Ahoy!
I do not have a position from which to make a statement!! but that has rarely stopped me in the past, so...
Speaking from the floor of the assembly I offer the following comments:
The NATA yacht is without helm. It is not that our rudder is broke, but only that there is no one holding the stick. No one was elected to President at our AGM so the position remains vacant.
We had a productive AGM meeting which worked through our proposed rule changes. As we considered the different issues, our ideology was challenged by reality. In the ideal world we want a Tasar to be a Tasar and there to be no differences. We want to be able to take it out of the "box" and sail it on the same footing with all others without having to look to rules and measurements. This leads us towards the "as supplied by builder concept". However, the pragmatists in us recognize that all Tasars are not created equal and that some misguided sailors may choose to alter their Tasars and such alteration may be difficult to prove is not "as supplied" therefore some measurement rules are necessary. We voted in favour of some new measurements but do not expect to spend any more time measuring. Instead it will be a club we have in our arsenal if required for abusive deviants.
Enough on boring stuff. I’ve been told that my position statements over the past year have been dry. Well that is the way my wife has encouraged me to sail.
NATA has had a very good year. We certainly lost some participation and some sailors following the worlds but we expected that and with new members are stronger. Some were lost to burn out, and some to growing families. However, we used the exposure that the Worlds in Oregon gave our fleet and have strengthened the fleet with many new members. Vancouver in particular has both contracted and gained new enthusiastic members. We have spawned a budding fleet on Vancouver Island which now has three Tasars and has the opportunity to be another strong fleet. Vancouver sailors intend to support a regatta or two next year on their Rock and to encourage them to join us in Vancouver. I know that Seattle and Portland have also had some turn-over in their fleet but that they are both strengthened by new members.
We could still get more out of PR, and our fleet would benefit by more aggressively promoting our past and future events to the sailing magazines and sailing journals. Our fleet’s growth, and tomorrow its existence, is challenged by classes with very strong, coordinated marketing.
I regret that I did not find a successor but I look forward to continuing as the BC "Fleet Captain" previously known as "sailing coordinator".
Bruce White,
Blue Bayou, (formerly NATA President)
October 7, 1997