It has been a quiet winter for me in Melbourne. Some keen local sailors have been racing, mainly on lake venues, but the winds have been mostly too strong or too light with not much in between. As Takumi says in his statement, Australia is large enough for some of our Regions to be experiencing their best weather at just about any time of the year. Over the southern winter, the tropical north of Australia is experiencing the relatively stable weather of the dry season. Consequently, places like Lake Argyle, Darwin, and Cairns are in the middle of their sailing seasons, while Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney are in hibernation.

Over in the west (Perth), the West Australian Tasars are busy organising things for National Titles to be held over the midsummer vacation period - i.e.,Christmas / New Year. We are thrilled to have had some interest from Japanese sailors who hope to make it for the Regatta. The races in Perth are to be held on a wide section of the Swan River which is close to the centre of the city. There is to be a mixture of morning races (for which we expect lighter land breezes) and afternoon races (for which we expect sea breezes of similar strength to conditions at the Gorge. These winds, combined with the flat water and hot sunny weather, make Perth a fantastic destination for yachties over the summer.

A number of sailors will trail their Tasars from Sydney and Melbourne (or even Queensland, which is much farther). As a comparison for our overseas Tasarites, a trip from Melbourne to Perth is roughly equivalent to,say, driving from Chicago to Seattle, or Instanbul to London, or about three times the length of island of Honshu. The main difference for us is that most of the drive will be across hot desert country with very few inhabitants.

I believe the continued discussion over issues about the class rules and the direction of the class into the next century is very healthy and should be encouraged. I agree with the concept that being a one-design class does not have to mean that all class specifications should be frozen for all time. There is a very important principle enshrined in our class constitution - that racing should be between crews, not boats. In other words, we should ensure that elements of the boat which have an impact on competitive sailing performance are standardised as much as practicable. This allows room for discussion over whether there can be changes to standard elements (for example, in cases where older boats can make alterations to conform to the change - the requirement for stiffeners in mast top sections is arguably such a case), and discussion over which elements are important enough to sailing performance to be subject to control by the class rules.

I note that the Europeans are still concerned over the mast stiffener issue as it creates a marketing problem for the Association. I would have no objection to the idea of a "grandfather clause" provided it applied only to masts of UK origin which have the longer sleeve than the Australia/USA/Japan version and was subject to a "sunset clause" which ensured that all masts conform after a reasonable period - say 5 years. I make this suggestion on the understanding that the longer sleeve appears to provide similar strength performance to the Australia/USA/Japan version, and is probably of a similar weight to the shorter sleeve with internal mast stiffener. This staged approach might provide a better and acceptable way to "standardise" this particular element to ensure our one-design credentials. What do others think?

Finally, I would like to compliment the Japanese Association for the excellent and informative series of articles they have sent out regarding the forthcoming Worlds.

Rob Gilpin (TRUE BLUE 2608)
President, Australia Tasar Counci