which is not specifically banned. The Dec 2010 ISAF ruling on Bora's wings was that it was not banned but that the class measurement rules and restrictions did not allow it to be measured. The first proposal will address this and other long standing issues. ISAF specified that Bora's wings be measured by the ISAF SAMM and re adoption of the manual which was deleted from our rules in 2005 for various reasons unrelated to today's issues, looks like the best option.

The second proposal will give the members the opportunity to ban something specific which will be added to the very short banned list todate comprising Trapezes, sliding seats, multihulls and stand up/hand held (sailboard type) rigs.

Adam's group have not yet drafted or even discussed properly what will be in the proposals so what I have said here can be taken as only my opinion and what everyone will see in a couple of month might be vastly different.