Mirrors threat to Optimist and Dabbies at Nationals this year ....

Andrew,

I got one not very nicely worded one from someone in the Cape which I choose to ignore, otherwise nothing. As you most probably know NSA were requested to host the Dabchick and Optimist Nationals as Eastern Cape could not find a siutable venue. The Nationals committee is headed by Rob McCrystal and I have been given the race management position for my sins. At the last meeting I raised the issue of other classes piggy backing onto this regatta as I have had requests from both sides of the argument to sort this out. I personally do not like the idea as it takes juniors away from the Dabchick and Optimist fleets as it did last year and previous years. I brought up the argument, the committee made the decision. My view is if a class cannot sustain its self without having to go this route then they need to relook at what their committee are doing for them. I have offered to run a National regatta for them with the Sprog class, if they accept, between Christmas and the new year. I have had no reply.

How other classes got involve years ago was that the Youth age used to be 21 and parents with children in the junior classes with another under 21 were encouraged to bring the older child along. The youth age group has changed to the ISAF age group which is 18, same as the Dabchick, hense my view on this. I know who is behind this drive, and I went to the Kerry Lee regatta at ERYC this weekend to see how strong the class is at one of the strong holds in NSA and saw three Mirrors on the water!! The class needs to sort its self out, I believe.

I can go on but I think I have said enough. By the way I have also offered to run a youth regatta without nominating a class but have also heard nothing to date. I hope you can make something out of this. I am not going to loose any sleep over it.

Regards,

Rob Willcox