With one event left for the season, 1997 racing has been dominated by the Flying Dutchman, Constantijn Udo. Tijn, this year crewed by his son David, has won both the Nationals at Babbacombe and the Europeans at his home club of W. V. Oostvoorne. Tijn is still racing Tasar 298, the boat he bought in 1976 prior to attending his first UK Nationals in 1977. This year was his third win. Babbacombe proved an excellent venue, even if the weather left a bit to be desired. With days called off for high surf, no wind and fog, and the total destruction of one Tasar that nose-dived coming in through the surf, many were surprised that 5 of the scheduled 6 races were achieved.

Tijn’s encouragement of Tasar sailing in Holland has been showing benefits and the standard of the Dutch competitors is as high as anywhere. With 20 known Tasars in Holland, and a further 10 in Germany, the time has come to review how we can better support the Continental Europe members. At present TAUK is the only WTC recognised region/district in Europe. Many of the Dutch and German owners are not members of TAUK, as there is limited practical benefit for them. The newsletter is in a foreign language, and the racing programme is all UK based (with the exception of the European Championship).

TAUK, as the sole European region, will propose to the next World AGM that a tenth district be formed to support the Continental Europe Tasars. The objective would be to affiliate this new district to the TAUK region, avoiding too much overhead and unproductive organisation. The benefits are that the currently unrepresented Tasar owners can join the world Tasar community, have their voice heard, and the world Tasar organisation expands its boundaries and membership. In time, growth of the Tasar in Europe could evolve into further districts being formed along national boundaries.

TAUK voted on the rule change proposals at the AGM held during the Nationals at Babbacombe. The votes are documented elsewhere, but the majority of the discussion was given over to the making of mast stiffeners mandatory, and lack of any opportunity to grandfather existing legal masts. The world association has already been through one change, the hull weight rule, where Tasars that had been legal for 20 years could be declared out of class. That change only required the addition of ballast. This new change means actual changes to the boat rig. The longevity of the Tasar means that many boats from the original Performance Sailcraft UK production between 1976 and 1980 are still sailing with their original topmasts. The world association needs to think carefully about how rule changes are adopted to avoid alienating a substantial number of members.

NATA has raised concerns about the wooden foils in some UK boats. The variety of foils available is of concern to UK members also. More importantly is any lack of assessment of the weight implications of these foils, as foils are part of the un-weighed portion of the boat. Rather than re-open the whole hull weight issue again, TAUK plans to trial the following procedure during 1998, and concurrently to raise a rule change proposal for its world-wide adoption. The wording is not finalised, but the principle is to use the lightest foils, the wooden ones as a baseline, and have standard allowances for the heavier foils, which would count toward any correctors required to be carried for hull or crew weight.

TAUK has started its evaluation of potential locations for the next UK World (or International) championship. In the meantime we wish a very enjoyable Championship in Melbourne to all competitors, and those of us who can’t make the trip will watch the progress with envy.