President's Message

President’s Report from the 2010 AGM

Shall we say it has been an interesting year. The job has been much more that I was lead to believe and in that respect I have not yet achieved all I set out to do, although we have come a long way this year.

However I have been supported by huge efforts from Alyn Stevenson and Peter Stevens in particular and I thank them both for their amazing energy and experience which they have given freely at any time of the night or day. I also want to thank the efforts of Terry Wise and Arthur Crothers in Sydney. During the year they have picked up the NSW Association and are breathing new life back into it.

Also in Victoria, Kirby O’Brien has come on board as Treasurer and she brings a wealth of professional knowledge that will help us achieve our aims and keep track of it all. Peter Moulang has also come on board very recently as Secretary, also a big help in the workload.

In SA Rod Wenham has picked up the cudgels and supported the National marketing effort. He is also keen to promote the national image whilst doing the same for the local scene. In Tasmania Nathan males has taken over as President and is wanting to continue the promotion of the class down there.

Of course we have lost some people at the pointy end of the committee and I want to thank them for their efforts. Kaye Roberts in Tasmania has worked very hard for the last 7 or 8 years and for personal reasons has decided to go a different path. Her efforts and drive over her time involved have been outstanding and it is a real loss to the class nationally. I am sure we all wish her well for the future.

Alan Stevenson who has been a stalwart of the class for many years, taking on almost every position he can to push the class, internationally, nationally and in SA state matters, he has given his time and effort beyond any reasonable accepted level. He has stepped down from his formal position on the national committee, but remains a driving force in building and supporting the class. On behalf of the class and personally in his help for me taking on this position, I offer him a huge vote of thanks for his effort. He thankfully continues to offer his knowledge for the future guidance of the class.

I would also like to thank Alistair Morrison for his work for the class in past years. Most of you will know that Alistair is now living and working in NZ.

Sean Wallis also put in an amazing amount of effort in maintaining the class website for years and it was no surprise that he was happy to handball this job to the new committee. On behalf of the class we offer thanks for his efforts in this time consuming job.

During the year we had a great regatta in Adelaide and some excellent state champs. The Asia Pacific was a huge success, thanks once again to the SA guys especially Peter and Alyn. Although the weather wasn’t quite as per the brochure it has the possibility of becoming a permanent fixture on the winter calendar. The Vic states were very close ! A little too close ! But a very successful regatta. The NSW states was also very successful with 5 interstate boast/crews, the brochure being a little too true and very hot. It is good to see the interstate competitors at these regattas and needs to be pushed more.

We have taken some big steps forward and the efforts of many people have combined to create a new direction for the J24s in Australia. I especially want to thank the states SA Vic and NSW for supporting the National effort both financially and practically, this has allowed us to go forward with confidence in national promotion.

I will let Pete Stevens deal with the measurement details in his report, as he has put in a huge effort this year to revolutionise this part of our class.

Luke Mathews needs to be congratulated on his efforts in setting up the new class website. This has been a major part of the revised national marketing effort this year as you all know. The new site has given us a great deal more visibility in the sailing world and I get many congratulatory comments from all parts of the sailing and non sailing world for its simplicity and effectiveness. We have more work to do on it and others will be helping adding modules and functionality to it in the future. Lisa Simonov is working on some of this to help Luke.

Our visibility with the new site and now with the campaign on Sail-World.com getting started has risen dramatically and we have the ability to publicise the class and its activities very well. This has been my aim from the beginning and the communication of our class profile and its benefits to other sailors and to new people is I consider the only way to save the class from oblivion in Australia.

To compliment this visibility we have been also pushing the rediscovery of non class racing boats of which the greater part of the registered boats belong to. We have a unique class advantage that older boats are available, they can be made club competitive and they are cheap. No other one design keelboat class has this opportunity to revive numbers at such a low cost. We can compare ourselves with Etchells and SB3s for example and in each case we com out way ahead on balance. We need to be aware of this and all be active in promoting the class in our own backyard as well as supporting the national effort.

We are organising the production of flags shirts and banners for local use although this has not been finalized yet due to workload pressures.

We have had a couple of national Skype hookups this year for what we might call the national executive and these have been a success and I expect we will continue these on a regular basis next year. They certainly allow a much easier and cost efficient method of bringing us all together.

I believe the future for the class next year and the following few years can be bright, we have a cost advantage as mentioned that allows us to bring younger people into the class. Some will see the boat as an old slow design, it is our job to make boats available and push every other advantage so that young people with less money can see the competitive advantages the class offers. If you value the investment you have all made in the class and your own boat you can easily see how bringing new people in at the bottom of the scale and allowing them to move up in the class will benefit you in increased competition and participation, enjoyment and boat value. If we all introduced just one new owner, we could be looking at 40 boats at next years nationals instead of 16 here. Food for thought !

In this respect the national executive group has agreed on a new marketing push that will come into effect after the current nationals’ promotion that will promote the class as the starting place for the next generation of Australia’s sailing legends.

After some careful massaging of ideas from the group, Arthur Crothers as coined the line     “J24 – Where Legends Begin”

This will be our promotional effort next year that will culminate in a Legends Regatta to be held in the early part of next season in Sydney. We will be inviting previous J24 Legends to participate in a regatta that will be heavily promoted both on our site and on Sail-World and which will raise our profile a great deal. We already have considerable support for this idea from participants and media. Terry Wise will tell us more on this event.

We still have a few housekeeping details to catch up on that I am aware of in the financial area, at this stage I have been consumed by the workload for the Nationals and the Association in general and I will get to these matters in the near future.

I think we have made very good progress this last year and I want to once again thank all those involved, those I have mentioned and many I haven’t. But the task is not yet done and of course never will be. We have much to do this coming year to build the class strength back to a credible level, we all need to do our bit in making it happen. Specifically  we need class members to put pen to paper occasionally even if it is just a short story, regatta coverage, class or club news. We have the opportunity which we are paying for to gain lots of class publicity, but we need content, I can’t write it all. Also we need pictures. So if you can help send us these publicity tools it will make the difference.

Once again thanks to all those that have made the effort in the class, please keep thinking of us as the J24 community and all those involved as your friends – new or old.

Simon Grain, President