Category: Membership & Class Info

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President’s Report May 2023

Canadian News

Spring has arrived and as I write this the Toronto Maple Leafs have made it through to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  It is also the time when we bring our boats down to our respective clubs and get ready for both our club racing programs and travelling to out of town regattas. I know I will be making a few changes to my control line management after snooping around other boats at the CanAm Winter series.

On the return trip from Florida I had the opportunity to drop my boat and trailer at the Tred Avon YC in Oxford MD for their Spring regatta. The Tred Avon Yacht Club is a relatively small club located on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay about one hour southeast of Annapolis MD.  It hosted the Star Worlds in 2018. Andrew Parish, Vice Commodore of the club, is working hard to establish a 2.4mR fleet at Tred Avon and he has provided storage for boats migrating north from Florida on their way to their
summer home clubs.

BTW the Spring Regatta was great fun. Although we were blown off the river on the Friday we had seven short course races in very shifty winds over the Saturday and Sunday. I definitely plan to attend the 2024 version of this event.

Jackie Gay of the Victoria Fleet has registered for the 2.4mR 2023 World Championship in Tampere,  Finland July 31 – August 5. At this time 47 competitors have registered with the eventual fleet expected to reach about 90 entries before entries close on June 30. We will be cheering Jackie on as the regatta commences.

Sail Canada has reserved one entry for the 2023 World Para Sailing Championships in The Hague, Netherlands starting August 10. At this point the sailor representing Canada has not been confirmed.

Upcoming Events:
May 20 – 21    Ice Breaker Regatta, Etobicoke Yacht Club, Toronto
June 3 – 4    Fleet Championships, Royal Victoria YC, Victoria
June 11     Kickoff Regatta, National Yacht Club, Toronto

Please see more information at www.canada24mr.com.

Hope to see you on the water soon.

Peter Wood, Class President

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President of the International 2.4mR Class Association Heiko Kröger’s message following the IPC announcement that para sailing will not be part of LA 2028

2023 February 8

Dear Members,

On 29 January, the IPC announced that sailing would not be reinstated in the Paralympic Games program for Los Angeles 2028.

While World Sailing fought very hard for the return of sailing to the Paralympics with an excellent and dedicated campaign, others did as well. The entire sailing world supported the #backthebid campaign with great passion. It was not only active Para sailors, but also professional teams, Olympic sailors and sailing celebrities who got involved.

In the summer of 2021, World Sailing had launched its campaign to make a sailing comeback at the Paralympic Games and give a new generation of Para sailors the chance to sail at the highest level. There are now 41 nations active in parasailing on five continents. More than 630 active Para sailors are registered with World Sailing.

Over the last few years, World Sailing and Para World Sailing have run workshops to educate coaches and sailors in many countries with great success, motivating federations and clubs to develop sailing for people with disabilities.

“Despite this setback, our commitment to our Para sailors, to the continued growth of Para sailing and to the wider Para sport movement will only grow stronger.”

With this clear statement, David Graham (CEO World Sailing) comments on the decision of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

According to World Sailing’s statement, it is clear that Para sailing will be continued and further developed at a high level worldwide. The current decision of the IPC does not change this!

Due to the discontinuation of the Paralympic status, the promotion of sailing programs for people with disabilities will be reduced or completely cancelled in many countries.

It therefore remains a challenge to further develop sailing for people with disabilities worldwide.

Para sport is an important part of the inclusive sporting world. Without the knowledge, experience and support of Para Sport, inclusion in sport is unthinkable.

The Int. 2.4mR class has always been inclusive – long before the term inclusion entered the sports world. We are known worldwide as the pioneer of inclusion in sailing and will continue to be so. Hardly any inclusive class has such a large international spread with as many regattas as we do.

Para sailing has been part of our class for over 25 years and it is therefore a matter of course that we as a class stand united behind Para sailing worldwide.

This is the declared aim of all our NCAs (National Class Associations) and is consistently implemented accordingly by the EC (Board of the Int. Class).

For example, by revising the Norlin One Design Rule (NOD Rule) in December (AGM), we have re-established the prerequisite for future close cooperation with World Sailing in the field of Para Sport. The joint organization of the Open 2.4mR Worlds and European Championships with the Para Worlds and European Championships is another important step towards an inclusive future.

At this point, I would like to emphasize that the Para sport is not the central and only focus of our class, and that we as a board care about all areas that are important for the future of our class. However, due to the current decisions, it was important and right to temporarily give special attention to this area.

Heiko Kröger

President of the International 2.4mR Class Association 

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President’s Report March 2022

Canadian 2.4mR Class Association 

 Canadian News

This report is well overdue. We are finally getting closer to pre COVID normal. The February CAN AM winter series event in Florida had fifteen boats including three Canadian boats. Alan Leibel placed second with Bruce Millar finishing third in his jib boom boat. The March final CAN AM regatta will see at least seven Canadian boats and an expected fleet of more than twenty boats.

Future Regattas

 In January we had a successful regatta scheduling meeting which finalized dates for the 2022 summer season. I would like to thank Brian Robinson, Aaron Wong-Sing, Louise Anstey, Joe Gerlinsky, Angela Cromarty, Paula Stone, Peter Eager and Darrell Suderman for being on the Zoom meeting.

The 2022 Canadian 2.4mR championships will be held at National Yacht Club in Toronto August 26 – 28. It will be held 5 days after the finish of the Canada Games in Niagara on the Lake Sailing Club. Already the Saskatchewan Sailing Team is planning to stay in Ontario for our championship. We are hoping that other Canada Games teams will also attend.

Both the Victoria and Toronto fleets have an active summer schedule with Victoria just recently hosting the David Bleakney Ice Bowl (March 12). The Toronto fleet starts off its sail season with the Canadian Olympic Classes Ice Breaker Regatta May 21 & 22. The Victoria fleet sails Wednesday afternoons and Sundays out of the Royal Victoria YC while the Toronto fleet has organized one regatta per month for June, July, August and September. Please check the class website www.canada24mr.com for the complete schedule of future regattas.

As restrictions across the Canada United States border have eased it is great to see that there are two new 2.4mR regatta hosts in the Eastern United States. On April 30 – May 1 the Tred Avon Yacht Club in Oxford MD is including the 2.4mR class in its spring invitational regatta. This is a beautiful club in a quiet part of the Chesapeake Bay. Although I have never raced here, I have cruised the region and am working hard to find an excuse to attend this regatta. The second event is the Sandy Bay Yacht Club invitational in Rockport MA on July 8 – 10. The Sandy Bay fleet is new, and we should give them some support as they grow their fleet. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t let everyone know that I will be attending the Clagett Regatta in Newport RI. June 21-26. Sailed out of Sail Newport I have been attending this event for more than ten years. They have the best coaching, great race committees, excellent on shore support and the best sailing conditions.

Growing the Class 

There are a few issues hindering class growth in Canada. One of course is the availability of good used boats. This is aggravated by the availability of new boats with slow delivery from the current principal builder. I am hoping that the International Class is addressing this problem with new builders in Germany and England.

The second issue hindering class growth is our reluctance to promote the boat to potential boat owners. In my mind the target sailors are either a person who is 40 years old or older who previously or currently sailed a physically demanding One Design dinghy such as a ILCA 6 (Laser) or who sailed a One Design Keelboat and is tired of chasing crew for weekend regattas (J-24, E 22, Sharks, T-Birds etc.).  We need to let them sail our boats. In my mind there are three ways of doing this. One is to organize a “try the boat” day where sailors can come to the club and sail the boat for 60 minutes or so. The second approach is to persuade owners who cannot participate in a race or a weekend competition, because of other commitments, to lend their boats to sailors who meet our target market. The third approach is to organize a regatta and invite the best sailors from other fleets to sail in our 2.4mRs. Copying the Victoria Fleet at Royal Victoria YC, the Ottawa fleet is organizing a club fleet championship inviting each fleet in the club (there are twenty fleets) to nominate a sailor to compete in the championship. Because we have only 5 boats, we will be running heats. We are hoping we will have enough heats so that each sailor will get to race against every other sailor at least once. Low point scoring will prevail with no discards. After the event we will survey the participants about their thoughts on the event and on the boats.

International News 

The class elected a new International President in December 2021. Heiko Kröger is a Paralympian gold medallist who has been active in the class for a number of years. Bruce Millar from Victoria was re-elected to the Executive Committee and was elected to the Technical Committee. Tim Ripley of the USA continues to serve as class secretary.

The 2022 World Championships will be hosted by Davis Island Yacht Club in Tampa Florida November 5 – 12. The Notice of Race has been posted here.

The 2022 European Championships is being held in Quiberon France May 15 – 20 with expected entries to exceed one hundred boats. Further details are on the international website.

Final Thoughts 

Let’s get out on the water and enjoy our boats.

Peter Wood
CAN 14

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Canadian 2.4mR Class Notice of AGM 2021

To Canadian 2.4mR Members and Non-Members,
 
Notice of Annual Meeting

Note: Traditionally, the Annual Meeting of the Canadian 2.4mR Class Association has been
held at a time and place in conjunction with the annual Canadian 2.4mR Class Championship.
However, after the success of a virtual (Zoom) meeting last year, it became apparent that it was important that all our members be given the opportunity to attend the Annual General
Meeting, not just those who are at the Canadian Championship.
 
Date and Time: The meeting will take place Thursday November 18, 2021 at 7:30pm Eastern Time (4:30pm Pacific Time)
 
Who can attend? Members who have paid their 2021-2022 Class membership dues by
November 8, 2021 can attend and vote on any resolutions and election of officers for 2022.
Non-Members, including boat owners who have not paid their 2021-2022 Class membership dues by November 8, 2021, can attend as observers and may be invited to participate in the discussion, but will not be able to vote on resolutions and election.
 
How to Attend: A link to the Zoom Meeting website will be provided along with
Association financial statements on or before November 11, 2021 to Members. Non-Members may register for the AGM, if they have not received the invite, by sending a request to [at][dot] .
 
Agenda:
1. Reports from the Fleets (three minutes each maximum please)
Victoria
Saskatchewan
Toronto
Ottawa
Kingston
Montreal
2. Report from the President
3. Report from the Class Secretary
4. Report from the Treasurer including Class Financial Statements January 1, 2020 – March 31, 2021 and Interim Class Financial Statements April 1 – September 30, 2021
     a) proposal for 2022 Class Membership dues
5. Report from the National Measurer
6. Report of the Web Master
7. International Class Association Activities
8. Date for a Regatta Scheduling Meeting to be held in the Winter
9. Requests for proposals to host the 2022 Canadian 2.4mR Championship
10. 2022 North America 2.4mR Championships (whose turn Canada or USA?)
11. Election (appointment) of Officers (President, Secretary-Treasurer, Chief Measurer, Web Master)
12. Other Business
       a) Any other business brought forward
 
Brian Robinson
Canadian 2.4mR Class Secretary
 
Canadian 2.4mR Class Association e-mail: [at][dot]
 
 
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President’s Report June 2021

Canadian News

While the ice went out on our lake early this spring, COVID 19 has played havoc with the start of our sailing season. While the Victoria members have been sailing regularly on Wednesday afternoons and on Saturdays, Members in Ontario and Quebec are now seeing their provincial lockdowns slowly being eased and access to sailing and yacht clubs returning to near normal. At my club (Nepean Sailing Club in Ottawa), the large keelboats are being launched June 5 so our first 2.4mR sails will begin after that. We look forward to the easing of provincial travel restrictions and even travel restrictions within provinces (between health units in British Columbia, for example).

The continuing closure of the Canada-United States border is having a detrimental effect on both the recovery of boats and equipment trapped in Florida since March 2020 and the delivery of new boats that have been shipped to Florida in containers along with US boats. At this point there are at least five boats, three trailers, one vehicle and lots of equipment stuck in Florida. It does not appear that the Canada- US border will be open for what is called “non-essential travel” until at least late July 2021. Is not sailing 2.4mR sailboats an essential activity for our mental health?

Almost all of our boat owners have renewed their membership thanks to Brian Robinson, our new class Secretary, Aaron Wong-Sing, our Treasurer, who did a great job revising our website-based membership renewal system, and to all the members who have renewed their membership for the 2021 – 2022 year.  If you haven’t renewed your membership, please go to https://www.canada24mr.com/canadian-class-membership-2021/ and complete the membership registration form. This year, we have reduced our full membership from $50.00 to $40.00. We also have an associate membership category for individuals who are not boat owners but are supporters of the Canadian 2.4mR class, and an association membership for Provincial Sailing Associations, community groups and similar organizations who own one or more boats that their members use jointly.

The Victoria fleet and Royal Victoria Yacht Club are working hard to organize a successful 2021 Canadian 2.4mR Championship September 10 – 12th. The regatta chair, Randy Diamond is an experienced organizer and has a great team working to make this a special regatta. They have a dedicated website http://www.2pt4canadians.com/, which is loaded with useful information. For planning purposes, the organizers are asking sailors considering attending to contact them early. The regatta registration is open, and they are not requesting regatta entry fees until a later date. If you have any questions, you can contact the organizing committee directly at [dot][dot][dot][at][dot].

If you have recently sold your 2.4mR, we would appreciate you dropping a note to the class Secretary at [at][dot] , giving us information about the buyer including name, e-mail address, telephone number, hull number and sail number of the boat sold. If you are keeping your personal sail number because you own more than one boat, we will contact the new owner to issue them a sail number. Of course, we would like to welcome the new owner into the class and provide them with information about regattas etc. We also maintain a data base including current measurement and buoyancy certificate information on all known boats in Canada. We will amend the ownership information on file.

This is also a reminder that boats with Floatation Certificates dated 2016 or earlier must be retested in 2021 in accordance with Class Rule B4. In Victoria, please contact Bruce Millar, Chief Measurer, and in Toronto, contact David Foscarini. In other locations, contact Bruce Millar to identify acceptable alternative measurers.

International News       

A number of positive initiatives are coming from the Executive Committee of the International Class Association. First, the class is updating the look and content of the class website to give it a more modern feel and make it more appealing to the general sailing public while still providing the information class members require. The new revised class website should be online in the later part of July. Second, the EC of the class is asking whether the next AGM should be a virtual meeting. The exact proposition is as follows:

Should the EC run an AGM/Special Meeting in order to hear from NCA representatives and conduct the business of running the class including elections and approval for other class business. This meeting will take place over Zoom and be run in a professional no biased manner by an experienced professional moderator.

Please let the International Class Secretary [dot][at][dot] know your views on this matter.

The third initiative taken by Heiko Kroeger was to prepare and submit an application for the 2.4mR to be added as a mixed event in the 2024 Paris Olympics. As a background, the IOC rejected World Sailing’s recommend class the “doublehanded long-distance event” for among other reasons World Sailing had not run a World championship in the event. On very short notice the International Class put together a submission which was not successful. However, the class learned from the experience and believe it did raise the profile of the class at World Sailing.

Finally, we are receiving reports from the German 2.4mR class and appreciate that they are sharing their ideas of how to grow the class. These, and reports from other National Class Associations (NCA’s) will be posted on the website.

Stay healthy and get your vaccination so we can all sail together soon.

Peter Wood
CAN 14

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2.4mR International Class Association Executive Update May 20, 2021

Dear all 2.4mR NCA member, dear sailors, 2.4mR class fans 

Enclosed you will find Information from Executive Committee after some time with a request to inform you members in your country. Feel free to inform also supporters and other sailors and yacht-clubs interested in the 2.4mR class.
 
Be sure that the attached information is a result of long heavy discussions and hours on the phone calls, many exchanged e-mails, searching etc. 
 
It’s a collective work of the EC. 
 
Hoping in better times we can discuss the serious topics direct face to face in a pleasant environment and try to be happy we can sail again and looking forward for a healthy grow of the 2.4mR class not only in Europe. 
 
Best regards 
 
Behalf of 2.4mR ICA  EC 
 
Alexander Sadilek 
Vice- President 2.4mR ICA