IM Seminar Sydney Australia December 4-5, 2008
Instructors: David Sprague (CAN), Alex Finsterbusch (ARG) and local IM Barry Johnson (AUS)
An excellent seminar was held just prior to the Sydney International Regatta at the Woolhara Sailing Club in Rose Bay in Sydney. There were 22 attendees from all parts of Australia at the 2 day seminar and they were a wonderful group who worked together and learned much from each other.
The seminar had great support from Glen Stanaway and Monique Shaefer of Yachting Australia as well as Adam South and his team at Woolhara SC. The seminar was run the days before the Sydney regatta was run and both groups were working hard on setting up for a very successful regatta yet were able to help run a very smooth seminar as well.
During the seminar the individuals worked in teams and on their own learning about the ISAF Policies and procedures regarding measuring and running of multi class regattas as well as getting practical experience with measuring on a number of different sails including A Cat sails to Opti sails. We were helped by the rich variety of participants some of whom are IMs getting the latest thinking from ISAF as well as one IJ who added significantly to the groups understanding of the RRS and Protests. In addition we had a wide variety of International Classes represented with significant expertise which they were willing and encouraged to share.
Our Class room was just above the design offices and workshop of Bethwaite Design (and a motorized foiling 49r) and all the classes coming in for SIRs (including the fleet of Foiling Moths) gave the participants a view of measuring and boats that was unparalleled in the history of the IM seminars. It was a fun venue and one where we also got to identify different seaplanes from the next door very active seaplane base by the different sounds they make on takeoff during the sessions.
The quality of the participants was exceptional and we look forward to seeing some new IM applications from Australia in the near future.
Dave Sprague IM
