Minutes of the 2008 RS:X Class Annual General Meeting held at the Takapuna Boating Club, North Shore City, Auckland, New Zealand on January 16th from 1600hrs > 2100hrs.
4.01 The minutes of the 2007 Annual General Meeting were approved.
– Developed, tested and approved a new construction process for the hull that will dramatically increase the quality of the board and reduce the tolerances. These new boards will be, and are, equal to the best boards being sailed today.
– Worked with COBRA and Neil Pryde to provide better foils. We realize that this is the one area where we can improve the product if the foils were of higher quality. To this end both Neil Pryde and an outside vendor have been given the challenge to produce for the class a better fin and then dagger board.
– Developed new and exciting graphics for the Olympic sails that we feel will greatly increase the visibility of the sailors in the Olympic regatta.
– Once the Olympic boards are built, those countries who have qualified for the Games will be given the opportunity to purchase one board each for their qualified woman and man so they can become comfortable on the one-shot board.
– I hope you have seen the new jig for measuring the fin and I hope that it is doing in the field what we had expected.
– You will learn who your next Class President will be and I look forward to handing the responsibilities of the Class over to that person.
In November during the voting for the next Olympics, I was concerned going in (as every class was). But in the Events Committee we received only one less vote for support then the Lasers. And then at Council we were one vote behind again with the outcome for windsurfing never an issue.
Thank you Ralph Roberts and the Takapuna Yacht Club for continuing the tradition of the RS:X Class having great World Championships Events. Thanks Ralph and Penny.
Rory Ramsden delivered the treasurer's report on behalf of Martin Aldridge and confirmed that the class had a credit balance of Euro 15,000 as of December 31st 2007.
Going forward the class will stage 2 championships in 2008 being the Europeans (May 1 -10) and the Youth Worlds (either in August in Sicily OR in Pattaya in December) The income from these two events should amount to Euro 16,000.
Therefore a total of Euro 31,000 will have to cover all expenditure and expenses through to the first major event of 2009. This should not be a problem if expenditure can be kept within existing limits.
Europe: Nicolas Huguet It is a pleasure to see competitors competing at high level from the Scandinavian countries. The class is keen to build on this base to develop vibrant RS:X national class associations in the region.
Oceania: Brendan Todd a Bic Techno class has been formed in Australia as a pathway for young windsurfers to develop the necessary racing tactics and board handling skills before they move up the RS:X Youth Division. The RS:X Class in New Zealand is developing.
South America: Eduardo Abad There are competitors racing here in New Zealand from Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Although in each country, the class is not big, the level of participation by South American athletes in high level events has increased since the days of IMCO. In Brazil, the class is developing by encouraging sailors from the Optimist class to join the RS:X Class.
David Mead confirmed that Cobra is working very co-operatively with NP to tighten production processes and specifications so much so that the tail kick tolerance on the new 'one shot' production of the hull is 0.5mm.
Both Nicolas Huguet in France and Rene Appel in Hong Kong have been involved in testing the pre-production 'One shots' on the water and it has been found that there is no difference in performance against the best performing 'old style' production hulls.
Also detailed measurement and comparison of the pre-production 'one shots' has taken place in Hong Kong and discussed with Cobra. This has resulted in templates being made for the rails of the hull to check thickness and rail profile in seven places on both sides of the hull.
Sails for use at the 2008 Olympic Regatta will all be cut from the same batches of cloth; by the same person and then stuck/sewn by the same girl in an effort to reduce differences to the minimum.
All equipment will be measured in the factory and then set aside for ISAF inspection and approval prior to being shipped to Quing Dao. 75 sets will be sent. The graphics on the hull will be different from those on the existing hulls.
When the Olympic equipment has been set aside, the factory will then concentrate on producing a batch for sale to ISAF Member National Authorities with either one man or one woman or both entered to compete in the Olympic Regatta. These will all be made available at the same time so nations have an equal amount of time in which to train on the new 'one shot' equipment.
There were several questions from the floor asking why the class had not published any event measurement data. It was explained that before the class could see any of the data in the production manual, the ISAF had required key personnel to sign a secrecy agreement. Current ISAF policy is to ensure that 'in house certification is carried out by manufacturers of class equipment to ensure that it complies with the production manual tolerances. Event measurement is therefore reduced to a minimum and in effect requires the scrutineering of production marks and serial numbers before the equipment is signed off for use in the regatta concerned.
Piotr explained that a series of 3 regional regattas have been put in place involving countries with Baltic coast lines (EST, LAT, RUS, POL, GER & DEN) and encouraged other countries to work to establish similar series with their neighbours so that young sailors can gain experience without having to travel a long way.
To impart to the Class Association, sailors and coaches confidence that we have taken all necessary steps to ensure a fair Olympic Regatta for all athletes.
I don't see any need at this time to cover sales qty's or review the warranty rates again. The class know that progress has been made and at this point they only have one concern, that is how we will deliver equipment that guarantee's them equal performance to their competitors in Qingdao.
1. One shot board production. A key technological advance made with our supplier to enable the RS:X to be built using a one step production method. This method means the boards foam core and all lamination layers are pressed and cured in one procedure while still in the mould. This is an essential advance over the previous method where multiple "hands on" steps and a two step lamination process led to variations in shape.
2. One shot boards were tested in France and the final trials in Hong Kong led to approval.
3. ISAF are advised of one shot approval.
4. Neil Pryde will no longer build boards using the original production method. One shot boards are in production from early January onwards with priority being given to Olympic production.
Cobra have picked a specialist team to produce the boards. The key production personnel now number only seven staff. This focus on the same staff performing the same process on each board will create consistency throughout the boards. Note, the qty of hand work on the one shot boards is far less than on the original production technology and this will remove a lot of opportunity for mistakes to be made.
6. Neil Pryde and Cobra have also reviewed areas "CTQ" (Critical to Quality) especially the production of the fins and dagger boards. Fins have been an area of special concern due to wide tolerance seen up to now. In order to control this key component of performance, we have invested in new alloy moulds (see photo). These are far more stable than the glass moulds used previously and will retain their shape in the long run due to the inherent stability of the alloy.
One mould will be used for production of the fins in future.
Secondly Neil Pryde and Cobra have developed a series of fin templates that measure the foil thickness and fore and aft position of this thickness.
Each fin (60 and 66cm) has two jigs, one made to min tolerance and one made to max tolerance. After production, each fin will be placed into the min tolerance jig. Should the fin be too thin at any single station there will be "play" and the fin will move around in the jig. The fin is therefore out of spec and will be discarded.
This is a simple and highly accurate "Go / No Go" quality control check for all fins.
A new composite mould has been made for the dagger board. Note, an alloy mould is not required for this item due to the differences in the lay up as compared to the fins where more foam is used in the dagger boads where the fins are predominantly carbon structures. One mould will be used for dagger board production.
-The closest 75 boards will be selected from a minimum stock of 110 boards. The measurement specs will be presented to the ISAF technical representative who will also check them and then make his selection of the boards.
-A production run of up to 300 masts is being built and the closest 75 masts in terms of weight and bend curve will be proposed to ISAF for selection as masts for Qingdao.
-75 booms will be selected from a total of 180 booms, again weight will be the determining factor.
-ISAF Technical Representative is due in Thailand and China end April to measure, check and select the equipment for the Games.