First, my apologies for the lack of a "Position Statement" last time. This was more to do with my own workload than the lack of anything happening within TAUK. The result from the World Council meeting in Melbourne defining the new European region (now known as the European Tasar Council), and the TAUK and CTA (Continental Tasar Association) districts, has been welcomed by all our members.
Less satisfactory, from a European view, was the inability to "grandfather" existing masts, both the top-masts without stiffeners, and the undersized bottom-masts. Our inability as a world association to recognise that we must not change class rules, so that they make previously legal Tasars now illegal, undermines our authority to represent all the owners of Tasars.
The Royal Yachting Association held its annual dinghy exhibition at Alexandra Palace in March. The Tasar Association was there, showing a brand new Rondar-built Tasar. Our stand, organised yet again by Bill Morris, attracted much attention, and we came away with a high number of potential owners, though, unfortunately, with not enough used Tasars to satisfy their needs. Yet again the Tasar is proving too good for its own benefit. Very few converts to the class will buy a new boat, and the competitiveness of older boats does not encourage existing owners to upgrade, thus limiting the availability of used boats.
We've just come back from the best attended UK nationals in recent history. Thirty-nine boats competed, with several previous winners and one ex-world champion competing. The level was such that only two points separated the top three boats after the six races. With a mix of weather, from Force three to one day of Force six which had only half the fleet finishing and much gear failure, the conditions were testing for all the competitors. Steve Mitchell and Julie Nuttall repeated their 1996 success, with 1995 champions David and Alex Morgan second, from Rien Zilvold and Rory Ellis. 1997 champions, Constantijn and David Udo finished fourth, John and Chris Rischmiller took the Masters again, and Bill Morris and Joan Pride were Grandmasters.
The European season is now half over. We've still got the European championships in Holland, the Inland championships at Queen Mary and open meetings at Oxford, Babbacombe, and Llangorse to come. However the dissatisfaction of the UK membership with the world progress on a number of key issues was evident at our recent AGM. In addition to concerns expressed earlier about invalidating existing Tasars, the lack of progress towards an all-up minimum weight, the lack of progress towards the 64 kg hull weight and the need to seriously review the crew weight rule which many feel is now outmoded, the membership questioned whether the World Council took seriously the concerns of the second largest region.
We are looking forward to the next World championships in Japan, and thank the JTA for their efforts in ensuring we will have a successful event. The European Association are already planning the 2001 Worlds, the first of the new millennium. I'd like to remind regional representatives of their commitment to pressure their national associations to lobby the ISAF to recognise our "Worlds" as an official World Championship.
In the UK, we've held our best represented National championships. The Tasar is going from strength to strength. However it is incumbent on the World Association to support this progress, and we need to ensure that our rule changes are appropriate and now reflect the real needs of the class. Finally, TAUK welcomes comments on our new web site at http://tasar.mariner.co.uk.
John Rischmiller, Chairman, Tasar Association UK
Tasar 2509 "Amethyst"
Chairman, Tasar Association UK
President, European Tasar Council