Minutes from Boda Meeting 2000

Die englische Zusammenfassung des Boda Meetings in Hellerup.

Minutes from the annual BODA meeting, 6 February 2000

Opening and reports of last meeting

Participants Jon Erik Saugen, Andreas Jud, Michael Langhans, Martin Hanson, Thomas Nevstad, Torben Pless and Christian Behnke.

Thomas Dres informed that he unfortunately couldnÂ’t participate. Please see the attached fax from Thomas Dres.

No comments were made to the last report from the last meeting.

National Ballad Club

No. of Boats registered

Total no. of Members

Fee owner / crew

Price on Ballads

Sweden

404

450

SEK 140 / SEK 50

SEK 180-200,000

Norway (prev. year)

40

45

NOK 150 / NOK 50

NOK 150-170,000

Germany

50

82

DEM 30

DEM 45-60,000

Holland

45

45

NLG 60 / NLG 35

NLG 40-60,000

Denmark

309

324

DKK 200 / DKK 100

DKK 165-210,000

Total

851

946

Norway

After having held IBC in Tönsberg back in 1997 all resources (monetary as well as human) dried out, and the Norwegian Ballad Club had a few years where the activity level was very low.

Jon Erik Saugen and another being among the veterans in the Club thought that something had to be done and they took over as board members. Beginning of this year a new board with young and enthustiastic owners was elected and the activity level is raising again. Jon Erik is confident that the new board will work hard to keep the Club on track and develop.

At the annual general assembly in January one of the members presented a new website which looked very promissing and Jon Erik asked whether it was allowed to cut and paste from the other Ballad Clubs web-sites. Approval was given.

There are approx. 80 Ballad owners in the records of the Club but only 40 are members. The task is now to get all 35 boat owners to become member of the Club. Approx. 140 boats were sold in Norway and there are some way to go if they are to find the remaining 60 owners. During his (8 weeks) holiday last year Jon Erik examined (allmost) every habour in Norway to find Ballads, and succeeded by finding Ballads who eventually became members of the Club.

The Färder and the Hollander race are the two races where the Ballads traditionally are participating and last year the number of participants were 15 and 9 boats respectively.

The typical younger people that are buying a Ballad are potential for racing and the Club will try to encourage them to race.

Two issues of the newsletter Balladnyt were published last year.

Holland

Please see the enclosed fax from Thomas Dres.

Germany

The major event of last year was the IBC in Neustadt. Unfortunately very few members of the German Ballad Club helped Andreas, so it was quite a tough job for Andreas. Approx. DEM 3,000 in deficit was the result of the event. The deficit was covered by the German Ballad Club.

In the Kieler Woche 10 Ballads (the required minimum for own start) were having their own start.

In the race Helgoland-Edinburgh (480 nm) a German Ballad came in second out of 40 vessels participating in the race.

An increased activity around the river Elbe is seen mainly on the crusing side.

Young people are coming into the class as the elder owners are buying bigger boats. As in Norway the younger peoble are more into racing and hopefully the number of boats racing will raise.

Sweden

The Swedish Ballad Club has four (4) prime areas. Stockholm, Vänern, The West Coast (Göteborg) and Skone (Öresund).

In the Stockholm area and Göteborg area the Club has participated in boat exhibitions.

Approx. 10 boats are regulary racing in the Stockholm area though only 3-4 are really active.

At The West Coast approx. 8 boats are regulary racing. At the event held in Marstrand only 4 boats participarted.

In Öresund approx. 8 boats are active in racing of which 4 are really active.

The web-site has been "hit" more than 13,000 times.

In connection with IBC to be held in Lomma (just north of Malmö) the arranging Club has made a web-site.

Denmark

The number of members in the Danish Ballad Club has increased from 294 to 324 of which 309 owns a Ballad. The reason for the increase is, in the opinion of the board, that the Club has a very good newsletter published 5-6 times a year, has increased the cruise activity including meetings during winter to exchange advises and experiences with the Ballad and last a continuing effort to keep the number of Ballads at the present level.

The Club now has 6 cruise events around the country during summer and four meetings (including the general assembly) during winter. Each year the number of Ballads participating in the cruise events increases.

Despite the effort in the racing side a small reduction in number of participants are experienced.

At the Öresunds Ballad Mesterskab arranged together with the Swedes in Skane 30 different boats has been participating with approx. 10 boats beeing very active. The series for 2000 are now planned.

The Ballad is still the largest class in the races Sjaelland Rundt and Jameson Whiskey Cup.

It is considered to arrange a national championship in connection with the race at Sundby this year in spetember. If arranged the national championship will be held every second year in the eastern part of Denmark and every other second year in the western part of Denmark. It will be taken into consideration that the national championship shall be planned in due respect of IBC.

It was decided last year to increase the membership fee with DKK 20 per boat member to DKK 200 per year making it possible for the Club to increase the activity level. In the same year a "Ballad flag" was sent to each boat member for free and it seems that every member Ballad are flying the flag.

BODA economy

Please see the enclosed accounts for BODA. The Norweigian Club had some comments to the accounts and the invoice received. In The Norwegian Ballad Club they are not 80 members as mentioned in the invoice and two years ago the Club didn't send invoices to the members.

It was agreed that membership fee to BODA shall be payable based on the number of Ballads registered as member and that the Norweghian Club shall provide Andreas Jud with the correct number of ballads beeing members in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999.

New invoices will be sent out together with the minutes from the meeting including 1999 membership fee.

Proposals

ISAF class rules

The Danish Ballad Club has been asked by the Danish Sailing Association to consider rewriting the one design rule so that they fit into the ISAF standard rules. Not changing any of the content of the rules.

This was considered a good idea, and the Danish Ballad Club will work on the redrafting. Final wording will have to be accepted by BODA at next years meeting.

Continuing annual International Ballad Cup

Based on the decreasing number of Ballads participating in the IBC, and the work together with the expences of having to hold the IBC the Dansih Ballad Club has put forward a suggestion to hold IBC only every second year.

The suggestion seemed to be a good idea and each national Club must discuss the suggestion and have an answer at the IBC in Lomma.

The Norwegian Ballad Club would like to co-operate with a Swedish yacht club as for example Lysekil or GKSS (Marstrand) the next time the Norwegian Club has to arrange IBC. The reason for this wish is that holding the IBC in Norway will be far away from the concentration af Ballads and therefore few boats may be expected. For that purpose Lysekil or Marstrand is very well situated.

Further it was discussed, whether or not BODA should take more responsibility and give some financial support to IBC in the future.

Genua (head foil acceptable or not)

Based on last years decision to discuss in the national Ballad Clubs whether to approve headfoil or not the following questions had to be addressed to the members:

  • how many have a roller genua today ? how many of the above would consider racing / race more if it was allowed to remove the drum and change the forsail during a regatta ? what are the advantages of a head foil in respect of aerodynamics and speed. What are the rules in respect of head foil in other one design classes.

Further it should be investigated if any of the Ballads racing today would stop racing if head foil is allowed ? and if the case why ?

Each national club should hereafter have an official opinion on whether head foil should be allowed or not in the races

Each country presented their view and arguments and the result is as follows:

Sweden, Norway, Germany is in favour of the suggestion and Denmark against following very little interest among the danish members to answer the questions.

It is therefore decided that using head foil shall be allowed provided that:

  • The thickness chord ratio (t/c) is not less than 50%, The same groove (danish: spor) shall be used when changing sail, and only one groove may be used by the sail. The same halyard shall be used when changing sail.

The reason for approving the head foil is the hope of more Ballads wanting to participate if they can remove the drum on their furling system and use maximum size sails when racing. It is thus assumed that the rule does not approve head foil in the exact meaning but meerely giving boats with furling system the possibility to race with maximum sails.

Exact wording of the ammendment to the rules will be suggested by the Danish Ballad Club and forwarded directly to each of the above BODA representatives.

International Ballad Cup 2000 / 2001

The Swedish representatives provided each Club with an applicable number of invitations to the IBC in Lomma for distribution to all the members.

It was decided that IBC 2001 shall be held In Holland if the Dutch Ballad Club still are eager to arrange the event. It would be very much appreciated by BODA if representatives from the Dutch Ballad Club will be present in Lomma at IBC 2000.

Crusing together with other Ballads to Holland may be a good idea. Michael Langhans offered his assistance to the Ballads sailing to Holland for IBC 2001. Interested boats will meet and sail together at the end of the Kieler Canal. No one should therefore have any reluctance to participate in IBC 2001 because of the need to sail in the North Sea with a.o. the tide.

If possible it would be great if the Dutch Ballad Club could arrange for Ballads to hire for the race by crews coming from far from Holland and further offer space for crew members on Dutch Ballads if needed.

To Thomas Dres' question on how many Ballads from each country that is expected to participate in IBC in Holland the answers were one Norwegian and one perhaps two from Sweden and Denmark respectively.

Other Issues

WEBSITE for BODA were discussed. Some further investigation on the possibilities for a BODA webpage will have to be done.

The possibilities of co-operating on "merchandising" were discussed. The Clubs should try to co-operate to more so the Clubs will have more and cheaper effects for sale.

The "flag" produced by the Danish Ballad Club was well received and the German and Norwegian Ballad Clubs ordered flags for their members.

Further it was discussed if BODA should produce one magazine a year to all members. The content could be i.e. a report from each country like the one each country gives at the BODA meeting but prepared in writing.

Christian Behnke